The first repository saves you time by making customers more self-sufficient. It deflects them away from bothering you. Why should they call you to ask a question when they could read about it? This way, they will only call you when they need clarification. Many customers prefer the self-help route simply because it saves them from embarrassment when they ask silly questions.
The second repository is useful because you make it useful. In particular, you record all the processes, procedures, and reference materials that you need at your fingertips. It is another opportunity to store something digitally so that it doesn't take up space in your brain. It reduces the work your brain has to do so that you can be more focused. Focus is good.
I suggest two repositories because one needs to be freely accessible by all customers, while the other may contain sensitive information that should be restricted for security reasons.
In these two repositories, you should accumulate:
How customers can request service or get help (possibly a simple decision tree)
A single place to find all your written policies (with links to HR and Legal's equivalent pages)
A list of vendors and their contacts, along with maintenance contact information
A list of procedures of the things you have to do a lot or want someone else to be able to do
A simple network diagram that someone joining your group (or helping out for the day) can use as a reference
You will put this information on a web site with a public area and a private area. To make it easy to start, I'll include a template for each repository. To make it easy to update, I recommend that you use a Wiki. If you're not familiar with Wikis, I describe them in detail in the upcoming section "Wiki Technology." For now, just remember that a Wiki is a web site that is very easy to update.
You can eliminate the fear of the repository never being done by declaring it to be a living document. Rather than something that has to be reprinted every time you make a change, you simply maintain the repository on the intranet. You'll update it any time you need to update it. "Done" doesn't mean it's complete and ready to print, it just means that the initial repository has been birthed and is ready to grow.
The Customer-Facing Repository
The first web site is publicly readable, and it contains IT customer documentation.
When a customer browses to your document repository, the main page should be very simple. Here's a template. Create a home page with the following headings:
How to get help
Include a few ways in a bulleted list.How to request new services
List a few services that someone might need activated and provide a list or link for how she gets started. Some examples might be VPN access and how to request an external web space.Policies
A bulleted list of links to the policies that you do have written, plus links to any equivalent pages for HR or Legal.A single place to find all your written policies
With links to HR and the Legal department's equivalent pages.
This template should be sufficient for any small system administration group that doesn't have a similar web site yet. If you are an IT or CIO organization so large that you laugh at my little template, you probably have a huge home page/web site already and don't need such a template anyway. However, I'm surprised at how many CIO organizations have web sites that are missing at least one of the above items. I also find that large organizations are made up of smaller teams, each of which can benefit from its own repository.
IT policies are the rules by which users of your computers/networks live. These include security policies, service level agreements, acceptable use policies, ethics guidelines, privileged information/access guidelines, and so on. Under IT Policies, link to each written policy that you already have, whether these policies are in HTML, Word, or PDF format. If you don't have any policies, don't include this heading just yet. However, add any of the policies you think you should have to your to do list. If you are looking for inspiration on what policies to add or how to write them, read Chapter 7 (Security) and Chapter 9 (Ethics) of The Practice of System and Network Administration. I recommend starting with an acceptable use policy. If your legal department or HR maintains relevant policies, link to them. If these sections do nothing but highlight what policies you are missing, that's a good thing.
This template is only a start. Over time, you will realize things to add or changes to make.
If you have the time and resources, the next step is to improve this home page so that people will want to set it as their default web page. This will encourage people to go to your web site often and use it when they do need, for example, to refer to an IT policy. Add useful things like a Google search box, stock tickers, or company news. Set it as the default page on any new machine you install.
Internal IT Documentation
The second repository contains internal IT documentation: documents that are useful to you and the people on your team. These documents will contain information that is sensitive, and therefore it should be secured in some manner, possibly just by simple password protection. This repository is often a password-protected area of the other repository.
If you don't already have such a repository, here's a template:
Vendor contacts and maintenance agreements . A link to a list of vendors and their contacts, along with maintenance contract information.
Internal IT procedures . A list of procedures you do or want someone else to be able to do. Examples include checklists for setting up new users and cleaning up after departed ones.
Network diagrams. Links to a simple network diagram that someone joining your group (or helping out for the day) can use as a reference. This may be a link to a page of diagrams.
Let's explore each of these a bit more.
Vendor contacts and maintenance agreements
Under Vendor Contacts, create a link to each vendor you deal with. The destination for each link should be a page for that vendor that lists the phone number of your salesperson, the support phone number, and info you will need when you call about a system problem. For example, for one vendor, I list the phone number, the items on their phone menu, and the answers to the questions that I know I'll be asked: the phone number they use to look up my profile, my maintenance contract number, etc. If a vendor has a unique maintenance contract for each piece of equipment I've bought from them, I put all that information in a table. That table also includes a link to the password-recovery procedure for that device, as well as a link to a locally cached copy of that procedure.
You might want to use some kind of server-side include feature to make one page that contains all the other pages. You can print the mega page every so often and keep a copy in your computer room for emergencies. If you're really cool, you'll write a script that will automatically print the document on the first of the month if it has changed since the previous month.