Having your policies defined and announcements available for all to see on a web site is nice. However, rarely will anyone seek them out to read them. In this section, we talk about getting your policies and announcements “out there” and understood.
Since the introduction of the web, it is easy to make all policies accessible to all customers. There is no excuse for not doing this. However, you must get customers to that web site. Some SA organizations choose to have a portal web site that is the gateway to all their services, policies, and documentation. By making it the way customers receive information that is important to them, they also will know where to go for information that is important to you.
Pick the right message. Talk with customers to find out what is important to them. It’s difficult to get people to read something that isn’t important to them. They may not care that server3 will be down during the weekend, but knowing that the database stored on server3 won’t be accessible all weekend will draw their attention.
New policies can be emailed to customers or sent via paper memo if they are particularly critical. Portals can highlight a “policy of the month.” If the message will benefit from repetition, put posters in appropriate places. A physical helpdesk should have its hours posted at all entrances. People spend a lot of time staring at the wall while waiting for their turn; fill those blank walls with the message you want them to remember. Posters that say “Change your password every 30 days!” or “Server3 is being decommissioned on May 1” give good advice and warn of upcoming changes.
Messages are most effective when received at the right time. If server3 is being decommissioned in a month, tell people that every time they use server3.