Poorly performing IT support services, hardware, software and networks may be costing your organization a bundle in terms of lost productivity, poor customer service, frustration, lost business and other issues negatively impacting company performance.

Chances are, the impact of IT on your employees, customers and bottom line may not be fully known. The best and most cost-effective way to assess the effectiveness of in-house and outsourced IT services is to conduct comprehensive IT customer satisfaction surveys / IT user surveys. These surveys gather information, suggestions and insight from employees across your organization about the strengths and weaknesses of IT services. When asked, employees will tell you in detail what needs to be improved and why. They will tell you how IT problems are impacting their ability to perform their jobs and to sell to and support customers.

Following are actual comments received in various IT customer satisfaction surveys / IT Help Desk surveys. The comments demonstrate the frustration and impact on productivity and job performance poorly performing IT has on employees, customers and business performance. Taking action on these IT problems can significantly boost employee and business performance. How many of the following and other IT problems are your company's employees and customers experiencing?:

• Every time I have had to contact tech support it takes hours (if not days) for someone to address the problem...

• Look into better types of laptops to support the field. We are putting together large spreadsheets, large presentations, etc. all the time, and having our PCs crash and losing work is inefficient. Is there a better laptop out there to support this type of company and the work we do?

• The issue is not the support but the limitations IT-management puts on lawyers--absent abuse lawyers need access to many applications and hardware that IT is reluctant to give. A lawyer especially a partner is entitled to more courtesy and trust. Just one example is the blackberry issue -- if I tell you it's dead believe me --do not quote policy at me about cost of a new blackberry. My lost productivity will pay for 100 blackberries or more.

• We are a copier company! Our copiers in the office do not work. We have features on our copiers that no one in the office knows how to use.

• Approximately half the experiences have been handled with a rude individual who seems put out. Very condescending attitude.

• The first comment from Tech Support always is the user did something wrong. In addition, they take forever - weeks - sometimes never - getting back on any issue that needs follow up. There is no system to make sure there is follow up where needed. In addition, if the problem has to go to systems, the people in that department decide what they are going to address and what they won't, are totally unresponsive, and don't even follow up with the Technical Support.

• If the problem is too difficult it tends to get swept under the rug. People work on it initially, but when it seems too hard they give up and ignore the problem, without satisfactory resolution (i.e., either problem solved or we can't fix it).

• Once we reach a technical support individual they are too often unable to assist with the problem, exhibit minimal skill sets and knowledge of our systems, or give conflicting answers. In my opinion, our technical personnel are below average in the industry. I am certain they are hindered by the inadequacies of our systems, but they are also separate and apart from systems concerns.

• Escalated problems take too long to be resolved

• Ever since we switched over to File Site, Outlook does not automatically fill-in my e-mail addresses when I start typing. I waste an incredible amount of time re-typing e-mail addresses each day.

• The system is incredibly slow. My computer freezes up at least once or twice a day doing routine tasks. I suspect that we are trying to do too much for the CPU's resources.

• Sometimes the computer or the internet just don't work or they get really slow and start to freeze. These slow periods, in which you can do almost nothing on your computer, sometimes last as long as 45 minutes. It is really frustrating and results in clients being billed for more than they should.

• Remote access is awful - Citrix kicks me out all the time, causing delays and, on multiple occasions, lost work product that could not be recovered.

• I have never seen such a dysfunctional set of network and computer systems as ours. The frequency with which servers, programs, and overall systems go down for repair, reboot and servicing is ridiculous. When the programs are up and running the frequently crash on individual PC's because of inadequacies in our systems.

• The only thing worse than our systems during hours, is those systems after hours. The use of Citrix is barely better than no access at all, frequently results in the loss of critical documents and fails to incorporate key functionalities and software.

• NETWORK SPEED IS THE NUMBER 1 ISSUE. IT MUST BE ADDRESSED ASAP. In addition, will we ever get an up to date version of Word and Outlook? 2003? I often receive documents that I cannot open because the sender is using the most modern version of Word.

• The laptops I check out are generally dysfunctional. I was on a flight to CA and, when I turned on my laptop, I found that the fully-charged life of my battery was 20 minutes. This is unacceptable. I have also had lots of other problems with laptops. (I should note that these problems are not due to the IT staff but to equipment issues.) Based on my experience, it appears that all of our laptops are five or more years old. We should consider leasing new laptops and replacing them every year (or, better yet, following our competitors and issuing laptops to every lawyer who wants one).

• I am dissatisfied with my Blackberry. The ones I have received have been two model years out of date or refurbished and problematic. I have become so dissatisfied, that I use my personal iPhone for checking my email. But this is not a good solution because the firm does not support iPhones and it does not help me pay for my data plan.

• My desktop is a problem. It is very slow and, when I have too many programs open, it makes a jet-engine-like sound. I have problems running WestLaw Next and other flash-based programs. I believe that the processor in my desktop (P4), is nearly a decade old.

• Overall, there is a feeling of throwing fixes over the wall. Tech Support needs to work more closely with end users to understand the issues and listen to the end user. We have received answers in the past to the effect that just load and it can fixed later if it is wrong. That is not the way to go - most of us don't have time to do our jobs once, let alone twice.

• Answer the phone or get back to people on a timely basis. Emails go completely ignored.

• I had to wait until my Blackberry actually stopped working when I was traveling for business in order to get a new one. It didn't matter to the firm that my previous Blackberry was so old that I couldn't open the majority of the attachments that I needed to open such that I could do my job while on business travel. I was constantly calling my secretary to ask me to read me documents or to open items for me. This was all because the two year period had not passed before I was entitled to a new one. I understand the need for a policy, but exceptions to the policy need to be permitted.

• This is the worst--my Blackberry is battered and being nursed by updates I make--but I am not due for a replacement so tough on me--rank stupidity and arrogance.

• Fix organization between Oracle and other systems used for customers address/billing. I believe a new system would do wonders for keeping customers happy and minimizing returns and addressing issues.