ExtraMileIssue11

MIKE
SILVESTRO
Manning an IT help desk can be challenging and cause a good deal
of frustration when something unexpected happens. It can be even
more difficult for the supervisor of a help desk. Managing a help desk
requires keeping a close eye on tickets coming into the queue, current
ticket load and wait time. These are all things that could trigger stress.
It takes a stable person with a calm disposition to effectively manage
the desk, and National Interstate has found that in Mike Silvestro.
Mike joined our Infrastructure team in 2014 and stepped into the help
desk role with an instant sense of purpose and urgency, leveraging his
experience at a much larger company. His interpersonal communication
skills made an immediate impact on our employees in an extremely
short amount of time. Mike purposely became their first-impression
of our IT organization. He has since been on a continuous mission to
improve the department’s service credibility, while managing a team
of five Help Desk Technicians.
Tuesday to display new available equipment such as laptop models,
peripherals and monitors.
Additionally, he is a driving force with the company’s Ease of Doing
Business (EODB) initiative in regards to employee mobility requests
and updated conference room resources, such as plug and play
screen projection. In a continued effort to maintain transparency, Mike
provides an ongoing upgrade report to our workforce, identifying when
an employee will be due for an equipment upgrade, and what device
he or she will receive. Most of this effort was focused on the corporate
migration from desktops to laptops, resulting in a 200% company-wide
laptop deployment increase last year.
Based on continuous customer feedback, Mike started to address
the problem of aging technology in our shared conference rooms. His
team drove the effort of introducing plug and play automation into
several of our Richfield conference room spaces, thereby improving
the experience of both internal and external customers.
Just as information technology changes and innovates each day, a
help desk must do the same to stay ahead of the curve. Mike played
a large role in introducing several new help desk services, including
our Tech Tuesday initiative. Tech Tuesday’s are designed to build and
maintain customer relationships using more of a casual approach. The
initiative provides comprehensive information to our employees during
the lunch hour. This venue provided a direct line of communication to
IT’s internal customers, giving them a sample view of upcoming IT
products and services such as Salesforce, Remedy Force Ticketing,
Okta, network security initiatives, Microsoft Office services and
softphone functionality for remote users. Mike has also leveraged Tech
MEET MIKE SILVESTRO
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE
THING TO DO OUTSIDE OF
THE OFFICE?
Spending time with family
and friends.
IF YOU HAD TO PICK A BOX OF CEREAL THAT REPRESENTS YOUR
PERSONALITY, WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
Lucky Charms, because I consider myself to be one of the luckiest people
I know.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WON THE LOTTERY?
I would set my family and friends up nicely, and then escape to a very
secluded island with some of my favorite people.
WHAT IS THE BEST PART OF YOUR JOB?
Finding solutions and helping others.
Mike has instilled a simple vision of the proper customer experience
within the help desk operations, gaining positive PR and branding
through word-of-mouth, grass root efforts. His attitude and dedication
to this effort created a positive shift in the overall image of the help desk
team. Mike enjoys the ongoing challenge of identifying the business
needs associated with each problem, inquiry or request involved. He
treats every phone call, email, ticket or in-person discussion as if the
person is his single priority customer.
PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO KNOW…
That I used to love singing karaoke.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN’T WORKING IN IT?
I would be an astronaut or NFL quarterback, but I love IT too much to do
anything different.
MY DAY CAN’T START UNTIL…
I’m done hitting snooze several times.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW?
Seinfeld.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT TECHNOLOGY THAT MAKES YOU TICK?
The constant evolution of everything from phones to computers
to software.
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