Solving problems smoothly
Members at coworking community MOW do not have to spend their time on working out technical problems, thanks to the cheerful IT expert Juho Syrjänen, who has become a favourite figure at MOW.
Juho Syrjänen enjoys the relaxed and inspiring atmosphere of the MOW community.
“I used to work at a traditional office where everyone had their own, isolated cubicle. I prefer the more open model we have in our coworking environment.”
Syrjänen characterises the regular duties of an IT expert as “somewhat dull”. MOW offer something different in this respect, too.
“I have seen and done a lot here. Sometimes, our members have more challenging issues that require more thinking.”
Popular IT support
Juho Syrjänen is the only IT expert at MOW, at least for the time being. He is officially employed by MOW’s IT support provider Vincit, but works at MOW and feels part of the community.
“I am backed up by a strong network of colleagues at Vincit. If I’m faced with a more challenging IT issue, we solve it together. I’m never alone, help is always at hand,” Syrjänen adds.
All MOW members have instant access to proficient IT support.
“I sit at my desk or walk around the building. If anyone has an IT query, they can just call me or tug at my sleeve,” Syrjänen says.
On some days, the IT expert seems to be running – or rolling on his smartboard scooter – from one place to the next all day, while other days are more quiet.
“However, I have never run out of things to do. It seems like the MOW community has found this service extremely useful.”
Daily technical support is included in the membership fee of the coworking space. In addition, MOW helps its members with hardware purchases and large-scale IT projects, such as the building of server environments. However, these additional services are not included in the price.
Valuable working time savings
Juho Syrjänen solves the IT problems of many different companies. Typical problems include software faults or incompatibility issues.
“Two-thirds of the problems can be solved on the fly. But every now and then, the problem requires more thorough thinking.”
Whether the technical problem is large or small, it always takes up valuable working time if the company tries to solve it on their own.
“MOW’s IT support saves the members a lot of money compared to trying to solve IT problems by Googling,” Syrjänen says.
Sometimes, the IT expert has to be creative at work.
“I have to adapt my solutions to all kinds of hardware from Windows and Macs to iPhones. Sometimes, our members have old-school legacy devices I haven’t even seen in ages, and they need to connect to our systems. That’s when I need to put my creativity to work,” Syrjänen smiles.
“And people have such different ways of using their devices. Some people load their computer full of stuff that slows its down.”
According to Syrjänen, the good old trick of restarting still works for most IT-related problems:
“Before you call for help, try restarting your computer once. Often, this is enough to fix the problem, which saves everybody’s time.”
Published 18.4.2017