Is your I.T. Department a “black box” to you? Do your eyes glaze over when your C.T.O. starts talking? You are not alone. The majority of the world is just like you. I have no intention of trying to explain I.T. so you understand the technology, you do not have the need to really understand it as someone in I.T. does, nor do you have the years to invest in learning it, you have enough to keep up with already. I hear comments quite often that Business Leaders, such as C.E.O.s, don’t seem to really understand their I.T. Department staffing needs, nor the budgeting needs of the department. Since Information Technology is still relatively new to the world, and it’s impact on business operations is constantly changing, this is not anything to be surprised at. Many people working in I.T. don’t really grasp this either. In the following paragraphs I will attempt to present a model that can be used by business leaders to understand their companies IT Department, and it’s impact on normal business operations in today’s workplace.
Information Technology has become the foundation of business operations in almost every industry, it is the tools used by every other department in the company. The I.T. Department is directly responsible for the effectiveness of every other department in the company, if it fails then you can’t make sales, products or provide service for your clients. My own business is an example of how dependent on Information Technology we have become, I own and operate a Website Hosting Business. The only department of my company not directly part of the I.T. Department is the Accounting Department, yet they are dependent on the I.T. department to be able to do their tasks.
In several recent discussions among I.T. Pros. a trend has shown itself, they are concerned with the “Qualifications Required” for new positions. It is literally impossible for any one person to be really competent in all the technologies being listed in employment opportunities postings. It is possible to be reasonably skilled in 5 distinct technologies, not the 15 being demanded in the postings. This is over and above the long time issue of postings wanting 15 years experience, in a technology that is only 5 years old. To get the best possible applicants for I.T. positions, get the C.T.O. / C.I.O. to write the posting and do not let the H.R. department change a single word of it.
The Human Resources Departments around the world have shown with impossible requirements in postings that they have no understanding of the I.T. Industry, so they really do need to be cut out of the loop when looking for I.T. staff. This really is only possible if you consider your I.T. Department as a subcontracted service.
I do not intend to imply that outsourcing your IT department is the best thing to do, in the majority of cases, this has been proven to be a mistake. It takes longer to get support staff on site to deal with a problem. We all know that down time in the network costs money, both in lost revenue and in man hours lost. In-house IT are there immediately when something does go wrong, this gets the system back up faster. I believe that it was a Gartner and Associates study that showed that 90% of companies that outsourced any part of their I.T. brought it back in-house as soon as they could. This included the Customer Support / Help Desk staffing.
If you are happy with your I.T. Department being a complete “black box” then I would recommend thinking of it as a subcontracted service. One that presents you will a bill to be paid no questions asked. If you would rather think of them as employees and have accountability to you, then you need some sort of model to use in dealing with them. My intention here is to try to give you such a model.
There is one area that almost everyone is familiar with on some level, which also happens to be a very good model for exactly what the personnel in any given I.T. department are. This area? Why, the Trades naturally. A collection of specialists who working together complete a “Project”.
Yes, Specialists. Your I.T. department is a collection of specialists, ranging from the foundation of your systems. ( The telephone and networking hardware ) to the computer programs running on the systems, to the help desk personnel keeping the rest of the company productive.
The people who designed and installed the basic infrastructure, the cables, network appliances, telephones, etc. are comparable to the Construction Industry’s Foundation Specialists. They built the foundation of the company’s I.T. infrastructure.
The D.B.A. ( Data Base Administrator ) is comparable to the Framers. They build the structure that supports the business operations.
The “Black Hat” or Security Officer is the LOCKSMITH of the I.T. Industry. Ignore this person’s recommendations at the peril of losing confidential information ( your Trade Secrets ).
The “lowly” Help Desk Personnel are the CUSTOMER SERVICE representatives for the IT Department to the rest of the company.
This collection of specialists help keep your company’s business operations running smoothly, it is in the business’ best interests to make sure they have the tools needed to do the job right.
In one respect, you do not want these staff to be to specialised. You do not want a D.B.A. that only knows M.S. SQL Server even if that is the software your company uses. If you are looking at making a change in software that would mean changing to or adding a different data base server, this over specialised person wouldn’t be able to work effectively with the new system as easily as someone less specialised. Also, if your staff are over specialised then they wouldn’t be able to make accurate assessments of new technologies that could reduce operating expenses for the company, the technology is outside their area of expertise.
I am considered a generalist in I.T. terms, because I have to keep current on more than one aspect of technology to be able to make good decisions for my business. Yet in reality I am a specialist in that I limit my technology implementations to only a few bits. I only use open source operating systems, and open source webserver, ftp server, email server and data base servers. I could not keep current on the technology if I added MS Server, IIS, Exchange, MS’ ASP and .NET framework to the list, there are not enough hours in the day for anyone to keep current on that number of items. Instead I use the software that has powered the majority of the Internet since it’s inception, and technologies that work seamlessly with them. When I need more information about a specific technology, I find someone who is a specialist on that particular technology and either pick their brains for the information I need, or hire them as a consultant to evaluate the implementation of that technology in my business.
That leads me to an important point, consultants.
Is hiring a consultant a good idea for your business? More often than not, yes it is, if they are a specialist on the particular subject you need looked at. They come in under contract and an N.D.A. to look at your operations and see if there is a better fit technologically for you. If there isn’t, they will often know a Consultant that could create one just for you. There is a flip side to this coin, in that hiring a consultant to evaluate implementing new technologies tells your I.T. staff that you do not respect their opinion, which is a morale destroying statement. I would only hire a consultant if the technology being evaluated is completely outside the I.T. staff’s knowledge base, such as switching from a windows shop to Mac or Linux or one of the many other operating systems, where all your IT staff only know Windows. The Consultant would be able to include the real costs of training your IT Department in the new technology with a realistic view of it.
[ but Kaspersky's Linux version is the over-priced Corporate version, not a home system product so it's not actually one to be included as for home users. ]
