Want opinions on ratio.

[Packrat]

What are your guys opinions on the best ratio of techs per users?
I work at a company that has 350 employees, I am the only tech and I work on the computers, printers, phone system (Nortel PBX), network, and sometimes the copiers. I know I don't make enough money for what I do and how much experience I have, but there is not any companies around here that are hiring, so I have to stay (I like to eat). So what would you guys say is the best ratio of techs per users?

[MacGyver]

Our company has 180 employees and two techs. One handles our 60 person head office, and the other guy handles the smaller branch offices and corporate overall strategy. We also have tech savvy guys who help out in each branch office but who also have real jobs in those offices (that's what I am)

[Cleetus]

There are 2 of us for about 120 users, but one could handle it just fine. I won't mention that because I know they will keep the evil coworker and like previously stated "I like to eat"

Of course she couldn't handle the job on her own, that is why they have me in the first place. I do love it when she takes a couple of days off though.

[Packrat]

So you guys think that 350 for one tech is too many too? I need a raise. LOL

[Deity]

I handle a small company of about 80 users, including, hardware/software support, network admin, webmaster, db admin, web designer, programmer, help desk, blah, blah, blah...basically anything related to computers, they come to me. As of now I am running the office solo, but I'm looking at getting an assitant soon.

[Stalemate]

I recall reading that the ideal ratio was 1:75, or 1 tech per 75 users.

Workload, user familiarity with PCs and such would affect the overall ratio, but I think it's a good starting point.

In my previous position of network manager, we had 3 techs handling about 600 workstations (800 users total) while I took care of the Novell, Unix, WinNT/2000 servers (~25); ATM/IP switches and satellite sites.

In this case (a hospital), we were definitely overworked. I know the team tried to fill in my position as best they could when I left, but I can only imagine what they went through.

[SCHTUDE]

It depends quite a bit on the type of business and how many physical locations.

I work at a bank with 3 other techs and 2 AS400 Admin guys. We have about 350 users in 11 different branches. This requires driving to other offices up to 40 miles away, which takes time. We have so many servers for different things I don't even know 100% what they all do. We have a total of 80 different applications used in our company which can create problems. I've worked here for over 2 years and still don't know all the apps. We also have a NetWare/NT enviornment which creates even more problems (IPX/SPX and TCP/IP).

Four seems like a good number for our shop, but may be too many in another.

[Sunshine]

At my location the user base varies all the time. We usually have between 600-800 users (locally) with 3 people. Tack onto that the 100 or so that I manage from across Canada (phone support mostly - with the occassional user sending thier unit to me here). For the most part, fairly managable, but it does have it's moments.
Guess it depends on what kind of people you share the duties with. The other 2 gals I work with, do mostly software, but very little hardware knowledge. While I do all the hardware, with some software.

[Packrat]

I don't get the pleasure of sharing since I am the only one. There is only 1 location I am in charge of. We have a blend of NT,95,98,2000, SCO-UNIX, STAR (software built for our company)Nortel Meridian software, and a slew of other stuff. I am just seeing if they will hire me an assistant, it would help me out and I could get a friend in here who is looking for work. But I wanted to get feedback from other techs on the size of their company.

[+Daemon+]

250 users

3 techs

27 servers

[Draggar]

Hmm, if you go by area, probably about 25,000+ clients, 2 techs in my store, but in the city, I'm sure its 3,000,000 users, 15-20 techs. :D

[RIOT]

We have around 75 people working at the bank where I work with 3 branches (6 people at each) and 1 main branch (the rest here). My boss and I are the techs. He mainly works on the planning and the AS/400 plus other banking jobs. I mainly work on end-user complaints, installing and upgrading software/hardware, inventory, etc. Pretty much all the grunt work. I also help out with other banking stuff not related to computers.

[HIESLanMan]

I think it all depends on what the techs have to do. If you have a bunch of servers, you obviously can't support as many users. Also, if the users are all VPs and exectutives you obviously need better support than if they're all teachers and students. If there's big money and deadlines riding on the users' work, that also increases tech support demands. Finally, how well the network adn servers were set up to begin with makes a huge difference.

I work at a school with about 360 workstations, 200 staff, and about 300 students to support. I also handle all the servers - in house email, web server, two AD domains (don't ask), and two administrative database servers. I will probably take over the phones soon as well. This would be too much for one person in a business environment. But I've got things fairly well set up here, and no one is really dependent on the servers. If the network goes down, everyone just uses the blackboard :)