An IT Lifeline in a Technical No-man’s-land

‍About William Hanner

For William Hanner, there aren’t many options when it comes to getting help on his technical problems. Based in a rural area where the nearest computer store is 150 miles away, it’s up to him to troubleshoot and learn from his problems. On top of that, he is self-taught, having come from a military background.

The Challenge

Before getting into the technical realm, William worked in the military for over twenty years. After leaving service, he transitioned to civilian life by working for a non-profit to help coordinate, manage, and maintain transportation services for children and the elderly.

Because he lives in a very rural area, he had to teach himself the technologies that are necessary for him to perform his job functions. If he has a problem, there’s no one else he can turn to, as the nearest computer help store is over 150 miles away by car.

The Experts Exchange Solution

Because Experts Exchange has members who are based all over the world, William can ask his question, regardless of the time of day, and know that it will be seen by an expert with years of real-world experience. These experts share their insight to help him find a solution to even his most technical problems.

His main areas of interest are SQL Server, VB programming, and hardware, and he uses all of Experts Exchanges features to help troubleshoot and solve daily problems that arise at work. On the MS SQL topic page alone there are over 150,000 answers to questions, 127 articles, and 43 videos at his disposal.

When a problem arises at work, he’ll first see if someone else has already encountered his problem. If there’s an accepted solution, he’ll try the advice of the Expert first to see if that also solves his problem.If that doesn’t work, he’ll dig through the appropriate topic areas on the site, such as VB programming, and read relevantguides and walk-throughs that are written by the Experts. If doing that still doesn’t resolve his issue, he’ll go ahead and ask a question to the Experts, detailing his problem. If the problem is something that needs a quick resolution, he’ll put “HELP” in the title to get more responses.

A history of questions asked is stored as part of William’s expert profile, so he can go back and check on their status or quickly refer to them later if the same issue crops up. He can also ask anonymous questions to allow him to get help from experts without being indexed online. Saving helpful articles and videos is made easy with bookmarks, which build up a personal knowledge base to easily reference later.

Results Where it Counts

Because William is the entire IT department for his company, it’s his sole responsibility to troubleshoot and solve tough problems. That’s why the members and Experts of Experts Exchange are such a lifeline to him while living in a technical no-man’s-land.

As a member of the Experts Exchange community, he takes advantage of all of the content and features made available to him, and he wouldn’t be able to do his job without it.