Departmental Staff

A typical messaging services department begins at the director level. The number and type of staff that report to the director varies widely according to the size of the organization's messaging system and the number of users. The following example discusses an organization that consists of 45,000 messaging system users.

• The organization uses a single messaging platform, Microsoft Exchange Server.
• A typical department supporting an organization of this size has a director of messaging operations. Reporting to this director are a manager of messaging operations and a manager of messaging system engineering. Reporting to the manager of messaging operations are the various number of messaging operations technicians, and possibly a supervisor of network accounts.
• The messaging operations group should handle the day-to-day maintenance of the Microsoft Exchange Server messaging system. These tasks include monitoring, troubleshooting, and logging problems and procedures with the system. In some organizations, the network accounts management is in the network infrastructure department. The infrastructure department usually handles Microsoft Windows NT account management. In these cases, it is important that the message services and infrastructure departments work together to determine such issues as how Microsoft Exchange Server mailboxes are created.
• The messaging system engineering group should handle the more complex problems in the system escalation from messaging operations. The engineering team should also have adequate staff to handle the evaluation, measurement, and planning of future technologies. The engineering team should also concern themselves with performance measurement and enhancement.

For our 45,000-user messaging system, monitored continuously (24 hours, 7 days), the messaging services department would most likely be staffed as in the following illustration.

	Director (1)
Manager, Messaging Operations (1)		Manager, Messaging System Engineering (1)
Sr. Operations Analyst (2)	Operations Analyst (3)	Sr. Operations Engineer (2)	Operations Engineer (2)
Assoc. Operations Analyst (0-1)	Technicians (17)	Assoc. Operations Engineer (0-1)

Note that the key to all successful messaging services departments is attracting and keeping good people at the Operations Analyst, Senior Operations Analyst, Operations Engineer, and Senior Operations Engineer positions. It's very important to have people at those job levels who know your company's network, business, and political infrastructure. A high rate of turnover or attrition in these positions means you must spend more time training new staff and less time improving your messaging system.

The following are job descriptions of positions in the messaging operations department.

Director Provides messaging technology vision based on inputs of technology capabilities and business need. Coordinates activities of messaging operations and messaging system engineering. Represents all aspects of the organization's messaging system to internal and external sources.

Manager, Messaging Operations Ensures that the messaging system is functioning at peak performance and that, in case the system is not functioning at peak performance, the messaging operations team knows before anyone else is impacted. Makes sure that all messaging operations technicians and operations analysts have the tools they need. Represents messaging operations to users.

Manager, Messaging System Engineering Drives the team towards constant analysis and design with the goal of improving the messaging system's performance. Makes sure that his or her team has the necessary tools and training. Takes on the responsibility of escalation from operations.

Associate Operations Analyst Installs, configures, and documents new production servers in the messaging environment. Performs rudimentary troubleshooting of messaging system problems.

Operations Analyst Installs, configures, and documents new production servers in the messaging environment. Performs all troubleshooting of messaging system problems. Ensures that problems are properly documented in the daily log.

Senior Operations Analyst Assists with mentoring new Operations Analysts, performs duties of the Operations Analyst when required. Handles escalation issues not resolved by Operations Analyst and Technicians. Ensures that the daily log remains a useful repository of system troubleshooting information.

Associate Operations Engineer Takes input from operations and performs rudimentary analysis and design. Brings ideas and recommendations to other members of the engineering team for further discussion.

Operations Engineer Takes input from operations and performs detailed analysis and design. Handles initial escalations from operations. Troubleshoot and follow-up on all escalations received from operations. Evaluates features of released product for usability in the organization messaging system.

Senior Operations Engineer Evaluates released and unreleased messaging systems. Provides detailed test plans for features to be implemented. Attempts to minimize all impact of next generation releases of message product. Handles extreme escalations and interfaces with Microsoft Technical Support, if necessary.

Messaging Operations Technician Handles day-to-day monitoring and reporting on the messaging system. Ensures that events are properly recorded in the daily log. Ensures that all events that transpired during his or her shift have been duly recorded and reported to appropriate personnel. Also handles escalation requests from standard "PC Helpdesk" department.