Where Does IT Fall Within Your Organization?

ros256 writes "I help out a relatively small (100 employees) medical device company that does not have a dedicated IT department. Instead the network admin reports to a manager in the Clinical department. Although this seems unusual to me, the organization isn't really structured at this point to have IT staff report to a department more relevant to the work they do. I've been giving thought as to where within the organization would make more sense. So, I pose this question to the Slashdot community: Where does IT fall within the organizations you work with?"

Where Does IT Fall Within Your Organization?

[bragr]

Hopefully not to far, servers don't handle drops well. Keyboards seem to do alright though.

Idiots

[Tongsy]

In my organization, it essentially stands for "Incompetent Technician"

Where do IT fall...

[Cyclloid]

...All over the place.

Re:I don't know...

[Anonymous Coward]

For the last time, your request for a completely separate computer so that you could dedicate one to Slashdot.org and the other to productivity is *denied*. Please continue to use your current computer for whatever mix of Slashdot.org and productivity you feel is necessary to not get fired.

Sincerely,
Your IT department

Re:King of the hill

[JWSmythe]

    I've actually had people reviewing the books say to me that the IT department doesn't bring in any money, so we were therefore worthless. IT is just a black hole, where money goes in, but nothing productive comes out.

    I accept their opinion as truth. Then I volunteer to have the IT staff take a month off with no pay, and not be available by pager and phone regardless of how big the emergency is. Their tone changes quickly.

    "But what if something goes down?"
    "Nope, we don't do anything"

    "What if the network breaks?"
    "Sounds like a problem for the people who are worth something."

    "You can't do that!"
    "We could, and there are people who recognize the value of a good IT department who would hire them before the end of the first week off."

    Mind you, that was before the recession hit hard. Those who are still working are happy that they have jobs, even if it's at a fraction of what they used to make. I've gotten a few crying phone calls asking me to fix something, but they rarely offer enough to cover the gas money to get to their site and back. If I happen to be in their area, I'll stop by and fix it. I'm not going to lose what little money I have left, just to fix their problems. My favorite whine is "We're losing $x,xxx every hour!". If it's that important, why can't they pay a reasonable rate for me to fix it. I'm not going to spend $20 in gas and an hour of my time, to get paid $15, regardless if they think it's fair.