The Status of the agent.
The focus is moving from on-site, over the shoulder IT support to remote and automated assistance for a whole raft of reasons. Faster resolution, lower costs (travel, vehicles, equipment etc) and much more.
Send messages to one, several or all machines.
So…..if the agent isn't installed and running on your machine then there's not much we can do to help. You'll know if it is as there will be an icon in the system tray.
The icon in the system tray will change depending upon the status of the agent. Sometimes this can indicate a problem and other times it can show something is in progress.
Here's a list of the icons and the brief description of the status.
Online Managed Agent that is currently connected to the AEM platform.
Offline The Agent is not connected to the AEM platform.
Privacy Mode The Agent is currently connected to the AEM platform and has Privacy Mode enabled.
OnDemand Mode OnDemand Agent that is currently connected to the AEM platform.
Alert Mode Online The Agent is online and waiting for a job to be run by the end user.
Alert Mode Offline The Agent is offline and waiting for a job to be run by the end user.
Stopped The Agent service has stopped. No logging is performed at this time.
Active Screen Share (Shown with 'Online') A screen share session is currently in progress. The tray icon alternates between the Active Screen Share icon and the Online icon for the duration of the remote session.
Double clicking the agent icon will open up a window on your desktop which is called the "agent browser".
As you're not an Endpoint Management Administrator you can just ignore the login fields on the left.
On the right, you have three tabs.
1) Summary – this shows you information that we often as you for but which you'd not necessarily know off the top of your head. We refer to machines by their name in the same way you refer to vehicles by VIN or registration. It also lists the operating system, the machine's serial number, the currently logged on user and so on. Take a look as you can't damage anything.
2) Tasks – this is where we will have a list of tasks that you can fire off, either when requested by IT support or that we've pre-informed you about. For security reasons very few users have administrative rights on their machines. This just isn't required unless you are a virus and want to infect a machine or you need to install an update or patch. We want to avoid the former but we hope to populate this with useful tasks you can invoke when you need them rather that raise a support ticket.
On the ticket tab clock on the New Ticket button and then just fill in the form that you are presented with. Simples!
If you right click on the agent icon, the menu that pops up allows you to change the machine description. It won't change the actual machine name, but you can write a short description that you can remember, and we'll have logged against the machine name. Like having the vehicle with registration AL61 RDT known as "John's yellow Porsche Carrera" for example.
For some staff such as senior management, HR and personnel there are times when you are working on something confidential and don't want to be disturbed. You can use the Privacy mode to restrict IT access to your machine while you are doing this. Privacy mode is avaialble from a right click on the system tray icon.
If you turn on privacy mode to surf dodgy websites then we have a klaxon that sounds at IT support and a screen showing your name.
You can choose to have it on, off or off for a specific period.
Outlook – Don't File, Search.
How would you like to spend less time housekeeping your emails, less time finding a particular email and be better able to see exactly what you need to deal with?
If you've answered "yes" then read on.
How? The key phrase to remember is Don't File, Search.
Quite simply, when you file messages you do so based upon criteria that you check manually and then move the message. If you use that same criteria to search for messages, you'll realise the same list of messages. So, don't bother filing. Just search as you need to. Now, if you know you'll need to work on a specific subset of messages regularly, for example say from a particular person, and don't want to type in the search criteria each time then create a search folder. It'll appear just like a subfolder you've filed into but it's automatic and any message can appear in several search folders at the same time. So, an email about your vehicle insurance can be in a folder containing all emails related to the vehicle and also a folder containing all emails from your insurance broker.
In order to keep the inbox tidy I prefer to have a single subfolder called "Processed" email and I move anything into it that I've dealt with, or at least that doesn't need to be sitting in the inbox looking at me, using a Quick Step.
Most emails that need action you should either flag for follow up when you have time or create tasks from them with appropriate start and due dates.
There are a variety of Inbox management systems, one of which may suit you. I'm not proposing any particular one, just suggesting you search instead of file at the very least. It'll take minutes to set it up and get the hang of it but will save you hours during the course of a month.
Here are some links on the procedures you'll need to become familiar with. They relate to Outlook 2016 so please search for the same information for earlier versions of Outlook if you need it.