Creating an IS Department? 408
brainee28 asks: "I work in the IS department for a manufacturer in Arizona (a
one-man-show). I do mostly everything; from systems, to networks, to procurement, to implementation. I can't mention who I work for since we deal
with government contracts. My problem is this: The company didn't start out with an IS department. Up until 6 years ago, a few computers were scattered around, but processes and business was still being done the old-fashioned way (with paper). When the IS department was started, it was started by a hobbyist (he was named
IS Manager before I showed up), who knew nothing about management or any of
the major issues that befall a traditional IS dept. I joined 6 years ago
(I have 5 years of IS Management experience, and 15 years of experience
with IS in general) with the idea that I would be managing day-to-day
operations. That has still not come to pass. The hobbyist left the company
4 years ago, and I've been on my own ever since." What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?
"Management views IS as a facilities function; computers are a tool, and
only a tool. I presented a proposal to them about 2 weeks ago which
completely negates that and several other ideas they've had about IS.
Management accepted the proposal; however I'm now faced with additional
mountains to climb.
I have 3 things that management and I currently don't see eye to eye on:
1) The main job of IS is connectivity. Connectivity is the core of why we have IS. Anything else is extraneous, and I shouldn't be dealing with it.
2) IS involvement in other divisions isn't necessary. IS is involved with other divisions when physical products get connected to the network, but not before. Software should be evaluated by IS only when it becomes necessary for purchase and implementation, not before. Any developed piece of software (we have an in-house programmer in accounting who uses Access -- I know, I know...) should be evaluated by IS when the software is ready to install.
3)I'm too overloaded. With 93 permanent users and 110 workstations (some are floaters), I can't do both systems work and admin work (my title is Systems Administrator, but I carry no management authority) on my own. My proposal stated the need for the creation of staff (a tech and a clerk). Management thinks because things are running, I have no issues, but I'm falling apart from all I have to do to keep things running. I need to offset the load so I can do more of the 'bigger picture' things to help guide this company out of the IS dark ages. (We have no CTO or CIO; Management is made up of engineers from different disciplines)
How would Slashdot users attack this? I've done my Google searches; went back to traditional books from Barnes and Noble; and even contacted my alma mater, Northern Arizona University, to find some answers. How would you prove the need for change on these three points? Can I institute change here?"
Ignore all technical details (Score:5, Interesting)
Remeber that upper management generally hates technical details. Explain how the widespread changes will benefit the company in relation to things that you know are important to them. Make sure that you underline the importance of the changes and the specifice benefits they entail; things like money saved, less training, less downtime, and less support calls.
show initiative (Score:4, Interesting)
In a nutshell, just do it.
Take the initiative and start implementing policies and enforcing them. My guess is your boss will be very impressed that you're showing such leadership. Team Captains don't become Team Captains by waiting to be asked.
Keep in mind, that you run the risk of pissing a lot of people off. Be flexible (you probably don't have *all* the answers) but stay determined. Perseverance pays.
Just do it. They'll tell you when you've gone too far.
Boxlight
Create a business plan (Score:4, Interesting)
It's all about the money (Score:2, Interesting)
it is about money (Score:3, Interesting)
According to what you wrote there would likely be a lot of things really in need of overhaul to actually do things efficiently, but as long as management only sees IT as a drain and not as thing helping profit they will not happen. Thus the first task is finding where small changes could reap big benefits and then propose those, likely in the form of hiring someone "for project duration" to do do/hel with that change. As that thing is then showing some gains, propose a next thing and so on.
Afterall the role of IT in a company is not something standalone, instead it is a tool to make other things more efficient.
Irreplaceability. (Score:2, Interesting)
the core.. (Score:4, Interesting)
If they indeed do 'need' an IS dept, update your resume and then:
you need to come up with a "dire" consequences sceanario, then write up quotes and at least double to triple them (that way you might get your needed funds).. If needed, make something break, multiple times, just to show how crippled they are, blame the guy who left and explain you have been forced to use 'this junk'.. Have a handy quote in your desk drawer that you had got "a while back" and have a few spare good resumes around that have recently come in.. Use lots of acronyms (yes, technobabbling someone is low but when their eyes glaze over you can insert a lot of 'ideas' in there..) but most of all, make them think it is their idea.
show them what the competition is doing, explain that they are being outmoded. using fear to compel them to 'upgrade' is a great. of course, it is their idea..
don't get too chicken little about it, but show them what a bofh is and force your ideas through, of course though, it is their idea you can just be the "go-to guy"..
-or-
if the above fails, use that updated resume and go to a company with an IS dept, otherwise they are determined to use an 'abacus' and are doomed to live in the past..
Leave... (Score:3, Interesting)
LEAVE!
Problem solved.
That was the short answer. The long answer:
I read an article a few months back that linked emotions to an evolutionary form of fast judgement making. The point? Trust your gut. If they haven't given you what they promised they would give you within the first few months in the last few years, leave. It may be your hairstyle, your sense of humor or they just don't like you. Get over it. Play the odds and find a new position with a new company that says they will give you what you feel you deserve, and trust you gut. If you think you are being lied to in the interview then continue to play the odds and find the job you want. Or don't.
Decision is yours. Enjoy.
Toughest transition (Score:3, Interesting)
The key, for us, in selling a customer on hiring a full time team rather than contracting out the work (to us and others) is showing them a return on investment. There is no other way for a company to acquire any assets or employees without a residual increase in profitability.
How can you tell your bosses that they need an IS group? Show them how they'll save money or make more money, or how their competitors are doing something better. Business owners hate three things: bleeding losses, missed profit opportunities, and competition that does something better.
I can't imagine how hard your job will be, though, in the near future. U.S. manufacturing is attempted to cut back on costs, not increase them. Being in the business for 16 years, I know how hiring the right team IS a money saver, but many of our customers take years to convince. We've seen 6 digit yearly contracts that would have cost less than US$60,000 a year with a good individual and minor contract jobs.
Work up a nice (not colorful, but factual) brochure to sell your bosses on a team. Find who your competitors' IS managers are and talk to them -- you'd be surprised how many employees of competiting companies are beer buddies on the weekends. Pick up a decent manufacturing periodical that talks about these issues, and maybe even get membership to manufacturing webzines that offer the advice.
In engineering, general contracting, graphic design and other service industries, an IS group is a must-have. Manufacturing used to be technology-superior until the work became too inefficient to perform in the U.S. Since the costs are so high here, the management teams don't want to hear about expanded employees except in production. Place yourself in that role: producing an efficient "engine" to run the company. Use manufacturing terms. Point at studies and point at success stories.
Good luck.
Re:Me Oh My (Score:5, Interesting)
He's been there for years and they haven't listened to him.
By what miracles of miracles are they going to start listening to him now?
I've been outsourced. I was the last one there and turned off the lights as we left. It wasn't because we were incompetent it's because they had already made the decision many months ago to send it to another geographic region. We were already the contractors running 12 hour shifts. The moral of this story is to look at the big picture and make your best decision.
I resemble your remark. I'm not incompetent. But my 20/20 hindsight tells me that after 6 months to a year if I haven't gotten what I wanted even though I outperformed every expectation and made the case for improvement you leave. Yes there are things you can do better but the time has already passed. We don't live for miracles, that's why we need to make good decisions.
He needs to make decisions for himself, not the company he works for.
The best way to convince is... (Score:2, Interesting)
...by making a business case based on their bottom line.
That is the only language that will be understood.
From the sound of it, you're being severely overloaded; you need to force the issue some more (I've been in the same position myself and this is how I got through it). You will have to decide what your core job functions are (that you absolutely must do), then concentrate on them even if it means letting other stuff pile up undone. This would be even more justifiable if you have a job description you can refer to to back this up. If you don't have one, get one, just to confirm to you what your managers think you are doing, and to let them know what you actually are.
If people give you extra work or pile you will extra repsonsibilities without the resource to do it, get them, to tell the people whose jobs you'll have to push back. Many of the reasone IS is pushed down the list is becasaue mostly,' it just works'. What happens when it doesn't? I think you have to start being a little less conscientious, because otherwise it will make you ill. You can still be professional and rein back your work to realistic levels.For your own benefit, keep a detailed log of where yuor time goes (if you don't already). And also include things yuo cannot do. Make estimates of the cost of this lost productivity. This should be the basis of your business case.
Someone mentioned hiring an intern: this might be nice as a short-term move but doesn't address long term structural problems your company seems unwilling to face.
If you still get no repsonse. Walk; tell them precisely why, adding that you wish them luck trying to find someone who can do your job with no training.
I may be saying nothing you don't already know; you're expreienced in the industry after all, but sometimes just looking at the obvious stuff can help. Good luck.
Re:Me Oh My (Score:2, Interesting)
With qualities like that I am amazed, you still have a job.
Oh that's it, I can't mock this guy any more as it involves descending to the same level of adolescent spelling and grammar.
I've been in a similar situation to the submitter. I worked for just over 4 years for a company that had nothing to do with software, but thought it ought to have some computers around the place and then decided to dabble in Windows CE development. I got suckered in as I was 22 years old at the time and saw it as an opportunity to get early experience as a senior developer. There was no drive from upper management, absolutely no risks taken, and the pervading attitude of the whole company was that IT and software were a necessary burden rather than an asset. The size of the team increased by exactly one between the time I started and the time I left, and that hiring decision was made begrudgingly. The fact is, some companies absolutely will not expand their technology side (and they are often right not to, as it isn't always necessary), and any ambitious IT worker will be better off elsewhere. Working at that sort of company is ideal for people who want a bit of security to see out their career, or are looking for a sinecure, but career poison to anyone who wants to progress.
Re:Chances are... (Score:5, Interesting)
And for what it's worth connectivity is not the primary function of IS. Providing and supporting the infrastructure for company data, processes, and infrastructure and making it as transparent (that is, problem free) for the users is what "IS" departments are for.
I've gone into companies and improved security (brought them beyond HIPAA compliance - they're behind two firewalls), reliability, etc. and now we hear from most of them very little. One customer we hadn't heard for in four months contacted us a couple of weeks ago. I had been wondering if there was a problem (e.g., they thought IT services were too costly) but when they called they had a laundry list of items, mostly concerning computers we didn't provide (mainly problems with Dell systems, which on the low end have a HORRENDOUS failure rate). When he called he said "I know you haven't heard from us in a while but to tell you the truth things have been running GREAT." It was satisfying to know that a nontechnical manager at a client understands the value of IT and that it is when you don't even think about your network that things have been done right.
Incidentally that was one of my clients where we deployed Open Office (saved $400 to $500 per seat on software there), Firefox, and other free/OSS solutions. Users (secretary/receptionist types) took to OOo immediately and discovered functioality that I didn't even know was in OOo, which underscores just how well OOo stacks up against M$ Office for typical office use. Sure, if they were working with 1200+ row formatted/hyperlinked spreadsheets they would not be able to use OOo due to severe performance issues, but they'll never encounter that there.
They have gone from continual downtime between spyware and a lousy (and insecure) network setup and flaky hardware to never even thinking about the computers. Their only remaining problem is they're still on Verizon DSL so they experience bandwidth issues when lots of terminal service users are logged in, but that's unavoidable until they bite the bullet and go with a T1 line, since Verizon STILL doesn't offer sDSL here. They had one minor incident where one individual who had the admin password was canned and they didn't change the admin password or let me know, and that user was a little spiteful and changed the admin password. That was quickly addressed (thanks to UBCD) and now I've created a secondary admin account just in case another manager has the same idea. Aside from that they have had no real problems.
My point?
Express your goals:
- minimized downtime
- data integrity - redundancy, automated backups, etc.
- solid disaster recovery plans (minimize downtime in event of a failure)
- facilitate better communication and data exchange
- Make your IT infrastructure transparent. By transparent, I mean so problem-free that the users don't even have to think about you.
Remind them that a single day's worth of downtime for a business of that size costs more than it will cost to implement a proper network and process up front. I've seen a 130+ employee company (a software company) lose exchange due to HDD crashes (the acting IT director ignored the RAID warning when one drive failed, then a second failed) and the acting IT director was clueless. Management approached me to recover the data (knowing my background in Windows, Exchange, M$ mail, etc. prior to QA) but when I checked out the backups, I found that the acting IT director (the previous IT director left) had changed the backup several months prior, so that ONLY the directory structure was being backed up. No System State backup, no info store backup. No files backed up. They were toast. Also, ALL of the previous backup tapes had been recycled, including the ones at Iron Mountain, so they had NO backup. That situation lead to about a week's worth of no email, and likely hundreds of thousands worth of lost revenue. Fortunately
Time for ITIL (Score:2, Interesting)
My 2c
The role of IS in a corporation (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Me Oh My (Score:2, Interesting)
He hasn't been a leader, he was comfortable under someone who was not a ball of fire.
Since his supervisor left, it does not sound like he has been able to communicate a proposal to save money in the long run and make IS more robust and functional. The converse - he has not let them know that he is working at a pace that he cannot continue.
He has been there for a long number of years, and everyones perception there is probably that he is the IS guy under so and so. He should have gone for a lateral move somewhere during that long time there if he was hungry.
He either has to be comfortable staying in an IS department the way it is and working way too hard - or find another job.
He is not percieved as a leader.
It is too late to make a lateral move. It is time to make a shift to a slightly larger company and work second shift. If the present employer does military work - he has security clearances and HR's elsewhere will see someone to trust immensely - as opposed to many 22 year old grads (sorry). It sounds like he religiously came into work, and did not screw up. He is the perfect second bannana - and many people would love him to be in charge on their second shift.
Re:You Can't -- Resign (Score:3, Interesting)
I'll try and link what the other guys are saying.
1) You are obviously an undervalued employee as you are keeping all the balls in the air while taking the stress upon yourself.
2) Management are, if not happy, accepting of the way things are. So there is no impetus to make a change. You are considering ways of providing this impetus.
3) The only sure way of making this change is to resign. This may not change the business, but it will be a change for you.
I've been in this situation before (at a school ) and my blood pressure went from a lovely 120/80 to 160/110. Not the best for the health. But before I quit I tried:
1) Providing a organisation wide questionaire and analysis. Trust me, there is always stuff that they want improved and if you spin it the right way, requires more IT support
2) Providing an analysis of current outstanding jobs/projects and the amount of man-hours required to complete them. Once you throw in day-to-day activities (backups, security etc) these usually put completion times in the "months" category. Hopefully this will convince them.
3) Provide articles and white papers about staffing levels. Google it and you will find. If you can't, email me and I'll try and provide you with the links. In my situation we had a department of 3 and the most conservative analysis said we required 8.
4) Job logging system. Incoming calls should be logged and a fortnightly/monthly analysis provided to management. This should then show them how much work you are actually doing.
5) Start timesheets and provide these to management. If they accept the these, then start mentioning "overtime rates". Try to give them a financial reason to employ more staff.
6) Work to rule. No more "nice guy". Start work when you should and leave when you should. If someone wants something done immediately, it can wait until tomorrow morning. Before undertaking this, ensure you have complied with 7.
7) Prep your resignation. Get a reference from management or peer (if management are a bunch of bastards). Start looking for work. Take a holiday (employee appreciation day!, I love it) and do a technical/upskilling course.
8) Having exhausted all the possibilities, quit. Your health and your social life/family will appreciate you for it. Sorry MonkElectric, I disagree.....if you get to this stage, NO amount of money is worth staying for, even if they offer it.
I'll leave you with a thought - "The only problem about doing something right the first time is that no one understands HOW BLOODY DIFFICULT IT WAS!
Good luck in whichever direction this takes you.