Slashdot Mirror
Creating an IS Department?
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?"
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?"
Sorry to say, but if the acronym you use is not IBM, introduce it before you use it, or you risk leaving your intended audience by the road side.
The best way to make management know of the importance and need of the services you provide is to withdraw them 'accidently' for a period of time.
Time to update the ol' resume and make for the exits.
There is no intelligent life there.
I've been in a similar situation. Company went belly-up a few years later.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
...that way everyone will know what it is.
Step 2: Launch a harmless virus, fix it, and then show your superiors what could have happened if you didn't catch it in time.
This will ensure the need for your services.
Step 3: Buy lots of flexible toys that let you quickly release your pent-up agression in a harmless fashion. This will avoid having to replace 'defective' keyboards and other equipment.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
This might not help with all of your complaints, but have you thought of taking the longest vacation that you can get away with? You get a nice break and when you get back everything will be so f$#%ed up you'll be the god the big bosses worship.
Well...ideally...
"What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?".....by finding a new job.
What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?
Take holiday and don't answer your phone. When the fires are put out on your return request a meeting with the boss.
Trolling is a art,
am i the only one who has no idea what IS is? Was this article one massive typo?
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Information Systems?
Fix up your resume and BOLT.
Second best way. _Let_ something important break. Take a _long_ time to fix it. They'll let you hire some bodies. You need at least 2 but you could get by with 1.
This
Sounds like you like to live in a more compartmentalized IT shop at a larger company (insurance?) where you can be isolated from reality. I'd start looking for a new job - there are thousands of other IT people who love the jack-of-all-trades hat.
Do what YOU need to get done to make things work well, when the small stuff starts to slip by, they will see the need to fill the gaps with an IT team. The company I work for has a small IT team, running around on the small stuff all day lets the big picture fade. Working on the larger picture has made the small stuff in need of a 'help desk', of which I am currently taking resumes!
What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?
Quit?
I hate to say it. My experience is that management usually won't take any action until things get bad. As long as you are keeping things running, management won't be willing to make any changes (read as: spend any money).
Managements *JOB* is not to "do things right". Its to discover the absolute minimum of funding at which a task can be accomplished.
It's the same situation at my work -- they put my department (RND) under incredible stress because incredible stress is *CHEAP*. Doing the right thing is expensive. This is why engineering and management are always at eachothers throats.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
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.
I meta-moderate because I care.
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
I sort of agree with you, but realistically, if you don't know, either on your own or through context clues, that IS stands for Information Systems, you shouldn't be responding to this guy's question anyway.
Who did what now?
Simple. Just break something and let the managers see how it affects the bottom line. Even in "today's advanced world" that old maxim is true: the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Evil Overlord Rule #86. I will make sure that my doomsday device is up to code and properly grounded.
Outline what it is you intend to do, how much it will cost and what the projected benefits are of doing it. Don't forget to also outline risks and downsides. Omit the "soft costs" that cannot be easily measured, like "improved productivity and efficiency".
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
1. As many others have mentioned, update your resume and head for the exits. If they don't see a need for an IS department, you're pretty much screwed.
2. Become Montgomery Scott and wait until a major "disaster" happens and then save the day. Make them understand that the business would have stopped and money would have been lost had you not pulled the situation out of the fire in time. Make it clear that with more resources (people, hardware software) that you could not only come to the rescue sooner, but you'll be able to prevent problems from happening. It's sad to say, but some companies only get their acts together when the s**t hits the fan.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
I think you need to change the idea from information systems (IS), to information technology (IT). The only way that you will be able to make the case is to change the perception of an IS department from cost center to profit center. You have to show how you can make them, save them, or create money. Slashdot style it is money, money, money. You will have to educate them over a period of time, define some specific metrics to show success, change the evaluation methods, and adapt to the environment realizing that it isn't about "you". Good luck I've been there numerous times in the last 20 years.
--- Location Unknown
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.
Took me about 2 minutes to figure out who he works for. (Hint: It's a large telecom provider based in Littleton, CO). If people are really concerned about concealing their identities, they should try a little harder.
I'd have to disagree with you, the core purpose of IS is improving ROI.
If connectivity does not help the bottom line, it is indeed pointless.
To make your point, I'd find out what it would cost the company if the
computers were down for one hour, two hours, etc. Compare those costs
versus the costs for your requested help. Present that information to management.
For any new prjoects, I'd compare the estimated time/cost savings.
If you can put it in dollar terms you have a chance of approval.
Service guarantees Citizenship! Questions Guarantee GITMO.... Amerika Uber Alles!
What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?
One word: Sabotage.
It worked great for the used-car dealer I used to work for. I started with them in 1995 - same problem, everything done on paper - their "computer guy" had started entering all new deals into an old 486 that was laying around using some antiquated software just 3 months before I was hired. By sabotaging that poor 486, I was able to get enough money out of the tight-wad owner to buy a few computers, setup a network, and get software that was actually useable and upgradeable.
In the words of Darth Vader, "it is unwise to lower your defenses." Drop the firewall; stop updating the anti-virus. Spend more time on /. until the network begins grinding to a halt. Shuffle from machine to machine, fixing each one slowly and deliberately. Don't answer the phone, pages, or emails. And get your résumé in shape, but forget about expecting a good reference.
You can't make them understand if they don't already. An IT infrastructure doesn't just spring up full-blown overnight and this cobbled together system you're trying to run is inherently unstable. Without any controls and with no support staff, you can't hope to cope.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Being a sysadmin/programmer type myself, I can relate to the type of situation you are in. Management is not likely to be swayed into your way of thinking. If you want to affect change, you need to understand what motivates them and offer solutions to those problems. I doubt those problems will match the list you have. I find no end of frustration in trying to convince management of things I think are important. They're really simple creatures - they are motivated by money. If you can phrase your proposals in terms of how much money it will make or save, you can get their attention.
Another problem is that management rarely looks inwards for innovative solutions. Even though they are the ones who prevent progress by not allocating the resources, they believe that if their own people could solve their problems, it would have already been done. Bring in a consultant to look at the current situation and make suggestions as to how to make improvements. I'm a consultant in Phoenix, where are you?
Just explain to your boss that if things continue the way they are now the company will be SOL if you get hit by a bus or catch the flu. Make it clear that you are not threatening them, but are just concerned that you are a critical piece of infrastructure. It makes them a) appreciate you and b) cognizant of the danger of the current system.
Doing bad things like not answering your phone, or setting fire to your servers is not a good idea.
Identifying and implementing best practise procedures and strategies, however, is. Establish (correct) procedures for doing things, take time to develop these procedures and ensure that they are followed every time.
e.g 'Procedure for adding new employee'...
Take your time writing it and write it well. And always follow it.
1. If someone asks you to do something, you are legitimately busy creating best practise procedure.
2. Management cannot deny your need to operate under best practise conditions - especially if you are working for the govt.
3. You will need more people to manage this - and if your procedures are good they will be easy to take on.
You can do this to whatever extent you like i.e last 2 hours of the day is spent creating procedure documents, or you spend all day doing it.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
At the place at which I work I have the same problem. The department has dwindled from about 6 to 3, and the third guy just put in his two weeks. Thankfully, I've been able to convince the owner that we need at least one more person. I compiled a list of all things we do on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis, plus all the projects that the rest of the company wanted done. Then I estimated the hours it would take to do all of this.
When I showed him with 2 guys that I could just keep things running at the status quo - no projects, no improvements - he saw the need for another guy. We're still not going to get the skill I would like - but at least it'll be another useful body.
I suggest you do the same. Along with documenting when things do go wrong - for yourself - and to present to management. You have to show them that it is because you are doing your job that they do not notice problems or downtime.
In addition - make sure to establish policy and procedure for interacting with the IS/IT department as soon as possible - otherwise you'll be bothered constantly and will never get anything done.
I hold a weekly "user" meeting where I let people know what I'm working on, what issues are still open, etc. The key is communication.
Make a major presentation to the board predicting a disaster, and outline the steps needed to avert that disaster.
Then the penny-pinching, overweight, business-friendly, man in a suit scowls at you can calls you a fool.
Then the disaster hits, you make a few recommendations to get them going, and then you run off to save your kid or girlfriend.
Seriously, predict a specific disaster, request resources, get denied, then watch that disaster unfold. You will be free of blame, and you will get your resources.
But make sure that you get specific commitments from management in the middle of the disaster, and not after you've fixed it. Gratitude fades very quickly.
The world will not get better through technology. We must seek to be better people.
My suggestion is get a simple book on change, perferably something on Six Sigma practices. Something like this book from Amazon (or elsewhere, it's not a referrer link) would be appropriate for you I think: Lean Six Sigma for Service : How to Use Lean Speed and Six Sigma Quality to Improve Services and Transactions.
The key things to focus on to get management to see your plight is to determine a way to measure your current state (how long does it take to perform workstation maintenance per day, per week, per month? How much time is spent doing any kind of security auditing? How many security incidents have you had this year? etc.), and then present suggestions for improvement on your current state as your expected future state that will SAVE THEM MONEY. This is always what business cares about: making or saving money! So if by being able to hire a clerk or tech to offload some of your current responsibilities it will save you company twice as much as the tech's salary per year, you've just proven the obvious and glaring need to do just that.
Also, provide them with a documented measurement startegy for the future to ensure that their investment in another employee is benefitting the bottom line.
If management still says no, and you've clearly made the case that another body is necessary to help you out in your current position, keep yourself open to the possibility that another company can use your help more than your current employer. Healthy companies are open to change when its needed. Unhealthy companies bury their head in the sand and cannot look past maintaining the status quo.
First thing, does this company really need an IS dept? or do they just need someone who runs around fixing things?
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..
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
My suggestion? Management won't pay for insurance against threats that they don't understand. Do a 'Net search and find white papers which show how other similar sized businesses became vulnerable to major IT downtime induced loss of revenue, and/or were sued for major amounts of money because they didn't face the threat sources in time and data was stolen, etc.
If a good presentation using those papers doesn't work, suggest that for Sarbonnes/Oxley regulatory compliance, they need an IT audit, and discuss the single point of failure problem with the auditor.
Finally, if none of the above work, update the resume and get a couple of good job offers in hand, then request a large $$ increase in wage to stay, or leave. There are no other choices.
...Open Source isn't the only answer -- but it's almost always a better value than the alternatives...
I've been there before - almost exactly the same situation at a small-town weekly newspaper.
I must say that there is no one size works for everything solution to your issue. However, even in the most draconian and Luddite-ian (:D) business structure, money talks.
Modernizing IT will save the company money in the long run. Try to find a way to distill some proposed figures that can be expressed in a short, less-than-one-page summary. I don't recommend the gloom-and-doom approach. I do recommend the "you employ me to make sure this company is profitable, so I need you to take advantage of my knowlege and experience" approach.
What worked for me at the newspaper? I brought in a fully configured pair of networked computers containing up-to-date software and put on a demo, then handed them a cost-of-business summary.
A Passionate Independent Musician
Having worked for a government contractor myself, here are a few tips:
1. Don't expect change overnight. If there is one too true stereotype of govt. contractors, it's that maintaining the status quo is the most important thing to do. These people have to be coaxed and coddled to change.
2. With that in mind, money talks pretty loud with them also. Put together a white paper detailing what NEEDS to be done. Outline how much it's oging to cost, but then outline the net present value and/or internal rate of return of projected savings. Managers like numbers and percentages to justify change. For example, I too was frustrated by what my employer was doing in their IT department. They also were doing a lot of things by paper, and by implementing a web application to automate a lot of what they were doing, I was able to save them not only hundreds of dollars in paper EACH MONTH, I was also saving thousands of dollars in employee work hours. Instead of having the employees wasting so much time shuffling paper, they could put their skills to better use in benefitting the company.
Hope that helps!
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
First thing you have to learn is how to speak/write in a way that doesn't annoy people. Repeating yourself is a quick way to cause people to stop listening. It tends to cause them to shut the listening side of the brain down. They just look at you in a daze to acknowledge you but they aren't listening.
I'm not trying to be insulting, but the above paragraph was written to make a point. Got kinda annoyed by the last sentence, eh? Delivery is the key to ANY proposal. I'm not the greatest speaker and I've done the same thing several times. I can almost literally see the eyes of the person I'm speaking to glaze over when that happens and I know I've lost them.
They key is to say what needs to be said, add and example, and move on. If they don't understand something let them ask questions about it. If you have to, even stop and ask them if they have any questions. Just make absolutely sure you don't hammer on the same point repeatedly. It can even be taken as an insult to their intelligence by them and that will even make it harder to get the point across.
1. Ask management to hire a tech and a clerk to help you
2. ????
3. Profit!
I'm pretty sure that 2 might consist of you threatening to leave unless you get some help. If they are really dependent upon you, it might jar their attention. Also, if you have so much experience, you could probably find another job without too much of a problem.
Alternatively, you could try optimizing your processes -- spend an extra 5% of your time each week on reducing or eliminating the biggest time hogs.
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?
Back in the day I invented things like the Y2K bug. Like who doesn't know that time is stored as a 32 bit integer?
Oh well, time to release the Y2038 integer overflow bug, because in 33 years we'll all be stuck in 32 bit processing. Well, at least management doesn't know that.
I'll subscribe to Slashdot when I see a month without a dupe, a typo, or an article the "editors" didn't read.
Avoid tech slang at any cost.
Propose your plan. A well documented document. Describe all the potential failures the current network may face and the potential dammages. Don't go too much in the details. Use simple sentences, with the potential dammage clearly indentified.
Define the rules you would like to apply.
For each rule, set the goal. Tell them simply and clearly why the rule should be applied and what do you want to avoid.
They arenn't technicians. But they are smart. Simply use words they will understand.
If you tell them that without any backup for the mail server, the company may face up to 4 days without emails, they will understand.
If you tell them that the pop server is using outdated hardware and there is probabily that the hardisk may break. Most won't understand.
Don't send the report without any "face to face" introduction, try to organize meetings. If you are unable to put them all in the same room at the same time, try to meet them one by one in their office, and finish your "lobbying" by emails.
Once the executives boards is convinced by the neccessity, define a step by step plan. Don't try to change everything in the same week. Propose it and negociate it.
Once you've got their agreement. Try to make a mailing list and explain clearly to the employees why you will perfom the change and when. Invite them to ask any question they want.
Olivier
That's the mindset of your boss. The only way you'll get any relief is if things start breaking. Unfortunately, it will be seen as a deficiency on your part. I would start looking for the exit.
First, it seems to me the point 1 and point 2 conflict with each other. Are you saying that management see's connectivity as your only function or you do? For the most part, company's only see IT as necessary until a disaster strikes, or you have made yourself valuable. I would start by showing the benefits of a centralized database. If everything is in Access, move it to SQL server, or DB2, and write some helpful reports. Of course this might be problematic if they want authorize the funding for purchasing a real database platform. I suppose you could use a trial version. I wouldn't use the other suggestions of creating your own downtime or disaster though. That is counter productive, and unethical (not to mention creates more work for yourself). You definetely have your work cut out for you. I'm really curious as to the company, as I'm an IT worker in Flagstaff email me if you don't mind releasing that info off the board.
I find most management types have no clue about computers, networks, software or anything IT related. All they know is money, so they only ever respond if there is a catastrophe that affects the flow of money.
I am not saying that you should cause something to happpen, but maybe you will luck out and something will happen that will cause the network to crash and prevent work from getting done. Then they will listen to your requests for staffing.
Or, take a vacation out of the country with no cell phone or pager on you. Make it for as long as you can but definitely no shorter thatn 3 weeks. They'll be ready to listen to you when you get back.
Your job, as the information person, is to demonstrate, in business terms, the worth of your proposals.
If you can't take this to your boss straight off, try taking this to another business savy person who can help you to translate your tech speak into busness speak, and help you learn the human processes necessary to make these changes.
"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." The main job of IS is enhancing and supporting business objectives. The job of IS/IT is derives from management's business objectives. "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." Any developers should either report directly to IS/IT or be part of an IS/IT committee. IS/IT involvement in development must take place from the beginning. When developers only work for specific departments their management gives them tunnel vision. They only meet the demands of the department and in companies with multiple developers they may lack "the big picture" that IS/IT often looks at. Regular discussion amongst IS/IT and all developers helps give everyone a sense of the big picture. "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)." If you act like a manager, you'll often get treated like one. This gets more difficult the longer you've worked somewhere. First impressions are the most important. Talk to management like a manager. Talk to them on their level, demonstrate confidence and a mastery of your field. Find out what management's objective is and then show them how you can apply IS/IT to contribute to and even exceed their expectations. Once you can contribute to the business like a manager they'll treat you like one. Along typically comes the extra clout you need to perform the job. Management needs to trust your insight.
take vacation()
if [ all hell has broken loose ]
then profit()
else quit()
fi
What... Are you still there?
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.
"Don't fear death... fear not living..." -me
(I'm assuming that the acronym IS stands for Information Services. I would've said IT, but that's a quibble. If you meant something different, please disregard everything I'm about to say.)
The main job of IS is keeping the system running. Any technical issue that prevents someone from doing their job is yours. This alone should be enough to convince your management that a lone guy in an office isn't going to be sufficient support for your organization.
You're correct in that it's a mistake to view computing as just another facilities issue. However, that doesn't mean that it doesn't reach the same level of importance, and simply put, there's nobody else whose job it is to fix it. That means it's yours. (Or at least, that's what I'd be saying if I were your boss.)
See, you think this is what you want. Trust me, it's not. Otherwise, you can find yourself in the situation I was in, with a rack full of Linux servers and a department chair demanding to know why the $10K+ Windows-only web app he just bought isn't gonna run.
You're absolutely right about being overloaded, but you appear to be laboring under the misconception that a "Systems Administrator" is usually a management position. In my experience, it almost never is, unless by chance you tack the word "Senior" to the front, and even then the only people you'll manage are other Systems Administrators.
Your management will likely be unsympathetic, but you're not without hope. What I'd do is to brief them on the three biggest issues you're facing. Each brief should be about a minute in length, and all three should be delivered back-to-back. Each one should follow the structure: "this is the problem; here are the consequences of not addressing it; here is what i will need to address it." The trick: the third should be, "My time is fully committed just keeping what we have now together; if left unaddressed, neither the previous two issues, nor the multiple issues haven't mentioned, can be accomplished, resulting in the failure of X, Y, and Z; hire me another tech and an administrative assistant and give me some time to get them up to speed."
Best of luck.
I work in the private club industry and find myself in many of the situations you describe. Recently, our facilities manager and general manager sought out an analog security camera solution. Conviently, it was supposed to plug into our (my) network. The analog signal was supposed to go "through" our switches and to a central computer that was going to require a VPN connection (through an already crowded internet connection) so that our management could spy on people at home. Again, this was to be my responsibility. It was obvious to me that things weren't going to work out in that capacity.
I could have told them this before they spent the $10,000 to put in the cameras, but... They ended up running thousands of feet of new lines, adding additional cost and blowing their budget.
Same thing happened when we put in the network at a newly rennovated facility. We added a $30,000 strike against the bottom line after being completely forgotten. OOPS!!!
I guess that's what I get for being just "support". I'm rather tired of it.
I'll cease the rants now... Thanks for listening.
The best way to convince a boss of anything is to show them the numbers. If you can put something in a cost benefit analysis (CBA) and show how much work you do (A list), they'll be hard pressed to argue. Also, you can talk to them about what happens when you take a vacation, which you want to do because you're overloaded. However, actually running out and doing it, as was previously suggested, might just get you fired. It depends on the place you work, but with government contracts on the line...
Finally, I'd like to suggest that you re-evaluate IT's (Information Technology) place in your organization. An information system (IS) is, essentially, an integrated set of services and software that makes things easier for the company (IE a transaction processing system, or decision support system). The IT department is usually in charge of maintaining the IS's in a corporate environment and ensuring that they interoperate well with the actual hardware within the company. Having the ability to review software during the selection process to ensure that it integrates well into your environment is something that should be mandatory. Also, and IT department is not *just* about connectivity. It's about integration and support of all information systems from that database programmer in accounting all the way to the boss's hotsync software.
Good luck,
-D
Learn from other people's mistakes, you don't have time to make them all on your own.
I am a firm believer that almost all IT work can be broken down into 3 major groups: Hardware, Software and Network. With that in mind let us proceed with further discussion.
The easiest to deal with is probably the hardware. The key of course is to keep items under warranty with proper replacement cycles. By doing this the job is pretty simple. If a part of computer X breaks then you can simply call (or use web-based customer service) to receive a replacement part or have someone come out to do the work for you. In my previous place of employ we used Dell hardware on a rotating 3-year cycle. If a warranteed item broke we simply called and had them send out the replacement which we promptly shipped back. The only exception to this was laptops and for those we made them send a service person out, because replacing a motherboard in one of those is not my idea of fun.
Next up is the software. All software presently in use should be tested on a machine of the desired hardware mentioned above. You will of course have uniformity in machines, because this means you have a lot less problems to worry about. It is the Apple approach, sort of. You will want to be using a single operating system (well maybe two). In this case either Windows 2000 or XP. Build a machine with the specs of all the others and install and test all the software on the machine, once it is running properly, using Symantec Ghost to create images and since you will have the same hardware, you can quickly roll out new machines or re-image bad ones.
Finally the network. Please tell me they have a properly created network using nice switches and a good hardware firewall. We once found a network closet at a previous place of employ that was connected to the rest of the network with a HUB. Several of us almost died at how horribly setup this was. You are dealing with a small number of computers so I do not expect you to have several grand worth of networking equipment. So long as this is maintained properly, it should never really be a problem.
Now, how do you sell them on changes being necessary? First off, if you have sporadic and out of warranty hardware, be sure they are perfectly aware that if the machine(s) die that it could take several days or weeks to replace. I know this might be a huge overestimate, but it will give them an idea of the sort of down time that a user could face.
Next, do a similar survey of the software. Also if you can verify the licenses on everything. If you find any missing licenses tell them of the ramifications and be sure to give them the worst case scenario. We had an instance like this at my last job and several people were upset when they were cut off from software, but at several thousand dollars per license, the company was willing to make a huge deal out of it with us. Any software that is out of warranty also must go or be removed from the network. So those NT4 and 9x machines you might have running around (I hope you don't), need to be taken care of. Once again a proper explanation might do the trick.
Remember, no matter what all management always wants productivity. So if you show how their system can result in losses of productivity, not only for you but for users, they are more willing to consider change. The key of a good IT department is always going to be to maximize uptime and minimize downtime.
One final suggestion, request the power to hire and fire. Then remind them of reasonable salary expectations. I am not sure what they are paying you, but a true IT manager should be making 70k or more and good staff at least 40-50k. If you convince them of this, well give me a call because I know a thing or two about straightening out IT departments, I helped fix two of them before I finally started getting engineering jobs.
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
Of course, management may hire a manager to manage you.
Remember - The floggings will continue until moral improves
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
Look around at what other "managers" are doing to get thier way and follow that lead.
;-)
It seems the US "manager" has found a solid plan for conviencing others what "needs" to be done. Learn that lesson and upon your next meeting explain that if they don't allow you to implement the needed changes then the terrorists win!
bye-bye karma
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
That's what helped us get out from some load.
My boss scouted at a local high school for a bright, trainable student with some PC experience. We threw him at some simple jobs that were eating up our time.
We were able to make some large changes with him doing the footwork. He had a relatively easy job with good direction and excellent education, and left with a resume and references that any of his peers would have killed for.
I faced a similar situation about 3 years ago. I moved from a formal IT shop that had a lot of control within its company to a one man IT shop that had little or no control in the company. The pay was a lot better and the atmosphere was more relaxed so I stayed.
At first, it was difficult. I wanted the new company to adjust to me and my IT background. But that was stressful for me and the new company. They wanted me to relax and blend in with their way of doing things. I did that. Things are great now. I came from an environement that was proactive.... we tested, planned, installed, tested more, benchmarked, tweaked, etc. The new company is _reactionary_... we handle stuff as it comes up because IT is not our focus it's something that's along for the ride.
My old friends from the controlling IT department can't stand the thought of the way the new company handles IT. They tell me that they'd quit immediately if they did not have complete and total control over every portion of IT within the company. I've learned to like it. It works well for us and others.
Get rid of your controlling IT/IS attitude and blend in with your company. If you want to do things differerntly, get another job that has a controlling IT department with clout or start your own company.
I spent a year of my life creating technology plans that never got implemented for a company in the Pacific - it was one of the most frustrating years of my working life. After about 9 months it became obvious that no one on the board that ran the operation was willing to commit to any of the ideas they asked for - if something didn't work as planned they would lose major face. They still refused to implement after a consultant from the US mainland came in and evaluated the much revised plan and suggested that it was too conservative but should still be started immediately.
Life is too short to let people that can't give up control or don't really trust you to do a job they hired you to do wear you down. Cut your losses and find a place to work that is looking for someone with your skill set - you can lose time and skills trying to teach a pig to sing.
ah.clem
"Life is not magic." Dr. Ron Weiss - "If we don't play God, who will?" Dr. James Watson
It sounds like you are having the same problems that we had back in the 70s and 80s when companies who's product wasn't IT related (we called it MIS back then) couldn't accept the concept of why a good IT infrastructure was important.
I went through several companies back then where I was either the first or one of the first people on staff when the IT department was created. The problem really isn't that you need an IT staff but that since you came up through the ranks you aren't really being respected. This is a problem that is not unique to our industry.
Unfortunately, I found several times that the only way to deal with the problem of respect for your skills was to leave. At your next job, your background is that you formed the IT department at your previous company (even though it was only you), and you built their network from nothing to roughly 100 users. True, jobs aren't as plentiful as they have been at other times, but the industry is not as bad as it has been and you might need to consider this option.
If it is safe to make the assumption that you are also not being paid a salary equal to the work you are doing start with that. Tell them that you are doing three jobs and that you want to be paid for at least two of them. They will either a) give you a raise, b) laugh off your comments or c) fire you. If they fire you then you've got a valid case against them for wrongful termination -- especially since they work with government contracts and have to adhere to higher employment standards than other companies.
If they laugh off your comments then they obviously don't have the ability to ever learn to respect you. That when you take the resume that you updated TODAY and start sending out copies.
But if they do offer to give you a raise, ask the followup question: and when does my assistant start so that someone is doing the third job now that you are paying me for the first two?
Believe it or not, that actually worked for me once. Unfortunately, five years later when there were ten people in the department they decided to replace me with two kids fresh out of college that they could get for half of what they were paying me. I was closing in on 30, which even in the 1980s was starting to be considered over the hill as a programmer. ARGH!!!!!!
And don't rip up the resume if they give you a raise and an assistant. I learned that lesson the hard way back in 1981 when I got the raise and then was squeezed out a few months later after they thought that my newly appointed assistant knew enough to do the job. He didn't, but he did do something that I didn't do when I left. When he was fired three months later he wiped out all the source code from the production system libraries and erased the backup system disks (this was on a Data General M600 with the old 20lb zebra drives). They had to call me and pay a ton of money for me to come in and restore everything.
I'm not sure what your company's internal accounting system looks like, but from what you've describe, it seems to be treating your department as a cost center and all the IT expenses as general overhead. Have you thought about using an accounting system such that you the other departments get charged a certain rate per managed node / number of call / qualified software package? There are two advantages: 1) Department heads will now be more conscious of the cost and will think twice before asking you to setup 20 computers. This creates disincentives for managers to abuse your department's resources; 2) You manage the profit and loss of the IS department and therefore should have more freedom to hire more people as long as your department is showing black, not red.
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.
Your best friend is the schedule sheet. Such a sheet has the week's calendar detailed down to the half hour. If someone asks you to deworm a PC or deTrojan a Windows laptop, get your schedule sheet and book the next available 2 hours. Block time in advance for other sysadmin duties. Full schedule? Just tell the user his PC will be dewormed next month. When you have a few dissatisfied users, bring your ultra-full, scribbled schedule sheet to management and use it to prove you need help. DON'T DO UNCOMPENSATED OVERTIME. Take vacations, preferably on short notice. You don't have a backup? Well, ain't that too bad. Think you could hire one, boss?
As a rule of thumb, you need one full time person per 30 Windows PCs, plus one guy to cover for vacation and such. I don't know how you can keep up with a hundred Windows machines to maintain by yourself.
If your boss wants to save on sysadmin salaries, he can move his users to Linux PCs, with critical programs (e.g., macro-ridden Excel spreadsheets) running on Windows images under VMWare. Inside the image, have apps save to network drives (Samba is your friend), not to C:. Archive the images, they are just large files in Linux. When the Windows image catches a virus, just restore a fresh version from your storage server instead of spending hours fixing the Windows crap. You'd be amazed at how much time this little trick saves. Users have their Windows apps and you have manageable systems, everyone is happy.
--
Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
I own an IT/IS company that's sole purpose is to try to make a customer rely on themselves, not us. It is the best business model available in IT as we receive more referrals than we "lose" customers who become self-sufficient.
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.
Basically you're not seeing eye to eye with management. It doesn't matter if you're responsible for IS, or the coffee fund, if you can't convince management that your involvement will save money, they probably won't listen. Keep in mind, you're also dealing with turf battles. I deal with this all the time.
You need to show that you're adding value. Did anyone recently buy any IT type stuff that turned out not to work and was a waste of money. Did it work but there were cheaper alternatives?
Look at things not just from a engineer level, but from a management level. How can you use IT to improve the business? Can you remove punch timecards and get an automated system? If you do that, how many hours a week will you save HR in compiling timecards and making out paychecks.
I think you get the idea, but basically if management doesn't want to listen to you as another manager and treats you like another lackey, then you either need to get a manager onboard to champion your causes, or you might as well give up.
Don't sabotage anything for any reason. If you are working for a government contractor, any malicious act that you do could be considered a felony or an act of terrorism as it impacts the governments data/information/processes. Think twice. Act once.
I am the IT Manager for a manufacturer with government contracts as well. First, you need to gain a bigger picture of things. The "I" in "IS" stands for "information" and as such, you deal not only with the connectivity/hardware, but the information being stored, how it is used and the protection of it therein. Therefore, you MUST have an understanding of the company, how things operate and such to be most effective. Otherwise, you will not be very effective at capacity planning. Most importantly is that in order to cost-justify your infrastructure, you must understand how it will effect business processes--the expensive firewall will help the sales people on the road via VPN, super duper server will be able to host the ERP software they desperately need to track cost variance on manufacturing so you can track real time costs and profit.
You cannot possibly pitch those as such without understanding the business. Remember, if you are head of the IS department, you are effectively the CIO. As CIO, you need to understand how your division interacts with the others. As much as you want to be, you are not an island by yourself that has limited dealings with your surrounding neighbors. Your department is the fundamental technological enabler to allow the profit generating divisions to be most effective. Your department generates costs, not profit. You have to show how your costs can increase profit.
First and foremost, you need to become very close to the CFO so you can work together to understand where the heavy costs are, what needs to happen to address them and how you can make his/her job easier in terms of understanding the bottom line. Second, you need to become good friends with the Plant Manager. Find out what his/her biggest issues are. Are any of those issues caused by inadequate technology? Is lacking technology causing manufacturing bottlenecks? Third, you need to learn who your largest customers are and how technology is being utilized in doing business with them. Are you doing EDI? Should you be?
Once you understand the business, have made these relationships and know how your IT infrastructure fits in the big picture with the largest customers, then you can begin to make magic happen. Anytime you want to improve infrasctructure or make a technology purpose you must follow this simple guideline:
1) Does it improve or cut costs of current business processes?
2) If not, is it creating a new business process or addressing a serious security issue? (If both 1 and 2 are no, you are probably buying a toy)
3) Can you explain in unambiguous language how the answer to 1 or 2 is yes? (if not, you will hit a wall with the decision makers)
Good luck.
"What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?"
Let it break.
I will leave it to you to decide if I'm funny, or informative.
Sorry to say, but if the acronym you use is not U.N.C.L.E, introduce it before you use it, or you risk leaving your intended audience by the road side.
return 0; }
Consider: in many companies, there are shipping managers, production managers, acquisition managers, etc. All of these positions need management, and these managers are recognized for the needs they have and the accomplishments they make getting their tasks done. Rightly so.
But in how many places is the IT department looked on with no more forethought than the secretary who buys pens, staplers and paper for the office?
Every company is different, but I'd wager that in most, the IT infrastructure (be it phone or data or both) is so crucial to the day to day operations as well as the long term growth that IT people should in a perfect world be in the board room (or whatever lesser equivalent you have) contributing to the decision making process.
That just isn't the case, however. I also experience the problem. I used to manage our web services ($3million/year printer). But I was needed in production, so without discussion, the responsibilities were handed over to a consultant. I've spent the last year helping them put out the fires they caused by (1) using Windows 2k3 server, and (2) having a poor understanding of web services. How can people like you and I convice the PHB that reverse dns lookups are importnat when the consultants they hire tell them (to cover the fact they don't understand and can't get classless delegation working) that it isn't?
The cause, and unfortunately the answer too, is politics. It's not that they reject the logical arguments. It's that they don't speak that language. I took Russian in high school, and could converse by the time my 4 years were up. But conversing was a matter of thinking in English and translating pre-vocalization to Russian. So it is with IT and business.
We're like the stone masons of old, living in our own temples while constructing the fortresses financed and managed by others.
The IT department was started by a single person, and run as a one person show for 15 years. By the time management had thought about the fact that it might be time for a change, mission critical systems were woefully out of date. What eventually convinced them that a new methodology needed to be put into place (and more to the point, what gave them the direction to do so) was an external audit. Maybe it's not a bad idea to write a proposal for such an audit and present it to your superiors. For a fairly minimal investment, you can get hard documentation from independent observers on exactly what needs to be done to implement the best IT environment possible for your business' particular needs. They can decide what to do with it from there.
I've found it nearly impossible for the company I work for to upgrade their infrastructure. Nothing has worked for me. Not even the threat of impending disaster.
bluespaceradio.com - New Wave, Indie and Alternative
The only way thigns are going to change for you is if you impress upon management that while you're doing mundane things like installing software, rebooting PCs, and reloading printer paper, you aren't doing valuable things like R&D, security (firewall, backups) monitoring, spam filter tuning, network performance tuning, etc ...
Start out looking for an assistant, someone junior who can handle desktop support. If you can't get that kind of assistance, then you're really under-rated at your current employ and you should be working on an exit strategy.
What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?
1. It's the Holiday Season, go on Vacation, visit family.
2. With you out of the office, it should start to blow up.
3. Update Resume.
4. If they don't approve ALL your requests, leave.
5. Profit!@#
"If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door." - Paul Beatty
Sorry, but the idea that your "only job is connectivity" is totally antiquated, and likely comes from spending too much of your career in a large, well sub-divided corporate IS department. There is nothing wrong with working in large departments or companies, but you have to remember that the things that make those big companies possible are the controls and standards they have in place to decide how-to decide if they should hire or not. You're trying to fight a battle to hire helpers when nobody has fought the battle of a standardized methodology for deciding if you have enough workers to cover your department's responsibilities.
You're in a tough spot, and unfortunately, it will get worse before it gets better.
Two hints from a guy who is in a similar organization but slightly ahead of the spot on the curve you're at:
1) You have to sell your changes in terms that the managers understand. Don't explain why the package you picked for the marketing department is superior to the one they selected, explain why your METHODOLOGY--of IS selecting and testing appropriate tools with input from others--is superior to the end-users being sucked in by "ooh, shiny!" and decide to "let IS worry about implementing it." It is that flip assumption that IS can make anything happen that leads to selection of incorrect products and ultimately to failed projects. Regardless of how good the IS team is, they can't make wrong tools do the right job, and this should be the focus of your argument, not any one particular tool or purchase experience. Make it clear you're not trying to second-guess past decisions (even if you REALLY want to) but rather, to help make future decisions better and spend future dollars more efficiently than in the past.
2) Don't expect a landslide of change right away. Smaller companies, especially those owned by one or two people who founded the company and built it, tend to play things very conservative--especially when those founders are good at something besides computers. With this in mind, design your ultimate IS department that would provide your company with all the services it needs--even the stuff your superiors don't know they need, and then break it into stages. Do small, non-threatening things first to build your stock in their minds. When they see your small changes succeed, you can then suggest something a little more substantial, and so on and so forth until you have the perfect team, you're fired, or you quit for a better job paying twice as much money because you have demonstrated excellent leadership and critical thinking skills...
Who did what now?
Do you really want to find out at the last step of procurement that one of your other departments is going to buy a product that does not fit with what you have been building over the last 6 years? While not taking over the process I would want to be involved with the procurement decisions of a new product. Otherwise your final step idea may cause that department to waste time when you throw out there product because it doesn't fit and cause them to go looking for another that does fit.
Your need for a staff can easily be justified by outlining everything that needs to occur within your 1 man IS Department. Outline everything that needs to be done and group it together into ontimers/daily/weekly/monthly then further group by secure and non-secure. Once you have presented your list to them, Throw on top any ideas for big projects you have and tell them that you can implement them with help. you could also include that you used 4 hours to type up this list that a secretary could have typed up for you.
I personally did that and then presented the idea for an internally designed and controlled intranet that would require a parttime person to run it. Then I had a new tool for the business to use along with a parttime employee that would field calls and troubleshoot smaller problems for me in his sparetime while I worked on servers and other tasks.
The other option that you may have is those goverment contracts. Do some research on any regulations that cover you because you have those contracts and you might find out that regulation 123 says you have to do these 3 tasks which in turn constitute the hiring of another person. Either way, It sounds to me like you have management leaning towards what you want just dangle a nice carrot in front of them so they fall off the fence where you want them too.
My new title at the office is "Vice-President of Everything Else"
"Management views IS as a facilities function; computers are a tool, and only a tool."
And they are correct. If it doesn't provably add to the bottom line, they don't care. How do you view motors, electrical outlets, and HVAC systems? How do you view pens and paper? Computers are analogous. Your management's view is at least the most popular view. If you don't like it, you will be unhappy working as an IS manager in most environments.
1a. Pragmatically, the main job of IS is to do whatever company management thinks IS should do. You are part of a relatively small enterprise; it is your job to help out that enterprise any way you can with whatever resources you have. If that means you draft, proofread, and type a memo about employee parking, you do it. And you don't complain. The 'leet crowd will disagree, I'm sure, but unless you are abslutely irreplaceable (and no one is), you don't make yourself appear to be a prima donna whose willingness to work is limited.
1b. The main job of IS is to make sure that everyone can use their computers. Connectivity is included in that, but so is installing software, reconnecting keyboards, writing login scripts, patching servers, and (insert your least favorite computer-related task here). IS is the department with the people that make working with computers seem as easy as breathing. It is their job to make it easier for everyone else to deal with computers.
Corollary to 1b: This includes the secretary who is incapable of rebooting her own computer, can't use the Start Menu, and tries to scan documents by running the optical mouse over them. ("At my last job, we had a business card scanner had a light on the bottom, so I thought...") And you do it with a smile and reassure her that everyone has this trouble.
2a. IS involvement in other divisions is the purpose of IS. What, you're only providing connectivity and computer services to your own division? Or perhaps you're pushing cookie cutter solutions onto a company that doesn't need them? ("Hey, 'IS Manager' magazine says ALL the cool manufacturing IS managers are doing it!") If you're not talking to other division managers and finding ways that you can help them, you will find yourself replaced by someone who will.
2b. IS involvement in everything that affects IS is essential. Otherwise, some bright, eager, manager is going to put lots of time and effort project that will consequently be impossible for you to kill, and will ruin your whole year. Standardizing the product design department on Macs, perhaps? Or converting all the legal department's documents to WordPerfect format? This is a political struggle. You want to be present at the meetings where bad ideas are born so that you can strangle them. If you limit your involvement to saying "No, that's not a good idea" just when someone else is ready to hand their project over to IT, you will be disliked and frequently over-ruled.
3. What you've proposed is tripling the payroll costs of IT for no appreciable benefit to the company. In the eyes of company management, things are running fine. If you are really falling apart, you need to find yourself another offer of employment. With that in hand, find out if your company is amenable to improving your situation. If not, walk. I doubt that you are going to succeed in setting yourself up as a CIO, which is what your situation really needs. You have no management authority, and getting some is the only way to really fix the situation.
I've been in your position and held your mindset before, and it's not easy. I cannot emphasize enough that you must both understand management's mindset AND be prepared to leave. Otherwise, you will be unable to negotiate a satisfactory resolution to your issues. At the very least, I would agree that you need a tech to work with you; a ratio of 1:100 is ridiculous.
Good luck; you'll need it.
Get it through your head you are not an IT manager. As your title states you are a sys admin, From what you've said your job is to keep things running not to make sweeping changes.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
I'm sure there is an answer to this question, but how do you estimate costs like, e.g. the cost of not having email service for X number hours/days/weeks if your email server goes down? For a government contractor, I suspect that nowadays, a lot of communication with government agencies for which you are contracting is done via email, so email would probably be very important to your business. Yet, how do you set a value on that?
I mean, I could think of a few worst-case scenarios for impact of email being down. . . namely that you miss some kind of Request for Proposal broadcast email sent by a government agency to all registered contractors, and end up missing out on a contract, or having a project delayed because of communication problems. But all that is highly variable.
I agree that the best way to approach management about investing money on IT resources is to bring them dollar figures that can help them understand the cost/benefit of the status quo, vs the cost/benefit of the proposed improvement, but how do you actually do that?
I bet this is the type of question that people make an MBA/MIS Doctoral Thesis out of lol.
Quick minor correction to the last sentence of my post above - should be "MBA/MIS or Doctoral Thesis".
Honestly, I'd probably find another job. You're going to bust your ass and get nothing out of this. You already sound like you're doing more than you really should. For some reason, and I might be wrong about this, it sounds like you'd rather be directing than doing the actual work. Obviously, to do that, you need a staff and a budget. I'm sorry to say this, but I don't think you'll be the one to get these. Here's what I think will happen. You're going to bust your hump doing tons of research, making proposals, doing your normal work, and generally going way above and beyond the call of duty. The powers that be (management) will tell you 'no' straight up. Why? Because what you propose costs money. A couple of years from now, you're going to be tired and burned out from balancing everything from network security to running around and changing wallpaper, and management will hire someone else to be your boss, to implement exactly what you proposed, only you have no say in it. You're going to resent it inside until either you finally quit, or your flip your lid and piss off someone above you and get fired.
I'd just move on to another job.
It's better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.
Yes - I saw the hint "manufacturer in Arizona"
Arizone is code in Telco-speak for 'Colorado'
You should be setting yourself up as an IS manager. Your responsiblities are:
a) Budget management: requirements management, hardware replacement cycles, new system project planning and justification, risk management.
b) Project management: planning to meet the company's IS requirements, keeping those project schedules
c) Service offerings: being the point of contact for other divisions, facilitating the leverageing of IS resources for business needs
You need to set up a few new roles. While some of these overlap, and don't necessarily need seperate personel for each, they should all be covered.
1) Desktop support: user level support of hardware and software.
2) System/Enterprise support: Administration of anything that runs on a server.
3) System Engineering: New project development
4) Network operations: Planning and administering the network
It sounds to me like you need to hire two new guys:
Windows desktop/server admin: to take roles 1 and 2, around here (DC) $40-$50K yearly.
Network/Systems engineer: to take care of roles 3 and 4, this one needs a decent networking background (CCNA w/ experience) and a fairly strong systems background. Around here I'd expect $70-$90K yearly.
You also asked how to get management buy in. Flesh out and work these points:
a) Risk management: creating things like network monitoring, and backup and recovery.
b) Capability expansion: The great falacy of IT is that it saves money, it doesn't very often. IT adds capability, and I'm sure that your business has at least a few things that are bottlenecking the rest of the works.
You have a lot of work ahead of you, good luck.
Spyder
I work for a small food manufacturing company and support 16 computers/users. They've been in business for over 25 years, and they're computer usage has slowly been developing. There's a lot of the tell-tale signs that they haven't had an organized IS department, ever.
1) Wide range of computers by spec (Mostly Win2k machines, 2 Win95 machines, Win2k Server, SBS 2003 server.)
2) Computer clutter everywhere.
Some of the older machines are sitting partially rebuilt/torn apart in the office. Cabinets full of old manuals/disks/floppies of programs, etc.
3) Unmanaged cabling. There's a few rat's nests that I still need to get to, and I eventually need to replace the 200ft line out to the Shipping/Receiving department.
4) Inadequate IS Budget. For a multimillion dollar company (gross sales), my budget totals $30,000 (not including my salary). A good portion of this is tied into depreciation of current equipment, the integrated T1, a couple leases, and an Anual License Fee for SYSPRO, their ERP software.
5) Homebrew 'programs'. Yes, there's lots of Access to be had here. There's actually 4 access databases that I can count right now. They pull partially from the SYSPRO database, and help generate some clean reports, but the structure of them was created by a 'tinkerer' who is the backup person to IS (and also the Accounts Receivable person).
I just started in November, and I got them to raise the IS budget by $10,000 (it was originally around $20k). Slowly I'm implementing new changes, but this is an older set of users, most people have been with the company at least 7 years, except the IS person (usually a college kid) which seems to rotate out every two years or so.
I'm also doing a bit of market research for them as well as being a project manager for R&D on new product rollouts, and backup to the Sales Order desk. I feel that there are some things that they're trying to load onto me simply because that's what the previous IS person did, was basically be the Office Manager and play backup to most of the positions except accounting and HR.
There is progress, and they seem somewhat willing to accept my ideas, it's just a matter of affording them and keeping them implemented without people slipping back into their old habits. It becomes difficult when 30% of the users don't speak english as their first language.
Any tips from people who've been there?
Gamer Transit Authority Any Game. Any System. Anywhere.
I'm sorry to inform the poster that, if the employees can't consider computers to be tools, you're not doing your job.
;)
Computers are tools, unless they're the product of your work.
Just like cables are tools to connect computers, unless it's your job to make the cables. In which case you'd probably use computers as a tool to make the cables
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
I have been with my present company for about 2 months and the disarray here makes it apparent that things were not done effectively, e-mail me and I can give you a call, I am also in Arizona, maybe we could swap stories over lunch. The main thing I emphasized first was infrastructure. E-mail me and I will discuss this with you
Thanks for the link to Google, I couldn't for the life of me find the url again! /me puts on his tin foil hat
Slashdot looks more and more like a pagerank bait these days...
...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.
It's not you: I'm just this horrifically socially awkward with everybody.
I have a scenario like yours -orchesta IT man-. But we are a medical setting. The mission here is to use technology to improve patients' care experience and stuff productivity, and only if it also means saving money. 4 Linux servers: Electronic Medical Records server (GPL product), file -and a miriad of applications- server, firewall appliance, backup. 1 Windows: legacy soft. 35 workstations. 1 Dvorak keyboard.
I know this is going to be hard to stomach, because you're overworked, but I'll charge on anyway.
The easiest way to deal with this is to make changes without them knowing about it, and just do your job. This sounds like an environment where it's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission. But, what you have to do is spend your time actually fixing problems first.
So, take your Christmas break, and on the first day, get good and drunk. Socialize, whatever. On the second day, when you're recovering from the food and alcohol induced coma. Then, make a mental invoentory of the following things:
Where the company is now.
Where the company is going. (this is very important).
What's currently broken.
Then, using point 2 (where the company is going) figure out what you need to be ready when the company gets there. As you're planning, make sure you can fix what's broken along the way. If your migration plans include switching away from the buggy email program to something a little more advanced, then include it. Then, when you have to fix someone's machine because that buggy email program is acting up again, let them know that the problem will be fixed by whatever month you've plotted out.
The first few months of this will be rough, because you're going to be breaking stuff left and right, and users are going to complain. But if you inform them that stuff's gonna break, they're generally ok with it. Then you have to spend time fixing it.
This is a good time to experiment. If you've wanted to try Linux for something, do it now. If you've wanted to buy one piece of hardware that you think you might need 5 of, try one now. Then, as problems start getting ironed out, you'll find your workload goes down, and then your job won't be so burdensome.
No matter what, sabotaging stuff is not the way to go here. All that does is alienate you from your users, and make your life harder. Your best bet is incremental improvement.
And, from having done this before....
A lot of your end-user issues will go away if you upgrade the memory in your end-user's machines. If you're running XP and Office in a machine with 256 MB RAM, then you need to buy more. I know this comment is going to set a lot of people off, but I've seen problems evaporate when you upgrade a standard office computer to 1 GB of RAM or more. That can free up an ungodly amount of time.
I apologize that this is some sort of disorganized ramble....
Reeses
If you only come into a new software solution at the implementation phase, you are in trouble!
Most people do not know what it takes when it comes to business software. An example: my former company wanted a time card solution for our hourly employees. The management shopped around and picked a solution. They gave the company a large monetary advance. We were then brought in to evaluate the time line for implementing the solution. Half way through the meeting, we found that MS SQL Server 2000 was required, which we didn't have. Licensing for MS SQL at that scale is rediculous, we dropped the price to management and they immediately scrapped the project.
If we would have been in the initial meetings, the company wouldn't have lost the money it spent.
The lesson: you have to stop stupid decisions when they are thought, not when they are expressed.
LOL!! Sounds like a PFY that hasn't been BOFH'd yet. BOFH
I've seen it time and again. Management ignores the good ideas of its employees. But when they, or you, hire a consultant who takes your ideas, writes them down and presents them in a report, they take the ideas seriously. Good luck.
Seems to me they don't WANT a true IS, they just think that's the name for the computer guys. Rather than changing your job to match your title, you should change your title to match your job. You do of course need help; as you say, you are burning out. But that doesn't mean what you should do at work is what you idealize as an "IS Manager". Sounds to me like if there were TWO of you, the workload would be fine.
Your membership card will be arriving shortly, welcome to the club.
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
Why not pick an outsourcing firm (local, regional or national) that will handle the Tier 1 Helpdesk stuff for a nomial fee so that you can handle the Systems admin work in relative peace.
;)
This is an Op-x for the management team; do not sign any contract longer than 90 days until you can prove to them it works and you get a feel for the provider. And do not use India or China, you do not want to deal with language intonation issues when changing culture.
Then focus on the long-term projects and process improvement. You will survive and prosper. Or be able to increase your own value in your next job...
Anonymous Coward who runs an outsourcing firm.
I feel for you, and totally relate to your situation. I think it would be ideal to start from the Disaster Recovery side of the problem and get them to implement a DR test. This would include only you as the recovery engineer and I think they would quickly see that having only one person with the expertise to bring systems online is stupid. Maybe even go so far as to have a small Disaster on a monday morning and make it so management are the ones affected. Quickly showing the cracks and faults in why only one man for that many computers is wrong....
Having dealt with many clients that do not see the potential of their computing services and stored data, it all boils down to financials.
I've found the best way to reach the great unwashed in the board room is to give it to them in terms they can understand (then give them a cookie, pat them on the head for being good and send them on their way). And that is money...
You have to present what you want to do in terms of how much money they will either save or make by implementing what you want to do. Really. It's a business process, more than anything else - else why have IS?
If you can't do that, then you will loose everytime even though you are "Right". Been there, done that, got the T-shirt (a closet full).
You can justify staff, just as easily as you can justify hardware if you play the game and show how this folds into their line of business to make the more profitable/competetive.
Then again, you mave have inherited a crew of Neanderthals that can't find their a$$ with both hands and a map. If that is the case, polish the resume and go elsewhere. You won't save people that can't see they are drowning.
YMMV...
Can't tell who you work for because you handle RFP's for the DOD? Go apply for credit with that line; I hope you don't disappoint easy.
/. has reported earlier that NASA has some DARPA funds; If you can make NASA happy, then you'll be happy to. Good Hunting, Good Luck.
Managers manage people, not machines. Technicians manage machines.
It looks like your part of a staff of 5 to 10 people; That's not wide spread. You can only negotiate from a power position.
You're asking the wrong question. You need to respond to an RFP from the CBD that requires wide spread coverage.
If things have been working fine (from their view) there is no reason to change. Change caries risk, and status quo has been working a-ok. After that many years static, there is little chance they are able to learn new tricks. A new person coming in might have a shot, but you don't. Work on your resume and start interviewing now. When you get a new gig, give your old place 2-4 weeks notice (depending on how nice they have been to you). DO NOT TAKE A COUNTER OFFER from your old company - that may be nice short term, but it almost never ends well.
Good luck.
If you can, write a proposal showing how the changes will save the company money. If you can't do this then the changes aren't needed. If you can do this and the managers don't agree to it then they are stupid. I beleive Henry Ford said "If you need something and don't buy it, then you pay for it without getting it." Simple.
in most brit companies, bloody IS is on a level with the cleaners
Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
Sorry to say, but #1, like it or not, is fairly universally true. However, this should not be interpreted as being looked down upon or devalued. It is a barrier put in place so that users do not turn you into their slaves. If their computer works and has network access, your job is done. This is a GOOD thing.
#2, also, is a good thing. Your job is not to sit through the endless meetings for product evaluations and internal software development. Your job is to make sure that whatever products are selected are compatible with your systems and if not, you make capacity recommendations. After they are purchased, it is your job to ensure they continue to run. Again, it is not your job to determine which products will be purchased and become the de facto 24/7 trainee/trainer. If Betty in accounting can't figure out how to use XYZ software that her boss selected, that's between Betty and her boss, not you. If they chose software because the interface was real perty, but later found out it sucks, that's their problem. If you recommended software that was flawless in functionality, but had an interface Betty couldn't figure out, guess who her boss blames? Hint: It ain't Betty. If the software installs and runs and doesn't take down the network, your job is over, enjoy your coffee and the satisfaction of knowing that Betty is the one getting fired, not you.
#3 may be a function of #1 and #2. To the degree that it is purely a function of keeping the machines running, you have a very clear case. That's a pretty large organization for one person. I've been in companies of only 200-300 people and the IS/IT department was 15-20 strong.
Basically, work within their expectations. Their perception of your department-of-one's duties is a fairly common one, but don't think that model came from management down. It is the result of the inevitable actions of people outside of IS/IT doing things that IS/IT simply does not have the time to support. If you try to insert yourself into that space, you will be crushed under the weight of stupidity -- AND YOU WILL BE BLAMED.
As having dealt with similar hurtles myself at a previous employer... this is what i would recommend: .. has a list of the hardware/software you will need with estimates/prices etc... Try to keep the CEO in the loop of everything you do.. if you make him/her feel like their part of the process, then they will be more willing to work with you on the needs of a real IS/IT dept. I understand a lot of this seems to be political towards management and whatnot however, sometimes when you have Engineers/managment that dont want to work with you... you have to twist their arm a little bit...
1:First of all, create an Agenda...Problems you see now with the current network... Standardization etc.. and provide a short descriptive resolution. This piece is for the other managers.
2.Take charge of your position... Schedule an appointment with the CEO of the company and maybe a few other people(as witnesses if you will). Talk to the CEO directly, let him/her know what its going to take to resolve your current issues that you see with the network, and the current status of the IS dept. Make it Known that you will require a staff..even 1 or 2 more people can make a huge difference.
3.Instill "the fear" if you will into the CEO...Make the CEO realize that if the changes that you need dont happen, that the company will not move ahead , and that will lead to their eventual demise within 10-15 years or less... Government contracts or not... The Government has standards that their contractors have to abide by as well. Make sure the CEO is aware of that last fact.(That should at least get em thinking)
4. Once you've done the above steps.. you should by this time..be given a title, and a Tech to work under you, and Some Authority. Buying power for software and hardware will come a bit later.. Make sure that the person who handles the accounts payable
My company followed a similar life cycle. Me and predecessor before me changed it from "Call I.T. after we mess everything up" to "Call I.T. to help with any project for advice."
We switched our companies thinking by years of proof and it was a real pain in the ass. The problem is how do you show them what an I.T. dept can do with out the staff to do it.
Here are some idea's.
1. Cost Savings - Technology can do one thing very well and that is save money. If you find ways the company can be more officiant and thus save money all management likes that. I am currently replacing legacy database in Access that were created before my time. Because of the flaws, the amount of man time wasted in trying to keep those things is amazing compared to how much it would have cost just to do it right the first time.
2. Dooms Day - Don't lie but be realistic on what would happen if something failed. Some companies need a good slap in the face to realize that their entire organization rely's on a computer. If those systems failed how much money the org would lose. Have they thought about what happens if you get hit by a train on Tuesday?
3. Competitors - Nobody likes being left behind so do your homework and try to find area's where you are currently lacking compared to other org's. This is one of those painful ones because being a one man show it does not feel good to say "we are not perfect" since they only to blame is you. The truth is you can only do so much so don't let that get to you.
4. Time - It's not going to happen over night so decide if your in it for the long hall.
Good luck
You should not have presented the proposal. Reason is that, since you have presented it, now you are responsible for implementation. Sadly you do not have the power to complete the proposal, so you're in trouble now.
In the worst case they did this intentionally: they'll wait for signs of failure and then sh**can you. In the best case they are merely amused and want to see how well you struggle with insufficient resources.
If you had wanted to keep the job, you should have kept your head down, shoulder to the grindstone, etc. Now you must leave; you have no choice. Gather up your pride and, while pretending to implement your proposal, quietly find a new position elsewhere [avoid management positions - you're not ready for them yet and may never be]. Do some reading on group behavior, e.g., How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It will save you lots of suffering.
The purpose of Information Systems is not connectivity or ROI but to solve problems for business users. Users all have jobs to do, and solving their problems is the job of Information Systems. How those problems are solved and how they are implemented is YOUR job. Your question of having a enough IS resources is a simple one really. You must track and measure what both you and your users are doing, how much effort is required to support them, and how much money it's costing. Design a method and process for measuring the important costly tasks and activities, collect the data over a few weeks, do an analysis of the data, then present it. If you are overburdened, your analysis should show this clearly.
Most people are motivated by only 2 things: love and fear. You need to appeal to both of these. The previous posters have mentioned an excellent way to appeal to their feal: paint a dismal scene for management that "could happen" if things don't change. Managers hate uncertainty. On the other hand, I'm sure you can appeal to their vision of where the company should be going. Tell them what you could do for them with the extra resources: reports (managers LOVE reports), backups (managers LOVE backups), organization, quicker response times, better application integration etc. If they don't buy this, there is no hope. Go start a company and tell your potential clients how you have single-handedly managed 100 users and workstations for years.
...is to write a business case for it.
Detail what's going on now, what you want to change, why the change will be better, and what could go wrong and what you intend to do if it does.
It will include costs, savings, milestones, and timelines.
It will have evaluation and disconnect points, where the project can be scrapped if it isn't working out.
Like this:
Currently our business utilizes six servers, located at points X, Y, and Z.
It is proposed to move these servers to point A. It is anticipated that the change will allow IT to more easily service the machines, attend to backup tapes in a faster way, and to secure the hardware in a central location.
Upon approval, the network in area X will be upgraded with blah blah, and preperations made for users of the server to access it via the network. On date blah, the server will be unavailable for blah blah hours while it is being backed up, then moved. A spare server has been made up in case server X should experience a failure during the move.
go on like that for all the servers.
Estimates of cost: We will require funds to upgrade the networks for switches, leased lines, and so on.
At each server move, management should evaluate the impact before authorizing the next step.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Sadly these days, with all the compliance laws on the books, it may be fastest to invoke the prospect of liability problems to break the logjam. I don't know how small a company these things reach down to, but given the US gummint, I suspect it's pretty far down.
Senior management in your business sees IS (probably rightly so) as a cost center, not as an opportunity to drive innovation or efficiencies. The only thing that could change that would be new ownership. You've outgrown that job and the only way you'll get the challenge you're looking for would be to go elsewhere.
You're banging your head against the wall. If you want more of a challenge, get a new job. If you like working there, then learn to live with it. Those are your only options.
If you think you can change that, you're fooling yourself. In that case, I'd recommend counselling or increasing your monthly budget for scotch. Either will probably work.
21st-Century-Citizen
The title is a little tongue-in-cheek, but I was amused by your observation that "We've worked a number of years solely on manufacturing and assembly clients and they're the absolute worst in believing that technology can make them more profitable." Because, the whole idea behind the Industrial Revolution was the concept that you could use technology to make production of goods *much* cheaper, faster, and on a massively larger scale.
;-) ).
I think IS *generally* isn't involved to a great deal in the production side of the business (although I think it is becoming more so - I'm sure the parent would have more knowledge about this than I), but I would just tend to think that manufacturing businesses would be always at the forefront of using technology to make business more profitable, as that is the whole concept behind modern manufacturing.
I also think, if the mindset you mentioned is wide-spread in the industry, it might explain to a large extent why US 'hard-industry' is having such difficulty competing against foreign competitors . . . because those foreign competitors might be out-revolutionizing them (in addition to having cheaper labor
What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?
People, in general, in the business world fear change. What you are proposing is a big change. You can't change a thing until management is ready for it. However, you can plant seeds. For example, you can mention how great an easy it would be to have a network to easily and securely share data (assuming that you don't have a network). Mentioning licensing and how much money the company could lose if employees are using software for which the company did not purchase or does not have enough licenses.
when they are ready, they will be more receptive to your ideas. But until then, you might as well talk to a wall.
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
First off I'd define better terminology.
IS - Information Services/Systems - tend to deal with business applications (development, vetting, purchasing, etc. Proportion of each role being dependent from what I've seen on size of business. If you don't do in-house app development then that aspect doesn't apply to you), business systems (ordering, ERP, payroll), and management of the aspect of the business tied in with computing as a tool to forward the companies business goals.
IT - Information Technology - deals with the physical aspects of computing. Hardware, networks, disks, etc. This is where you tend to find sysadmin, network admin, and those folks that make sure the blinky lights can blink.
Facilities deals with the the physical space and items like power and cooling.
YMMV of course. If you are a one person shop you're going to be doing most of the above (note in your case though how the lack of management authority divorces you from the aspect of computing tied into achieving business goals).
Now, speaking as someone that's done sysadmining, software development, and management I think your view is off. You are trying to do the technical work and not tie it back into how the company makes money. That's fine if that's what you want to concentrate on but don't pretend there are no other aspects to using computers as a business tool. Also if that's the area (technical) you wish to stake out then don't think for a second you are going to get to call the shots. That's for someone with a broader view that can see how IS/IT ties into the dollars that pays salaries (as a best-case) or for the guy that has to come up with the budget for all your connectivity (as a worst and all-too-often case).
Look to the big companies to see what computing means and how to structure IS/IT for your shop (and as part of the business). The size of the shop is different but all that means is that the bigger companies have to break out the parts that need individual management into individual groups. What's telling is where those boundries form and the roles that get created to manage computing at that scale. As a one person shop you'll have to wear all the hats but at least you'll have learned what the hats' roles are and how they fit into the whole.
-CZ
> "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 ..
..
..
This is your biggest mistake. Why would management want the disruption and expense of change when they have you doing the work for a whole IT department. If you are working late evenings and weekends then that makes it even worst.
[...]
> 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
> Can I institute change here?
Short answer is a big NO. You see if people have been doing the same thing for over six years change is anathema for them. I've had similar attitude from business I've been hired on to make the IT processes more efficient. 'We want't you to upgrade the system but we don't want to change anything.
On a smaller scale I one wrote a VB applet that generated unique invoices, printed out two copies one for the customer and one for the internal records and saved an electronic version to a table. This was to be used for the quarterly VAT returns. You just added up two columns total sales, total VAT and subtracted the one from the other. To use it you fired up a screen, clicked on 'new`, filled in the details and clicked 'print`. Nothing could be simpler. It was designed to be manager proof.
The previous system consisted of someone typing out word documents and saving them under inv001.doc, Inv002.doc etc. The subtotals and totals row had to be calculated on a calculator. Once a quarter the accounts clerk would list them all to the screen and tote up on a calculator. I went back there months later and this idiot was still using the 'old` system. You see he'd never learned anything new since leaving school at sixteen and wasn't going to start to do so now.
That reminds me of an Architect who learned Autocad in school on Windows 3.0 so would save every file as a123.dwg, a124.dwg etc all in the C:\Progra~1\Autocad\ folder. I had to drive five miles accrss town to help him search for an old document. No kind of advice could persuade him to change his work methods. You see like you I had no authority and besides I would always be available to do it.
Once a month he would erase Autocad in an effort to copy a file. He also couldn't understand how keeping eight hundred MEGs of DWG files in his INBOX would crash Outlook.
I've talked to an industrial psychiatrist who gets hired by big organisations to try and therapize the workers into changing. Stagnation was that endemic that they needed therapy.
The thing is that they don't care that you are working yourself into an early burnout. The only way out of this is to get promoted by moving employeers. You see the other fella would never thing of promoting his own people. He would rather hire in under the assumption that no-one working for him can be any good. Same reason your own employer won't give you that promotion. Find another job pronto. Don't tell your current employeers you are going until the job is in the bag else they'll phone your new employeer and tell lies about you.
> I've done my Google searches; went back to traditional books from Barnes and Noble
The thing is that these traditional books are a work of complete fiction. If you want to see a more realistic depiction of the work experience you can do no better than the spoof television documentary 'The Office`.
Cliff we have all seen you post several times. You seem reasonable enough but you don't seem to have an official degree in management or "IS". You are dealing with engineers they still see you as a flunky they hired to do what they don't have time to do themselves. To them you are much like an office assistant. You want to get more resources and more respect around highly educated people. Get highly educated yourself. IT certifications don't really mean crap to people outside of IT unless you have a BS or MS to back it up.
did you show them the numbers? IF your upper managers are sensible, then showing them financial gains should win them over or at least make them stop and think. of course youll probaly need to do so in a way that they like to see and are used to seeing.
Slashdot is read by people around the world, and some of us don't have English as our primary language. It is difficult sometimes to find the meaning of an acronym, and moreso with something as short as "IS"
Measuring usability for fun and profit.
Software EULAs are designed to prevent software from having anything resembling a warranty. I think you mean, "is technical support available".
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Yes you can, however if the usual avenues you have tried then you need to fail. I don't mean you sit there, do nothing and wait till you get fired but produce a list of every single task that you have scheduled and then budget your time so that you do not run around getting stressed.
If something is going to miss a deadline, tell the owner of it. If they complain then tell them that they can escalate it. This will invariably mean that someone will come knocking wanting to know why that person is complaining. So sit them down, show them everything you need to do and what you can achieve in the next day and two days.
Don't let them bully you into doing more so that you end up stressed out. Point out to them that this is as much work as you can do and if they want you to do more then either they can sit with you every week and prioritise your work load or you need extra support.
Chances are they'll go for the prioritising. Let that happen every week. Do not let them dictate by which day you can do something, get them to order the tasks from the most important to the least and budget for the same amount of time. When people complain, you tell them to take it to the manager for re-prioritisation.
It's a long slow process, but eventually your manager will come to realise that you have far too much on your plate and he can't please everyone. When that time comes, you'll get your support.
Final comment: If you always manage to deliver everything on time, your management will assume you are perfectly capable of handling the workload and will not give you the support you require. Don't get stuck in a rut like I did, where I was stressed and overworked but because I delivered, no-one was prepared to give me the additional headcount I desperately required.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
1) In most companies, the job of IS is to help the company make money. So I can see where you have a difference of opinion. Sometimes the job is to make it easier or possible for the company to make money.
2) IS (like security) is a cross functional group and is involved with every group in the company at some level. Because your job is to make their job easier. Computers are like a lever or other tool to make work easier, you help them figure out how to use this force multiplier or lever (or make it easier to use the lever).
3) If you are overloaded you need better time management goals and prioritization. Sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better. If you implement some things that save administration time with top priority, you may get more back logged at first, but the queue will clear as the time savers kick in. You need to switch from reactive mode to proactive.
Making the switch from reactive to proactive takes time, money, smarts and a smooth political hand.
Check out this book:
http://www.everythingsysadmin.com/
it has invaluable practical advice for all of these problems. It is not specifically a technical book.
-A
I worked for a non-profit company and was treated the same way. I was the Network/Systems Administrator, I was supervised by the MIS Manager, and his boss of the Chief Financial Officer.
(Despite the crappy heirachy of having an MIS manager supervised by the CFO) Any ideas or solutions I had were almost always blocked. When I asked for more or better help, that was blocked too. Not only that, the pay wasn't all that great either. And it wasn't until I gave them my resignation letter that they wanted to take me more seriously.
Needless to say, my end result (after 5 years) was that I quit the job. They didn't deserve me.
If they need to hire someone, it sounds like they will hire a friend or a friend of a friend.
From what you have written, you are kidding yourself if you think they are going to give you more power or pay you more.
Sounds like they are using you pretty good. So long as things continue to run smoothly, why should they make any changes?
At some point in your career, you need to learn not to be used. I would look for a way to declare victory and move on in your career. If you want to go into management, make that your next move.. elsewhere.
I have worked in a couple of companies before, so here you go.
1) Create a ticket logging process. *ALL* users must use it. Use a web enabled tool like RT(Check in google) to make it simple. This will help you to justify your work to management.
2) Prepare and maintain an inventory list of all servers in a document. Inform the management and users that no updates will be done without consulting you., since you are the system administrator!
3) Hire an intern to do part time, and work over the weekends
Being overloaded with 93 users and 110 workstations tells me that you are most likely working under some really cheap owners.
I'd come at them from a cost savings angle. If that doesn't work and you plan on staying then I suggest a solid medical plan with low co-pay's, no deductibles and good references to psycho therapists. Also, maintain a complete CYA file of everything that crosses you desk/PC and watch them like a hawk for the knife in the back when it comes so as to take as many down as you can to increase your severance package. Don't be afraid to hold there information hostage either, you know they would drink your mothers blood given the chance.
What is IS? Is IT IS and is IS IT? It is IT.
The key difference between a Programmer and a Senior Programmer is that one of them is Mexican.
1. Keep quitting as a last resort. Quitting is only necessary when it is clear that nothing will EVER change. I quit a job when my stress level got too high and it was obvious that the company was never going to change its practices of using Windows NT4.0 until the return of Christ.
2. Take stock of your environment. Note everything that can go wrong and make sure that your boss knows that you have a preventative solution. Try to come up with a good/better/best solution for each of these issues. WHEN (not if) these situations happen and you demonstrate that the problem could have been avoided - virus/worm attack, lost data due to hard drive crash, slow response due to slow server, etc. - you can whip out your solution and more than likely, at least the bottom level solution can be implemented.
3. Don't be afraid to learn new things. My previous boss hated tapes for backups - he felt that they were always unreliable and prone to failure. He had me go 100% disk-based with removable disks for redundancy/off-site storage. I gave in after fighting this for a bit. I just knew a good tape system could be productive but he pays the bills. It turned out great and I learned a great new backup paradigm for small networks.
4. Learn, learn, learn.
5. Find ways to demonstrate the importance of your job function.
6. If all else fails, ignore my advice on #1 and walk.
4.
If this is your view of the world, become a CCIE and forget about IS management.
Why your management hasn't fired you yet, I don't know. It would seem that you have a "my way is the better way" attitude, and really are not looking at the big picture. While limiting your exposure to the "other divisions" will limit the workload, it will end up alienating the people who you support (and probably generate the cashflow that helps pay your salary). Eventually, they will begin to implement systems without your support, because it is too difficult / time consuming to involve you. This will in effect reduce your value, making any change you want to implement even more difficult.
If you want to play MIS, I recommend you go out and get some ITIL training, or at least get some work experience going on. You use the term Information Systems, but it really seems you are focusing on Systems Administration. Maybe your employer should hire someone to manage you and your resources, and hopefully you can learn a thing or two.
Also, not involving yourself in the development of applications, or in some terms Information Systems, is a really bad idea. Basically, you will have crap dumped on you, and it will by nature become your problem.
Probably about the only valid point you have, but you are going around it the wrong way. You need another peer to help carry your load. Present two scenarios to your manager. First, discuss the workload you have, and also throw in that you cannot concentrate on connectivity and implementing new systems at the same time. Second, throw in the whole "hit by a bus" angle. How many people understand the system?
Once you have a peer, eventually the company will realize you need a manager, and will either promote or hire someone into the slot.
--WooooHoooo--
If you are not in the IT business, then your goal as a manager/owner is to minimize your costs (real and "soft") to the absolute lowest point possible that is bearable. If, on the other hand, your business is IT (ie: consulting company or something), then you might put much more into it.
This isn't rocket science. IT, for most companies, is a cost center. Treating it as otherwise is bad for business and will lead you to spend lots of dollars with little return. THIS IS HOW IT HAS BEEN AND HOW IT WILL BE IN THE FUTURE.
There's very little place for a hub in any shop with more than a few dozen computers, but if a small shop has a hub and that part of the lan isn't saturated, there's no need to replace it with a cheap switch just for the sake of getting rid of the hub.
Reasons to ditch a hub:
1) homogeneous environment (i.e. every other device is a brand-xyz model-abc switch or brand-xyz model-def router, and this is a brand-efg hub)
2) component is failing or cannot be serviced
3) component unsuited for task, e.g. network is saturated, or you need a managed device
4) other reasons, such as physical size or power usage (old hub = big and bulky, new switch = small and trim)
The last two are probably the most common reasons to change.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
"By my continued presence here, am I enabling this disfunctional management model?" Let the answer be your guide.
Sounds to me like these folks need some "schoolin'", and they ain't gonna get it if the smart kid at the next desk is doing their homework for them.
I'm not sure 1:100 is so bad.
... so 100 isn't that much of a stretch.
I admin an outfit with some 40 employees single handed. This includes all server admin, desktop support, most software purchasing and upgrades, and a fair bit of in-house development into the bargain. Full time, I expect I'd be able to handle twice that many users
That said, I suspect a desktop support tech would save them money at that load level by letting their admin focus on more important things.
Cliff, I was facing similar issues a few years ago - only management was made up of Attorney's of various kinds. You are not alone. The good news is that the industry is changing. Recent articles in Slashdot, InfoWorld and others are showing that. Some companies are slow to respond, but things are getting better for IT personnel. Here's what I recommend: 1) Don't jump ship. If the pay is good, stay with it and work it out. 2) Do your homework. Engineers are visual people - charts and graphs in a Powerpoint presentation will carry more weight than a detailed email proposal. This give your experience some "meat" with a well planned presentation. If you can't quantify ROI for funding a project, then stick with how it affects client deliverables. 3) Find out what the clients require. Are there government standards you are supposed to meet? What about any contracts, SLAs or other expectations of deliverables? Obviously your clients don't know about your issues. If they did, management would be afraid of losing the deal(s) and you'd get all the funding you'd need to do your job. This is even more important since you are a government contractor. Don't use it as a bribe, just a tool to get the technology you need. 4) Industry standards show that it takes one systems administrator to manage 35-50 desktop computers. There should be a minimum of TWO of you for redundancy sake. (Why have a tape backup of your data but not a human backup?) Good luck, SR
Step one: keep detailed records. Talking about how you're overloaded doesn't count unless you have records.
Step two: sometimes you need to stop fighting fires long enought to turn off the gas. Anything that isn't on your official scope gets dumped. If things fall apart, it makes your case for you.
Step three: document your risks. What worked for me was doing a license audit on the Company. It was easy because there was no license accounting. One quick reference to the material at the BSA's website got me enough data to start putting a risk analysis together. YMMV.
That last is the paydirt. Your job isn't to keep things running (which implies always being behind), it's to keep things from falling apart in the first place. Which, in turn, implies having up-to-date risk assessments.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
If a network supporting a few hundred pc's is considered to be small I must be living in a different world ..... anyway - if in such similiar circumstance they are unwilling to spend more than 'a few grand' on networking equipment (ignoring linux it's probably closer to 20k anyway for pix + few routers'n'switches depending on your exact implementation) then find another employer as you surely won't succeed in the grand scheme of things.
Seriously, sounds like a place I use to work for. Underpaid and overworked. Management didn't want to spend more money or hire more people. I didn't have a vacation in three years, working at times 10 hours a day and some weekends to boot. I went on a two week vacation. Came back, they sat me in and gave me a $25K raise right there. Then they asked what we needed. Some of the items were actually done, like hiring teams of people to do the work that a few were doing. Nothing like going away for a bit, and being unreachable to make people appreciate you more.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. --Edmund Burke
The IT department looks after computers, the software that runs on them, and the networking that joins them together. The IS department looks after database, CRM, ERP, Oracle, etc, big applications. The OP is getting his acronyms messed up.
I strongly disagree. The main job of IS is "Information Systems". Connectivity is there to *enable* the use of information systems - email, files, printers, databases. The network must run *because* all these systems must run so the business can run. Now, if you were a "network admin" or some similar title/department, then I would agree with your statement but you seem to be going for something bigger than that.
"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."
Again, I strongly disagree. IS/IT/whatever should be involved with the analysis and/or development of applications way before they are ever even thought of going near the network or being installed. What if this Access developer spent 6 months making some new database that was accessed over some WAN link that was in fact going to change in the near future? Or what if someone in purchasing decides on some fancy new purchasing application, spends months evaluating it, and then says "install it". Unfortunately, the application requires some server, or connectivity, or something that IS/IT does not approve of. You simply cannot expect non-computer types (i.e. MOST people in business) to make good technology decisions all the time. You need to help them and be a consultant. Granted, you may not have the time, but that's a different issue...
"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)"
One member of staff for this environment does seem very light to me. However, I recommend that you take things a little more slowly as it seems these people are resistant to change - so perhaps attempt to hire one low-level Helpdesk technician.
I'm not 100% sure of the approach you're taking but it does seem a little strong and confrontational. For example, if you're taking the approach that the company is in the dark ages and out-dated and so on, then you're telling your boss that they are incompetent and know nothing about IT/IS. That may in fact be true, but it doesn't help you get what you want. Instead, take the approach that the needs of the company have changed from what they used to be (make something up if you have to) and therefore you are suggesting these changes so that the infrastructure can address those needs for the future. Be specific and use examples. Just don't bitch or whine about the past, because the people you're talking to are the ones that set up the past! Instead, focus on the future! What the BENEFITS of the changes you propose. Try not to put your boss(es) on the defensive. Once they give a strong "NO" or strongly disagree with you, you are fighting an uphill battle. Instead, find common ground, find common sense of purpose regarding what you want the future to be like, and *then* move slowly with changes that are needed to get to that future.
Then quit. ;)
1. If you're not doing so already, document everything you see problems with. When the shit hits the fan months after you've warned your superiors about a developing problem they ignored, it feels REALLY GOOD to forward the original emails to the entire management mailing list after they start bitching and moaning and pretending they don't know what you're talking about.
2. Start looking for other jobs, preferably something better than what you're doing (either more money for the same bullshit, or less stress for the same amount, whatever floats your boat).
3. Once you have hard offers you like, stall. Tell them you need time to finish current projects with your employer, maybe 4 weeks. After all, you don't want to burn any bridges, right? Most potential employers serious about hiring you will respect and appreciate your honesty and ethics, and wait for you.
4. Immediately schedule vacation time after you received an offer; at least a full work week, preferably a week and a half. Can't get the vacation authorization? Make something up! Death in the family, jury duty, whatever it takes! Immediately get out of that office by any means necessary for at least a week after you've received an offer! Turn your phone or blackberry off during that time, do not check your email! Do nothing special to prep for your absence anymore than you would for a typical weekend. You want your coworkers to start fires while you're gone, so make sure you leave plenty of matches and kindling around, ok?
5. After you get back and put out the remaining fires, immediately schedule a meeting. Be insistent and pushy, accept no brushoffs. Make that meeting happen! Make sure you're prepared and have your homework done, address your concerns, back up your claims with your documentation. Tell them exactly what you want.
You'll now have all the leverage, and they'll have none. If they refuse, tell them you recieved another offer but don't want to leave the company, yet feel as if they're "backing you into a corner". Tell them you "beleive in the company and it's potential", "..truly want to see it succeed", "..help take it even further". But you can't do it without the right tools or salary, and their refusal to help you leaves you with no other choice. Either way you win. In the end they'll either cave, or you'll be in a better job while they're stuck with a piece of shit infrastructure falling apart, and some other schmuck will get conned into taking it over and have to deal with the same bullshit you dealt with for 6 years. My demands were not met, so I graciously bid my previous employer farewell and left my dead-end sysadmin job with a company treading water, using old-ass equipment that can barely be upgraded for fear of paralyzing every system. That company is now in danger of being split apart and the pieces being sold off. Their dilapidated IT infrastructure, with ignorance of my complaints for 4 years and waiting until the last minute to overhaul our infrastructure, is mostly to blame. My former coworkers are scrambling to find other work out of fear they'll be sold out of their current jobs.
I'm now working as a network engineer making far better money, in a fast-rising company filled with abundant opportunities to work with bleeding edge technology every day.
Good luck to you!
Your execs are shortsighted individuals, to put it charitably, if they haven't thought about what would happen if you became gravely ill or seriously disgusted and disappeared for a while - - or permanently. Management succession is an important part of business strategy. The last thing a rising company wants to see is progress undone as a key player leaves, taking vital knowledge with him. I've seen it happen many times, and the setbacks can reverberate through a business for months. Backups aren't just for data. This can be seen as lessening your value in the operation, but eventually you'll burn out. And that doesn't look good to anyone.
It's only funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious.
I don't like to flame anyone, but most companies I know of use a ratio of about 1 MIS person for each 200-250 workstations. That's just the way it works out. Frankly, you haven't even convinced a bunch of computer nerds what the real problem is. No way you could justify a "clerk" position with the type of environment you're in. Maybe an additional tech for helpdesk purposes, but what would a clerk do, other than the day-to-day work that you don't want to do? Sounds lazy. Not only that, but your attitude of not being involved in other areas of the company would certainly prompt me to hire someone above you, not beneath.
Hate to tell you, it will not be possible. The people that run companies today are the lowest common denominator. Trust me, we've been down that road at a place I used to work at.. We had an executive that "oversaw" our department. She was the EVP of Administration.. Admin, the people who make sure you have pencils at your desk and that the copier machine is stocked with paper- the same people who have NO CLUE about IT operations. It got so bad that my boss and she would butt heads on a daily basis. He wasn't very outright about the situation to the senior staff, but people generally knew why he left. Then came me, I'm a bit more outspoken. I was the second person hired for that department when the company started in 2003. Again, said EVP was doing things that did not make sense, and that was bad for the overall quality of service we provided not only for us, but our tenants. I warned most of the entire executive staff that when I left, it would be the end of that department, and the only way I'd stay was to change leadership.
Needless to say I've left, the service level has dropped, no one understands how any of the infrastructure works (They now have level 1 helpdesk guys trying to do network troubleshooting, and moving people to the wrong vlans, etc), they moved into another building and 200 people were without phone service, etc..
Last I heard one of the tenants is going to file a lawsuit, and that EVP is still running the show- they simply won't get rid of her despite the 1000s of costly mistakes that caused 3 people to leave now.
Unless I am ramping up production or otherwise increasing my reliance on computers, I would be unwilling to hire two more bodies and to form a new department. If you can show that the use of computers has grown and has reached a large enough point to warrant another body, I would consider it. This is especially true if the body is an assistant or technician. If you want two bodies, you will need a road map and some metrics for current trends. Even then, I will probably schedule such hiring to occur over a two-three year period.
You have to speak management's language and create yourself a business case, then sell it. IT/IS/MIS/whatever is a business function like anything else. Find the $s in terms of productivity, licences, hardware costs, or whatever. If the money's there and you can prove it, it will be an easy sell. If you are supporting 100 it will be easy to find at least $1K/person and that's $100K in seed money to get you started. If the money's not there, you haven't looked hard enough.
"You disturb me to the point of insanity. There. I am insane now." - The Sprockets
Here are a few suggestions:
I would agree with all the folks saying brush up the old resume, but that would be just in case you can't pull off what you need to pull off.
One poster who said, more or less to put on the old management hat and sell, sell, sell has got the right idea, but before you go in to sell you need to feel out what management really thinks is valid so you aren't trying to sell an import car to a domestic car person.
Let's look at each point you raised.
So all they think they want is connectivity. Well, think of all the other things they are overlooking here and make a list. Basic user support, security, anti-virus, anti-spyware, patching, license management (a good example of the potential costs of being caught with 1 licenses copy of office and 100 installs helps here. Be sure you don't make it sound like a threat!), Application installs, hardware support, etc, etc, etc.
Just point out the real world costs of this. It should be easy to find cases of where this has bitten the company, and if they really believe in item 1, then management has stated that you should not be dealing with this.
Well, you don't want to sound like a whiner. In the past I have addressed this by telling my management that I can do 1 of 2 things. 1. I can continue to do a half assed job on everything, or 2. I can do a top notch job of the most important things, and just let the other things fall on the floor.
So, what you need to do is sit down with your management, make it clear to them on terms they can understand that things are not efficient, secure, or maintainable, and spell out what needs to be done to make things work in a manner that will benefit the company by lowering costs and keeping people spending 100% of their time doing what they were hired for, instead of 80% job and 20% IT. (If you aren't there that ratio will change dramatically.)
You need to walk out of that meeting with them understanding the importance of IT to the bottom line. They need to be willing to say to the rest of the company, that changes are going to be made and that that is not up for discussion.
If they still don't get it, start looking for other work. Management that doesn't get the value of IT even after it's been explained to them is never going to get it until it's too late. If the coming catastrophe hits while your there, they will blame you. If it hits after you have left, they will either blame you or beg you to come back and save them, or both. You probably don't want to be associated with them when it happens in either way.
Lastly, if you go, spend those last 2 weeks documenting all the things that need to be done and hand that into management on your way out. Always keep your most professional foot forward.
Eschew Obfuscation
First, write an IT Manifesto that describes the reason your dept exists. Get Management to approve this.
Second, using the Manifesto, develop goals related to it and the business model of the company.
You are in your position because the company produces invoices. Make the process of doing business at your business easier and everything else will fall into place.
Question:
> What is the best way for new IS managers
> to convince their superiors of the need
> for widespread change?
Answer:
Show them how much money you will save the company by formalizing the IS department.
The upper layer of managers do not care how cool the new technology is, nor how good easy it is to set up a computer. It must remembered that the main objective of most corporations is to maximize returns--cutting cost of operations is the best way to increase profits. Therefore any change that needs to take place, needs to be accompanied by the phrase: "This change will cut our costs by ENTER_YOUR_NUMBER_HERE%, because ENTER_YOUR_REASON_HERE."
If your proposal can't say how much and how, then forget about it...
Esta es una firma en Espanol.
1. Check out the whitepaper by Tom Berray on the different types of CIO's ... http://www.brixtonspa.com/Career/The_Role_of_the_C TO_4Models.pdf. This should give you some context as to what type of organization you are in. Adapt your mindset to your organization or you'll be unhappy for quite some time.
2. Underlying all of the differences, are these people reasonable? If they aren't, no amount of research will support your effort. If they are, it will work out in the end.
I recently had to present to our Executive Team (CEO, CFO, all the Sr. VP's, etc) on the status of IT. Now, a bit of background. I was hired as the IT Manager to fill a need for an internal IT dept back in August of '04. The reasoning was two fold: Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance and the need to spend less on outsourced IT (they had no internal IT dept). Now, I report to the CFO, who is a brilliant man and realizes the need for IT (go figure). But, as we all know he is in the minority. I find a lot of us (IT folk) only see things from our eyes and expect everyone sees it the same way. We know we are important to the well-being of the company. We know without us things would deteriorate. We know we deal with other peoples problems all day long. But they don't. One of IT managements most important jobs (IMHO) is to help them see through our eyes. Make the Exec's realize our importance because if we don't help them, they never will. Nor will they ever have a desire to. Here's the deal, they have a company to run. If they need something from IT, they expect us to be at their call. Yes, that's one of our jobs, but in their minds, at that moment, it's our only job. Make them see that we have a billion other things going on. Show them Metric's if possible for help calls logged. Show them server up-time statistics and compare them to other companies. Show them SPAM prevention statistics (if possible) because if they relate to anything, it's email. For instance, I showed them during my presentation that we have prevented over 2 million spam emails from entering the workplace since 1/1/05. Those are numbers they take a look at and start to realize without you, that would be an inbox full of crap they don't want to deal with. Bring IT into their daily lives; make them realize what it would be like without IT and then they will start to realize the need for a quality IT dept. I also brought hard numbers into play. While all the other departments are spending money (marketing, sales, etc) I showed them that by bringing me in-house, I was able to save them $230,000 in outsourced IT. I then showed them that if you take my salary, my sys admins salary (I brought on in February), and all the project cost from this year you are still left over with money. That's the kind of thing they pay attention to. And trust me, I did a TON of project work (complete domain rebuild, Exchange 2003, many more). I also moved all our phone lines over to a good 3rd party provider and asked them to do a cost analysis versus AT&T for me. It came out that the phone moves will end up saving the company around $2,700/month. Numbers, they love numbers. Wherever you can get them and if they relate, put them in. The more technical we are the more they fade out from what we are saying. Bring our world down to the business level. Once you do that, everything should start to fall into place.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I see three things here that tell me you're not communicating very well with management, and possibly that the way you're selling your message is influencing management's decisions to go against you. I realize this is a Slashdot, um, whine, and not a professional presentation, but if your attitude here is carrying through to your talks with management, you may be half the problem.
1. You say management thinks you have no issues because everything's running, but you're falling apart keeping things running. You clearly have not explained what it is you are doing well enough to management for them to understand just how busy you are. Keep daily log books. Get somebody to follow you around for a short time and show them just what it is you're doing if you have to. Be prepared to answer the inevitable, "Why do you have to do that?" questions. You'll probably also have to explain why it's taking you so much more time to keep on top of things than it took the "hobbyist" before you.
2. Don't use phrases like "guide us out of the dark ages". You're setting yourself up as an "enlightened leader" compared to your "primitive cavemen" bosses with this kind of talk. You win nobody over to your arguments this way.
3. As an engineer myself, I'd take issue with the dismissive tone you take to management being made up of engineers rather than having a CTO or CIO. Especially if there are some computer-savvy electrical engineers in that group, who may know just enough about IS to be able to question you on some of the things you want to do (though this might somewhat conflict with my first point). Tailor your message to your audience; the argument that works with a CIO because he understands the theory behind some computer security policy you want to implement may not work with the engineer who wants to know how that policy will affect how he does his job. If these engineers have brought this company to its now modest size, I would hope they're not completely clueless managers who just happen to have friends in high places. Chances are they're doing something right, which may well include a decision not to bog themselves down with an overly restrictive IS group, and you should acknowledge that.
All that said, maybe you're right that your bosses don't have a good grasp of IS and are operating on some bad assumptions, and that it will catch up with them eventually. If they really won't listen to your professional opinions on the matter, you may have to move on.
If you're creating an IS dept. It's time you start looking into ITIL See here for more info: http://www.itil.co.uk/ From what you describe of your situatiom, you're the only guy running the show. You need to start establishing a framework within your org to start managing IS/IT in an organized manner. ITIL provides a framework for which to do so. Trust me, you'll find this useful. Whether your company likes it or not, it has reached a critical point where it depends on it's IT infrastructure more than it thinks it does. You've gone beyond being the only admin running the show. The smart thing is to get their buy in on treating IS/IT like an asset and managing it correctly.
:)
My 2c
That sums it up... after 5 yrs of (whatever) "management" you should be able to see what you need, and should have a reasonable idea of how to get it. If you don't, then you're not really mgmt material (except of course as a pointy haired boss.)
Sorry, it's monday, and I'm not feeling up to sugar coating it. In a nutshell, decide where you want the department to go in the next say, 3 yrs. And make a plan, take that plan to managmenet and get a move on. No one else here knows what your company is like, no one knows exactly what hurdles you might face. So sorry, you'll have to do the work yourself. But more importantly you'll have to do *something*.
You and your management need to read The Practice of System and Network Administration by Limoncelli and Hogan (Addison-Wesley). It has chapters that cover this kind of thing. (I'm biased since I'm an author.)
Allowing failures is one way to establish the value of IT operations, because that is guaranteed to get management attention, but it's the kind of attention that will only benefit your successor because clearly *you* can't handle the job.
So you need to educate your management.
Take the list of impacts and get management to rank them. Dollar impact, or just "Very Bad/Bad/Annoying/Don't care"
Then you take your risks and likelihoods, and you build a map. High impact, and High likelihood means something ought to be done. Low Impact, Low Likelihood, and nobody really needs to care.
Once you've done that, you have a map that shows your current state. So now, show what you can *DO* about the high end issues. So by hiring a backup guy, you guys are covered if you get hit by a bus. By developing a disaster plan, you guys will ready for a hurricane hit, or a terrorist attack. By getting IT involved in the development/requirements process, you can get extra time to qualify technologies or select software, or you can help them understand which requirements are real, and which ones are for a mauve database, and avoid the situation last year where they wasted $50k on a package that nobody used.
Ultimately, it's about showing non-trivial and sustained value, just like any other part of a business should be operating.
Presenting Risk in that kind of format is a very easy way to get people to understand and accept that value, as well as giving them next steps for how to make it so. (Just make sure your map looks out over years or else you're justifying a one-time effort instead of an ongoing group.)
Also, sometimes doing that kind of risk assessment shows that it just doesn't matter enough. At which point you can accept status quo or not.
Time to update the ol' resume and make for the exits.
Why? As long as you're still getting paid (hourly), and the checks don't bounce, who cares who crappy the company is, or in what kind of financial straits they're in. I think that's rotten advice in today's economy. If your hands are tied, and you can't do anything, then so what? I never understood IT people who feel that if they're not in charge, then they shouldn't be working there. Suck it up, be happy you have a job, and remember that you're just an employee... a grunt... important, but no more important than anybody else there. Unless you're at an IT company (software, hardware, etc.), then IT IS just a support service that costs money, and should be minimized, just like power, phone, etc.
I don't respond to AC's.
I was sitting at an meeting for IS with a large corporation and finally figured out what IS is to the company. IS is a child, they should never be heard or seen. They are not included in what grown-ups do. The only time they are noticed is when something is broken. In theory that is right, our job is to make sure that IS is not noticed. Providing seamless connectivity and services so that the footprint we leave behind is minimal. What I don't think that most major corporations understand is unless IS becomes a stakeholder in all activity then IS will be unable to do its job. I need to see forecasts for manpower, planning is critical to my being able to perform my job. I want to be proactive, but unless I get an idea of the what is coming up (it amazes me how few people actually have plans) I cannot provide the services they desire within the time frame (i want it, and I wanted it yesterday)
What you need is not to create an IT department, but rather to create a process that management can buy into to create an IT department.
Start at the top. If you don't get management buy-in, you may as well give up.
Find out about what other firms of your size and business are doing. How many IT folks to they employ? What is the IT representation at the management table? THis data is your best ammunition for causing your managers to sit up and take notice. If you can find out budget figures, so much the better.
Start building your wish list. Helpdesk software, remote management strategy, VPN, HR interface, and so on. You will need this when talking blue-sky with management and also when budget time comes around.
Have an exit strategy. What happens if you make yourself indespensible and then want to leave? What happens if the company folds? Be ready.
Good luck. If you can pull it off, you have one of those "proudest moments" you can talk about in interviews.
--IT Manager
Walk into your superiors office, pull down your pants, and take a shit on the desk. Turn around, and sing 'battle hymn of the republic' on your way out the door. Look for a better job where you dont work for people with a lack of understanding of how the world works today.
The moral of the story? Nobody ever gets 'convinced' of the need for change. Whats it gonna take YOU to be convinced that it is YOU that needs to change your job?
I worked under a manager that was in the same situation as you. He was originally brought on as a "System Analyst" for 35k a year (this was for an indian tribal government in Oklahoma) because the old network admin was buying things like $3000 plasma monitors to "monitor the network from home." Accounting was signing off on everything because they didn't understand IT.
Fast-forward a year later, and the man was run ragged -- Working on about 120 PCs and idiot errors all day long. The network infrastructure was fragmented. Cat5 was run hundreds of feet outside of buildings bundled with power conduits. 3com switches here and there, linksys hubs connecting parts of buildings, couple of cisco routers for a p2p -- out of warranty equipment -- departments handled their own purchases of equipment, and thus there were different models of dells, hps, compaqs, IBM, and computers scavenged from old parts. No harddrive imaging, or any type of policies regulating equipment use. Spyware and viruses galore.
They eventually gave him the title of IT manager after booting the other one, without any pay raise.
He hired myself and another tech and we built the infrastructure from the ground up. We viewed ourselves as elitists and since we didn't have a budget, we built it dirt cheap using a combination of current win32 infrastructure (needed for accounting applications) and added freebsd firewalls and linux servers. I built the email infrastructure on top of servicing users. As far as management was concerned; they really didn't care -- we were in our own little ivory tower existence of unix/linux server management.
It was a fun time having free reign over all systems until there was an election and the entire administration was changed. the vice chief became someone my boss pissed off for violating some type of security practice that we placed high value on. So, the tribal side and the casino got split because the casino was turned into a for profit corporation, while the tribe was a not-for-profit using government grants. We became knee-deep in politics. Our fun environment was gone. Several layers of management were added above my boss who he had to answer to. The casino brought in a guy on contract for 4 years who answered directly to the vice chief. He started moving the email system to exchange and doing things that fell within our domain since the network infrastructure was still pretty messed up (we were working on completely changing it, but didn't have the funds) -- The new guy had a hand in everything. My boss and the other tech were eventually fired for political reasons, and I was pretty much hanging in there unhappy with the new management. My loyalty was gone and I was looking for other jobs. I left a couple months later without giving notice, because I wasn't needed.
Things could have gone better had we been less pretentious. I'd say be as polite as possible and plan everything out as much as possible. Always look at the bottom line and try not to overstep your boundaries as a current sysadmin trying to power-play into a management position just because you think it is needed. If you can, see if you can hire another tech to help you out and try working up from there, again -- with heavy, heavy planning and complete management approval.
you work for engineers? oh god.. just give in and find a new job..
who knows where they've been, or what they've done..
Seriously though, start pulling a straight day at a normal work pace.
Work at a sustainable pace, not a get it all done pace. Once there is a need
for another member, and they are asking about your productivity refer to your report.
Worst comes to worst you get to go look for a better job.
The most common method in the business world is for you to create some Powerpoint slides, call a meeting, and make a presenatation. Have coffee and doughnuts available in the conference room. Have a patsy in the rooms to speak up and say "That's a great idea." For usually, if this is as most business meetings are, no one will disagree with the first person to forcefully articulate a position.
I'm too overloaded.
The first rule of selling is nobody cares about you and your problems except you. Everyone is wrapped up in their own problems. If you don't understand the customer's (management's) problems and demonstrate this in a practical way, then you can't expect to them to look at your requests as anything but a tolerable buzz of complaints.
Right now I'm guessing they only know one thing for certain about IT: a penny saved on IT spending is a penny earned. They don't see any downside to running with either a hobbyist IT department, or a grossly understaffed one. It's not on their radar screen, so it doesn't exist, whereas salaries are always on the radar screen. It isn't hard to spend a million dollars on IT salaries a year, a million dollars that could be going to senior management bonuses.
So, your job is to relate IT staffing to things that matter to them: executing business strategy, managing customer relationships and projects, keeping expensive workers productive, avoiding risk (like what would happen if you decide to take a job where your work was more appreciated). To some degree this involves sucking up, talking their slang, even if it's barely meaningless management gobbledygook. That's the price.
The only other advice I'd give is hire wonderful people, no matter how much it costs. Suppose you have a chance to hire a brilliant IT guy with top notch business and people skills for $150,000, or three losers for $50,000. It should be positively a no-brainer which way to go.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
to main poster: first, organize your thougths (your post was kinda rambly). Then, put it in terms they (mgmt) would understand:
quoted post'er: "I would agree that you need a tech to work with you; a ratio of 1:100 is ridiculous."
[i say this because i hit 210 nodes (13 servers, 35 laptops, 30 thin clients the rest desktop PCs, and when i broke 175 nodes I needed an intern to keep my sanity]
the original GP is now a highly trained/tuned sysadmin (vis a vis the company's current setup), and an intern (think $15/hr to start, budget $25/hr after a few years) at 20hr/week can do wonders. management understands the idea of not paying the lead engineer to tighten lug-nuts, so brining on an intern will 'save them' money.
Don't get me wrong, i dig Altiris (used to use ghost), we host our own mail (spamassassin on *nix, postini, then exchange) host multiple DBs on sql, remote access, i've done all i can to automate and streamline (all XP PCs -5 year cycle on Dell Optiplexes 3yr + 2yr extended warr + more ram in year 4) WSUS for updates when altiris is buggy, i keep all my hardware under warr (nbd for end-user gear, 4hr same day on data closet gear), automated scripts and GroupPolicy is used a lot... but there are only so many printer jams one can clear in a day and be able to support/manage the 'high-level' systems that do the automation (plus look ahead, eval software, architect things, etc)
i assume you do a budget... write-in $15k for 20hr/wk - $15/hr employee, it's the cost of 2-3 servers or 13 PCs... put it in or be ready to walk.
Don't worry about the title now... mgmt thinks title = "he'll want more money" - which may be the case - but get the help to keep your sanity... and with the new-found time, implement a helpdesk system, or other value-added projects and get some momentum behind your 'team building' excercise. then once you have a team, and the network and service is 'better' than it was before, get the title and the raise... b/c you'll be more valuable there.
but, at 100 nodes it's not so bad that you need 2 other FTEs. one half-timer will do.
If she floats, she's a witch.
The first, most common, and most significant mistake that most IT shops make is that they are managing technology. This is wrong. The computer has no wants or needs, no defined function, no need to connect with other computers, save for what the user imposes on it. The computer is a tool, no more and no less. It is a high-tech hammer for pounding digital nails. Never forget this. Your job is to provide the best tool possible for the person using it. That means that you must understand for what it will be used, which in turn means you must understand the person, which means that the primary job of IT is customer service. You, dear computer geek, to be successful, must be a People Person.
Users have certain needs, desires, and expectations of their tools. If the tool does not give the desired result, it is a useless tool. If you are in charge of that useless tool, then you, too, are useless. No amount of ranting, railing, policy, or scope statement to the contrary will change this simple fact. If you're not part of the solution and all that. You are in charge of the whole tool, not just connectivity. In a larger organization with thousands of connected devices you can break the job up into different groups (network, desktop, development, helpdesk) - but with 110 machines, it's all you, baby.
Talk to your users. Sit in on planning meetings that involve technology or new software. Know what they want to do and why they're looking at this piece of software or hardware to do it. You may be able to offer insights. Maybe the desired result is an unexplored function of software you already have. Maybe there's a different package available that will do what they want better than what they're looking at. Maybe what they want isn't exactly what they're asking for. You won't know any of this unless you participate.
Use the staff you already have. You said you're on your own. You also said that there are 93 permanent users. Use them. Deputize one or two technically savvy people from each department and make them your first line of defense. Your personal noise level will drop more than you'd believe by weeding out all of the problems that can be solved by rebooting and checking that connections are tight. Spreading this over a dozen people significantly lightens your day without negatively impacting theirs.
Know, also, that your users don't understand the tool. They understand what they do with the tool. They know how to run a sales report without having the foggiest idea of how a database works. They know how to go to Google without having ever heard of TCP/IP, or knowing why T-568A and T-568B are different. They'll hand you a 4" square piece of plastic and report that "their hard drive is broken". So what? They don't need to know nuts and bolts. (What percentage of automobile drivers could change their own crankshaft? What percentage of residential electric customers could troubleshoot voltage drop on a generator?)
That's why you, the expert, are there. You, dear people person, to be successful, must be a competent Computer Geek. Don't try to teach technology to your users. It wastes your time, and annoys the users. Save the acronyms, jargon, and 1337-5p34k for the tech groups. Answer their questions as simply and as directly as possible. Learn to recognize blank stares or nervous fidgets. If you see either, then you've gone on too long or shot too far over their head with your answer. Wrap it up or dumb it down. Communicate, absolutely, but let them be happy with the answer on their own level. An informed user with a fixed problem (or at least the knowledge that you're on the case) is a Happy User who will sing your praises. This is the lifeblood of job security and a pleasant workday. Cultivate it.
"Hey, the third matrix movie would have been good except for the plot,story, and acting." --AC
I agree. As Michelle Shocked said: "The secret to a long life is knowing when it's time to go."
I was in a similar situation for 5 years. Until I left, I had no idea how demoralized I'd gotten and how badly my confidence had suffered. I forgot that it's *not* this bad wherever you are, and that I'm basically a pretty jolly, positive person.
While there, I used pretty persuasion, logic, reason, lobbying techniques, sound management principles, quotes from gurus top management admired, built strategic alliances, used humor, wielded scare tactics, baked brownies, you name it--all to no avail.
Sometimes the *culture* is what it is, and it is not going to advance or evolve. Staying there is not only bad for you personally, it's bad for your career.
I left after 5 years--and that was 7 years ago. I still look back and shudder re: how bad the situation was. And how much longer I stayed than I needed to. But at the time, I truly thought I should be capable of changing the situation, that my inability to effect change was a reflection of my own shortcomings, and things would be the same or worse elsewhere--the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know--etc.
But that was all misguided. So that's the negative.
There are also positive outcomes of staying in a hostile, fruitless environment (and then getting the hell out). For example:
(1) it'll be quite difficut to rattle you--almost anything will look like a piece of cake after your current situation; subsequent superisors, management, and staff will appreciate that--a sense of humor will come naturally with your new perspective
(2) you'll find you did sharpen negotiation and additional management skills (and even though they didn't work doesn't mean you weren't wielding them well)
(3) you may find you've tightened written and verbal communications skills having made and presented so many proposals, creating decision matixes, cost justifications, etc.; again, very valuable skills to employers
(4) because you've handled so many diverse and disparate functions you have likely developed areas you might not have--the knowledge gained from which will be leveraged successfully in subsequent positions, both hands-on and as a supervisor
(5) you'll forever have empathy for anyone who is overworked and/or in an untenable situation (which will include both IS and non-IS people with whom you work, management and non-management), which serves as a basis for self-motivation (remember, I am helping improve people's situations), staying focused, and keeping moving projects forward
(6) you'll be astounded at how much you learned by witnessing really bad, self-defeating management practices, and how that resulted in improving your own management practices
(7) you'll trust your instincts more; you'll never again stay in a situation like that or doubt or torture yourself so badly for a job---in fact, you'll know what to avoid and take heed when bells and whistles go off
(8) you will never ever think that you need to stay somewhere out of loyalty or not wanting "to leave them in the lurch" -- they will always be in a lurch; when I look at the website of the place I left, I see in 7+ years they have addressed maybe 10% of the critical issues in the IS/IT realm, and within the company at large, and are just hobbling along -- few of the people I knew are still there, but those who are have the same complaints and continue to have the lifeblook sucked out of them
As I said, it's been almost 8 years since I left that situation---and I have had 2 jobs since then: each one a big step up from the job that I was languishing in. And none was 1/4 as bad.
So, get out!!!
Easier said than done? Do it gradually. Each step will be valuable to you in taking next steps (and the company):
1. Create your current job description -- maybe you have an accurate, updated job description, but it's doubtful -- since you're so focused on immediate issues and the position has probably morphed
brainee28, you appear to need help; after all, you are asking Slashdot for help--this is about as desperate as it gets. Most of the previous comments were helpful, so I'll try to be as humorous as possible lest I get modded redundant:
... should be evaluated by IS when the software is ready to install - "I, great overlord of IS, shall only evaluate software if I deem such activity to be important and when I'm done watching anime. Furthermore, I demand all software be compatible with my systems the moment they come into contact, and only then will I evaluate such software, bwa ha ha ha!"
I work in the IS department for a manufacturer in Arizona (a one-man-show).
You work in the IT department. You probably started calling it IS when you decided you were more important in the company than you actually are. I'll use both in a sentence:
"That department IS not all that important."
"I've never noticed IT before, but I like IT when the network's down because you get to take a pretty long break."
Oh, you're a one-man show? You are no department, you're the IT guy. Start acting like it.
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.
Clearly you have 0 years IS Management experience. Go do your homework.
with the idea that I would be - That's no goal, try harder.
That has still not come to pass. - What do you mean? When you walk into the office in the morning, what do you do? Take a nap? Surf pr0n? Sounds like unless you're coming in every other day, you're managing day to day operations. Congratulations, now get back to work.
What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?
First of all why are you still reading this? Get back to work! Second of all, where the fuck did this come from? You haven't even convinced me of the need for widespread change! "Uh, boss, the widespready need for helper monkeys is clear; furthermore everyone on Slashdot agrees with me."
Management views IS as a facilities function; computers are a tool, and only a tool.
Those guys are fucking geniuses. Keep working for them and you might learn something. IT is only slightly more important than the air conditioner repair guy, and then only during the winter.
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.
Management did not accept the proposal. They got you out of the room because you wouldn't stop talking and you were starting to make them uncomfortable. I certainly don't want to invite you over to my house so you can start negating everything I know.
I have 3 things that management and I currently don't see eye to eye on:
This has gone on long enough. Those 3 things have nothing to do with anything and I wish I were Shake from Aqua Teen Hungerforce and I could take a nearby stapler and throw it at the floor such that it explodes on contact. However there are some good tidbits in there:
we have an in-house programmer in accounting who uses Access -- I know, I know... - wtf?
Software should be evaluated by IS only when it becomes necessary for purchase and implementation, not before" - that is a truism.
How would Slashdot users attack this? Probably start by running some scripts, then use a railgun or something. I'd suggest you get back to basics, be as helpful as possible to as many people as possible, and one day maybe your opinion will be important. But not today! Get back to work!
http://www.performbettergolf.com/dvd.html
Get them hooked on stuff like this and then pull the pu-uh-lug.
I think a lot of your issues revolve around the fact that you're completely wrong in many ways...
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.
The main job of IS (IT, MIS, MCIS, whatever) is efficiency. Connectivity is part of that, but not the end all and be all. It's obvious that your focus is just on keeping things running, rather than being proactive and providing your company with solutions. This is further evidenced by...
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 should be evaluated by IS when the software is ready to install.
It's involvement is CRITICAL for success. How can you provide effective solutions to your endusers if you don't know what their problems are? How can you set and maintain standards if you're not involved in purchasing decisions? You don't get involved until something's ready to go on the network? That explains....
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)
With a microscopic network like that, you shouldn't be overloaded. I've handled networks and evironments three times that size completely on my own (well, technically we had a desktop tech, but he was worthless and I had to give him all the answers). The problem isn't management any further than the fact that they hired you. I'm sorry to tell you that your 20 years of experience have been wasted because frankly, you're incompetent. It's really time you looked into a new field. Perhaps fast food?
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?"
First, I would fire you. Second, I'd take an inventory of everything that is in place and figure out what's wrong and fix it. Third, create a strategy that creates standards and policies to keep things in line for the future (standards such as what hardware to buy, what software is approved, and policies that define how these things are enforced). That should only take a couple of months on such a small network, at most. During that time, you can also work with the other departments so that you can better understand their needs. You can also explain to them the policies and standards you're putting into place, why they're necessary, and solicit their input on them (which gets them involved and on YOUR side).
Once these things have been accomplished, you can go back to those departments you've determined are the most likely to work with you, find out what their biggest problems are and help them find solutions. After a couple of successes like that, you'll find the other departments will be coming to you on their own to help them out. It's at that point that you can go to senior management and say "here's what we've accomplished, but I can't do any more without a headcount increase and a little more pull". Only the worst of managers will deny this request outright. If you at least get "a
Which is more painful? Going to work or gouging your eye out with a spoon? Find out!
http://www.workorspoon.com
It's Information Systems. Different companies refer to the department by different mames, and networking should, generally, be a subset function of the [M]I{S|T} Department.
You must work in education. Only in acedemia have I heard such noise. This is the same mentality that refers to a "Soldering copper" because they're not made out of iron.
www.wavefront-av.com
-----------
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.
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.
What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their
superiors of the need for widespread change?
-------------
Managers coming from a "PC-free" environment will have enormous difficulty in understanding the objective requirements of managing the number of systems you're referring to.
But they aren't idiots, normally. They can understand growth and change; they can follow basic math and unserstand staffing.
Generate some report aids: [single-digit number of PCs in 1999] versus 110 PCs in 2005. Compare the normal staffing of other firms. For that number of users, a staff of 3 is quite reasonable; in many firms, the staff would be more like 6-8.
Get an actual breakdown of the time spent on various tasks; show additional tasks that -aren't- getting done, as well as estimates for the time necessary to do them. Include the planning tasks you want to work on.
--------------
I have 3 things that management and I currently don't see eye to
eye on:
--------------
Bluntly, management is in charge. If they view the functions of IS differently than you do, guess what? You're wrong. If you have reasons for feeling that duties management has assigned to IS staff should be elsewhere, then you need to change their minds by providing the (non-techie business-oriented) evidence.
Bluntly, I don't agree with you on 2 of three things you mentioned either. While connectivity is a core IS concern, I'd laugh in your face if you tried to get me to believe it's the only concern. And, bluntly, I'd adamantly insist that a primary function of IS is to work with other divisions, assisting and advising on planning and procurement.
If you need additional staff to handle those duties, it wouldn't surprise me. Particularly if they want to add application development and procurement. That's one reason many firms with similar numbers of users have 6-8 people rather than 3.
Be prepared to lose on moving these tasks outside of IS. I am a techie, and if I was your boss, I'd insist they -are- your responsibility, and replace you if you failed to comply. But I'd also give you more staff, so you could handle it.
If I were you, I'd also be prepared to lose. I've seen similar situations where people got ground up. The engineers in charge were absolutely adamant that there was no need for additional staff until -after- they burned through 5 complete changes of IT staff and management in one year.
A lot of engineers don't like to admit that computers require the same level of skill as [insert engineer's field here]. Because of this, they often insist on keeping staff far too low and hiring underqualified people long after someone more unbiased would admit there might be a problem.
Step 1: Study these pages.
http://bofh.ntk.net/Bastard.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh/
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=bofh
Good luck!
This
Sounds like the problem is that you don't communicate the amount of work you have to do to management. The solution is to generate a backlog. Create a system where people have to put every request in writing or at least in some sort of ticket tracking system. Assign each ticket a priority and work only on the ones that are truly critical. Let the less critical ones pile up while you document your departmental procedures and a vision for your department. Then, go back to management and show them the huge list of requests that you have that you don't have time to fulfill, and the overall vision and mission that you developed for your department. They will have no choice but to let you hire a few people to do the fire fighting while you build up the department.
Is there a middle ground where a small amount of planning can mitigate a few large-scale problems (in a genuine use of the 80:20 rule)?
Most likely, they do not care. If you do not want to do the job, they can hire some new kid fresh out of college to do what you do for probably half the pay. they'll hire someone under the job description "webmaster" then make them learn everything from Server maintenance to Crystal reports, all on the same pay (happens at my place of employment all the time.)
And once they do the symbiotic exchange (employee gets years of experience versus employer taking their soul), the employee will quit, and it will start all over.
whoopie....
1: Your job is to see that they have the most efficent service possible for the cost they put out. Remember that your department is an overhead cost and that all right thinking executives hate overhead with a passion.
....?
2: If you have no budget, you are an admin not a manager, whatever your title may say...
3: If number 2 is the case and you would like to change that, think about number 1. Show you're thinking about cost and not just kingdom building. Maybe they will trust you with some cash.
4:
5: Stock options and a corner office!
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You need to figure out what problems/issues the end usrs and/or managment has and use those to help your agenda. If the user/manangement don't have any problems, then your out of luck in introducing change.
For example, if there are network bandwidth issues, or user account problems that take to long to fix/add, etc. create solutions to those that server your agenda.
...Is that this corporation supporting government contracts only had "a few computers scattered around" six years ago. That was 1999, sirs. Leave it to them to be about 10 years behind everyone else...
Maybe my memory serves me wrong, but how many computers did you have in corporation in 1999?
You seem to have an idea of what it is that you believe IS should be at the company. Your current problem is that you are one person fighting a war of ideas with the rest of the upper management. The heart of the problem is that your definition of IS(Information Services?) and their's differ.
1) Hammer out what IS/IT means to them and yourself and come to some concensus.
You can't just tell them you are right and they are wrong. You can't even justify such a thing. It's human nature. It's like trying to convince people the world wasn't flat when everyone believed it was... even if you ARE right, you'll still be hung out to dry.
You and management need to come to a compromise. Some middle ground of what your role and that of the IS department is. You have to decide on what you are willing to live with and what you absolutely must have a say in.
2) You need buy-in.
You pointed out you've get a few years of management experience. One of the most important things in management is to get buy-in for a project or an idea. If you have no supporters, you are essentially fighting a one man war. You'll live a hard and stressful life like that. Find allies who will watch your back and put in the good word/support for you when you walk out of the room.
3) SWOTT / cost-benefit analysis.
Once again, put that management experience to good use. Give them the SWOTT analysis and show them the cost benefit analysis of your ideas. Show them the same for their competitors. Show them what it is costing them to not take your ideas seriously. Show them the potential gains/benefits if some of your ideas are taken seriously and implemented.
4) Keep in the loop.
An IS department that gets the work order for an implementation when it hasn't been included in the planning stages is just a disaster waiting to happen. See above about getting buy-in. Use support to stay in the loop so that even if you aren't included in the actual planning meetings, you can at least serve as an advisor to one of the people who are. You get to have some say, via proxy, and you get buy-in from the person who proposes your ideas and it produces a smoother implementation.
In this way, you build a visible positive reputation for yourself at the company. Otherwise, you are merely the complainer at the company who has all of these pie in the sky ideas about how the company should be managed when all you work with are the computers.
5) You are taking on the errors and mistakes of your predecessor.
Look, no matter your experience/skill/etc, the truth is that management sees you in the same like as the person you replaced. They've had to deal with that person's mess for years and have come to regard the IS department in a negative light.
You may or may not realise this, but your job is to work on changing their minds about that and proving to them, through building up trust, that IS is an asset and partner to the company and that you are a reliable and insightful person they can rely on.
Submitting a report/proposal/meeting showing them that their ideas are wrong and that your ideas are right carries little to no weight because you may or may not have built up any credibility at the company.
You've been with the company for a few years, if that time has been spent invisibly fixing things and when you are visible to the management, you are making demands for processes to be changed, think about what the IS department looks like through upper management's eyes.
6) Work somewhere else.
Look, let's say you have tried everything and have worked hard to build trust, open dialog, and still... they won't listen. Then maybe it's time to leave. Seriously. You're just going to lose hair or get an ulcer trying to convince people who won't listen to you, but who still pile crap project after crap project on you.
If leaving isn't an option, then you need to reduce your expectations of the company and place your hearfelt interests elsewhere and see the job for what it is: a job.
Winged Power Photography
Two books that might help:
The Practice of System and Network Administration
Limoncelli and Hogan
Addison Wesley
Time Management for System Administrators
Limoncelli
The first is the best technical book I've ever read. The second is a bit light weight but still worth reading.
Both are OS agnostic.
I can't even tell what you believe. You list three things where you and company management don't "see eye to eye" but you never make it clear which you believe.
If you can't even communicate that to a bunch of fellow geeks, you are a sys admin with no management capabilities, and you should just keep doing your best to keep the boat floating.
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
I don't know if this is 100% related to your current problem, but it's an issue I have seen crop up. It's a 'story' and insofar as it helps--well, I hope so.
/real/ computer person. There weren't any when I had been hired nearly 30 years prior, at least, not the kind like YOU ALL who are prevalent today. So they found a consultant, hired him, and he proceeded to get interested in a VoIP implementation at the expense of the core product. He let that slide because he really wasn't interested in inventory control. Employees were more and more frustrated. Finally after someone criticized him he said he was resigning in a huff (after 10 months or so) and went home to think about it. The organization wound up 'accepting' his resignation. So they hired another guy, a /real/ computer person as well, and he lasted about six months. In both cases the 'real computer person' mis-read the organization and didn't think the core automation product (the inventory control system) was worth his time and attention. As a result these two people failed and the organization went through a year and a half of floundering. Now they've hired a third IT person, a woman, by the way, who finally "gets it." I am hopeful (as I have 30 years of experience in that company and my blood and sweat are still there, my cables in the rafters and beneath the floorboards) that she will be able to put the IT team back together and they will live long and prosper.
I was a self-taught IT guy. When I started at my company there were no PC's, which weren't really invented yet. We had two terminals hooked to a mainframe 300 miles away. Needless to say, there was no IT department. I am a guy in a female-dominated profession. When the TRS-80 was introduced I used to walk over to Radio Shack on my lunch hour and stare at the plastic case and waft in the polymers. About a year later the Apple ][ came out, and I was the first on my block to get one, serial #32678. I taught myself BASIC, then I stuck in a CP/M card and taught myself dBase. I had one commercial program that sold for ten years. My accounting stuff ran in several different organizations for over fifteen years. I got a CNE, was dragged kicking and screaming into Windows, and managed to survive.
A few years after I bought my Apple my boss came to me and said she'd been thinking we should get 'one of those computers,' and gave me the task. I bought an Apple ][, of course (no PCs then) and began to automate everything in sight, particularly statistics.
By the time I retired we had 500 PCs, 40-50 servers, and 9 sites on a WAN with fiber to the Net. We had replaced our core system, a very complex inventory control system, three times. Every employee had a computer on her desk. In fact, there were more computers than people.
That's background. Here's what happened. As soon as I retired management got together and decided they needed a
But the real issue here is that many times IT people are so enamored with themselves and their 'equipment' that they fail to give management any credence at all. Every boss is a PHB. Every manager sucks. Every employee is a point above an idiot. And only slashdotters are cool. I've seen this several times before. The IT people do not have the same sense of public service that their orgnaizations would like them to have. If they are in love with their data, they often fail to see what the product is--the one that sells, makes money, and pays their salary. They are inwardly focused.
Actually I believe IT RUNS most organizations. That's very clear. No IT, No organization. But IT is not the REASON for the organization's existence. The best thing you could do is sit down with management with the attitude that it is your task to tailor IT to the needs of the organization rather than go in there screaming that management doesn't understand the needs of IT. If you do that, subsequently asking for resources to accomplish the goals of the organization will be much better received. I, for one, never lacked in resour
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
First, computers are tools, nothing more. If you don't understand that, get into another line of work.
The only way you can get the resources you need for your job is to show the benefit the business will receive from giving you the resources. Can you save them time/money by increasing the connectivity between different systems? Is the time/money enough to off set the additional expense?
If you work in IS or IT, you are overhead . You are an expense management will always be looking to cut. Get used to it. I can understand you being over worked if you have a poorly designed network supporting that many users. You need to provide a vision of what you can do with additional staff and resources and that vision better help the company do something better than it is doing now. (Faster order processing, more accurate inventory management, better customer support, etc.)
If you can show a business justification for what you want to do, then you will never be able to talk a language that management can understand. In that case you need to give up on the dream of being a manager, and start looking for a job somewhere else.
Think Deeply.
You will need to start by convincing management that you need the help.
#1) if you do not have one, set up a trouble ticket system and use it. This gives you the ability to track the number of jobs you are working on as well as the time you spend working on them.
#2) Generate monthly reports from it. Show the number of jobs, amount of time spent, The overall amount of down time. Categorize them into low, medium, and high issues.
Once you have a few months of this, you can show the need for help.
I have found that explaining stuff to management can be difficult. I like to use car analogies as it tends to get the point across. You should work on coming up with simple analogies to get your point across.
It will take some work, the first step is to provide them with reports that show the work you are doing. I do not know how many servers you have, but look up best practices. Several outline how many people you should have. When last I looked it was suggested that you have an admin per 35 servers.
Make sure you have the data to back up your claim of needing a computer department.
What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?
The best way to breed resentment is to force a company or individual to change against their grain. You need a somewhat receptive comapany to begin with in order to address these issues. If the company you work for is so misaligned with your beliefs and practices as a professional, then find another job. Otherwise, you risk continued dis-satisfaction and professional stagnation.
Horns are really just a broken halo.
And someone actually read this?
And scored it up?
Bloody hell!
I think the first thing you need to do is take a step back and get a different view on things. Drop the trained computer monkey mindset and quit the geekspeek.
"Management" is exactly right that computers are a tool. Their company has a mission, it does a certain thing in order to produce profit for the shareholders (or whatever). Their computers and networks are a means to that end. You are a tools tool, it's your job to keep thier tools sharp and functioning.
Quit looking at your goals or the goals of the "IS" department. Instead try looking at the goals of the company and the goals of the individual departments. Then ask yourself what tools you can provide that will help them accomplish their goals. Also ask what you can do to improve their existing tools that might make it easier for them to accomplish their goals.
Remember why you and your IS department exist. You are a service, you are there to help them, not the other way around.
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
Make a list of what you are not going to be able to complete without help. Then make another list of what you are not even attempting because you don't have help. Demonstrate how your help will extend your own impact and create a clear picture in management's head of what they would get in exchange for their labor dollars.
I would also reconsider your stance on numbers one and two. Remember, your company started as a one-man outfit. Many of your corporate decisions are probably still based on that concept. Do not stray from that. Think of ways to meet these needs and take them for granted as a key part of your organization's culture.
If management believes your vision is in line with theirs, they will likely grant your request.
If you insist on making changes, take it one day at a time. Make management feel like it was their idea to enact the change...
You're totally immersed in firefighting all the little day-to-day problems, and doubtless run ragged doing it. You seem to have completely lost touch with the overall picture of what the Company is trying to do.
Book yourself into the best Caring Institution your insurance will allow. This will give you time to refocus your mind on your own needs, and a rest from the pressures of the job. Alternatively have a decently extended Christmas holiday.
Probably not, but at least you will be appreciated after your break. The management might even get you a helper.The trick is, to work _smart_ not hard. I'm a one man IS department with around 150 workstations spread out over one home office and 84 or so branch offices. We cover something like 7 states at present and increase branch offices at the rate of 4 per year.
When I first took over, there were MANY weekends spent working. I had to set up a Win2k AD as well as DHCP server and DNS server. Had to clean up the incredibly disorganized file shares. Login scripts, restore scripts, GPO's, ect. However, I've put in the work now, and it's paying off. Most of my day to day calls are on the order of "reboot and try again". The really tough ones deal with hardware failures, and I have to make a road trip or find a local tech who will fix it.
The trick is that we are knowledge workers. We get paid to think. So Think of a way you can do your job more efficciently.
It seems to me that you're getting all caught up in the management side of it, and you want to manage processes and such. Well, it sure would be nice if it worked like that in the real world, but when you're a one man operation...it simply doesn't. You've got to get out there and do what it takes to keep the users happy, and most of all, keep them off your back! Save those management seminars for when you've got a couple people under you.
I say one motivated nerd can do a LOT more than you think. No need to hire a staff just yet...
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If you're not willing to wait forever you could always take the more dangerous approach and let a few things that are "not covered" under your title break. Maybe security doesn't fall under your jurisdiction and a virus / Trojan infects the network. There are a thousand different scenarios that I could run thru but I'm sure you get the idea.
In the past I've started by educating my employer's using slide shows and reports with statistics. Of course it helps to somehow relate the size and type of business that you work for to these statistics. When this didn't work I stopped doing things that were "not covered" under my title and waited for them to break. As sad as it is, most companies don't understand the potential pitfalls involved in IT networks. They see $$$ signs and flip out, not realizing that a few thousand now could potentially save a few hundred thousand from walking out the door tomorrow.
The company I currently work for used to store most of our data locally. We had a "backup server" running Win2K and that was that. Even though the threat of losing all the information on our servers to fire and water damage / theft was mentioned countless times before it has taken us almost 5 years go get a tape backup system that allows us to keep a full system copy offsite. In this case it was the recommendation by several others aside from the IT manager himself that finally made someone open there eyes.
In my experience it's been up to the flip of a coin toss as to how companies react to change in this department. So try those two suggestions I mentioned earlier and if your not in fear of losing your job maybe the last one and see what happens. Good luck.
There's nothing that says you have to implement all the changes you want right away. Often, it's much more effective (and accepted by your uppers) to implement new processes/equipment/software packages slowly and let them become a natural part of people's day-to-day use. Don't rip out all your Windows servers, replace them with FreeBSD, push everybody to OOo and FF and install a brand new totally locked down Smoothwall all in one week - you'll get fired. I find at my company, where I am the only IT guy here, so I am responsible for everything from paper jams to procurement to the phone system, that it is much easier to plan a project, gather quotes, and present it to your boss in a manner that shows why it makes sense for the company to do it. If you can, put together a budget plan for 2006, broken down by quarter and by project, with all the costs involved for the things you want to do. Then, ask your boss for a meeting to discuss your plans for the year, and be prepared to explain why you want to do these things in layman's terms. You probably won't get everything approved, and maybe only a couple of your ideas will fly, but it's a start. Once you can follow through with a project and then help your company see the benefit, things will get easier down the road as they learn to trust your judgement. However, none of this will matter if you don't broaden your mind about your responsibilities. If you are the single IT or IS guy in the company, you are basically responsible for everything with an On/Off switch. Connectivity is only a part of your job, and if that is all you focus on, then it's not surprising that your company does not see a lot of value in having you around.
QUOTE:
>3 things that management and I currently don't see eye to eye on:
>1) The main job of IS is connectivity.
No, the main role of IS is to help the business use technology effectively. Yes, you must provide connectivity but certainly once connectivity is in place, you can move on to other more interesting tasks
>2) IS involvement in other divisions isn't necessary
Baloney. IS should be involved in ALL the divisions of a company. After all, you have the ability to help each area of the company select the most appropriate technology; and doing so will make your workload much easier than just having other people's decisions thrust upon you. Maybe you feel overloaded, but don't twist the objectives of IS to fit your whims.
>3)I'm too overloaded. With 93 permanent users and 110 workstations
Yes, that's obvious. I ran a 7-location real estate agency with 85 employees and 500+ real estate agents, so I know how difficult it can be supporting multiple users with only *1* member of the IT staff. However, it _can_ be done, although I'd make a strong push for them to bring in a younger guy, say 20-25, who can be your assistant. Over 100 users, and you might need 2 assistants, depending upon how much web development and product recommendations you have to do in addition to day to day maintenance and troubleshooting.
**
The very first thing you must do to survive this job is outline your responsibilities. This may take some time, especially if you keep getting dragged in different directions. But if you cannot outline your job, there's no way you can set goals and assess your performance -- which of course could lead to making a case for a) hiring additional help and b) getting greater pay and benefits (like perhaps a day off now and then -- wherein you'll need an assistant to man the fort).
Second, list out current crises and next, a list of objectives you'd like to obtain in the coming year. Then plan what it will take to bring the company out of its current firefighting mode so that you can be proactive. Management might then be convinced of your need to bring onboard at least some temporary help so that you can make headway towards meeting other departmental objectives that require the input of the IS department.
Nobody likes to fight fires. It took $40k worth of equipment and software and 3 months, but I was able to turn around my previous employer from a reactive IS environment to a proactive one. This made my job more interesting and less stressful. Plus it endeared me not only to management, but also to the users, who were then able to cut me some slack because they knew that I had busted my back to make their computers run better.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
You don't have to get as detailed as some would think. You just need to make them understand how the potential of IT (IS) can offset their current operating costs. It is an investment, but one if executed properly can achieve operations running at a lower cost. A good example of this is on the manufacturing floor, ask them how many products they can make in a certain amount of time. If they can't answer, then you got 'em! Or ask them, do they know what the biggest bottleneck in their manufacturing process is. If they can answer this, quickly think of how IT (IS) can straighten it out.
This crowd certainly understands what innovation can do to productivity. I hope you and your 15 years of experience can vocalize this as well.
Do yourself a favor and let them know they are in for a long haul. But a worthwhile one. Select a scalable solution and a uniform platform. I like windows and
Don't hire any of the crazy people that post things on here about how you suck because you used the wrong wording. Hire people with experience that are willing to learn and grow with the transition. Don't get an old dinosaur who does things because "That's they way we have always done it!" or is over opinionated. This is a transition, you need flexible people.
This boils down to communication in all aspects. When a company forks over tens of thousands of dollars for a new system, they want to know everything about it (aside from the things they don't understand). Many IT folk are turned off by non-technical management involvement. Instead you should embrace their opinions and advice, because after all, they are going to be using it and are going to be the first to complain if it doesn't work according to their expectations.
This is a long and difficult transistion. You will get yelled at, you will be made to work long hours. But as IT (IS) folks, we crave this work, so just be patient and understanding. Otherwise, you'll get mauled but uneducated people complaining.
GOOD LUCK!!!!
IT/IS is a service. It is also a money-loser for a company. If something doesn't make financial sense, it shouldn't be done. Don't be afraid to play the "risk" card. I know plenty of places that skimped on backups, only to get bit in the ass when something crashed. But then, I've also done the math and proven that with the cost constraints and prices, throwing away computers was cheaper than fixing them. Or that a new server was cheaper than not getting it.
You say that they accepted your proposal, which included new personnel. Just stard doing it. Go to HR and tell them you need a PC Support position created and filled, drop the resumes off on your desk and you'll tell them who to call in for interviews (or if they don't arrange the process, tell them the opening to post and you handle the giring all yourself). Once he (yes, I'm sexist, and most of them are male) is in and taking care of the little stuff, sit down and make a plan. What do you want to do first? What do you need that you can't do yourself (such as spending money)? Is there anything that is an emergency (like backups)? Get those things in motion. Then outline what you need to have happen that isn't the way it was before. Whether this is hardware ordering, software approval, or anything like that, it needs to be documented and signed off on by all the managers. This needs to be in addition to the proposal that has already been accepted. They need to see more concrete and explicit things, rather than just a "I'd like to see improvements" memo. This will let them know what to expect, and make sure to word it in a way that they will see the benefit.
Learn to love Alaska
Easy, just call CDW, problem solved: http://www.cdw.com/webcontent/land/page/media_cent er.asp
Be like Fred!
Seriously, you need to get real. If you as the one and only IS person can keep things afloat then management will never hire you a PFY (pimply faced youth) to be your assistant! It's a small business, they don't have money for an IT department! Never gonna happen, you are the chief geek, get used to it.
The only real solution is to screw things up enough get overwhelmed and then ask management for help and beg them to hire an assistant. The alternative is to start making some serious automation to make your life easier. Learn some programming like Python or Ruby and get cracking on making it easier to admin user accounts, etc. Oh and stop thinking you are joe IS manager because ya ain't... If you are an experienced IS manager then you got a raw deal and are now the SysAdmin grunt; Time to move on, dude! Basically, you need to face reality, this company will never have a large IT environment like a Fortune 100 company so stop trying to change it to be like a Fortune 100 company IT infrastructure. It sounds like a small business that just can't spend money on staff nor IT gadets.
Alternative, call your local high school and speak with the guidance counselor as well as a computer teacher or two. Find some youthful volunteers who want real world experience. Maybe you can get management to hire one or two of these kids part time. Beats flipping burgers at Mickey D's!
Your point is well made, and I certainly agree with most of your statements. Regarding disaster recovery, though, I'm reminded of that old saying about bad weather: everyone complains about it, but nobody does anything to change it.
DR is one of those fuzzy, mysterious areas of the business plan on which most execs hate to spend money. After all, they reason, the chances of needing to rebuild from it are miniscule. Laughably (or sadly, depending on the circumstances), the half-baked DR plan usually gets past the auditors and then is treated with reverence, like some sort of talisman, despite its being out of date and ridiculously optimistic.
So, the chances of consultants 1) being available when you need them, and 2) being able to work from the nominal recovery plan you've handed them after the flood are probably not confidence inspiring. I must say also that I've watched consultants descend upon our network to do "turnkey installations" on a few occasions, and the people sent to do the job would have been lost without the babysitting and total cooperation of my team. I maintain that nothing beats your in-house team of experts - - it can take days for outsiders to get their bearings on a strange network, especially if your network configuration, fault tolerance and data management schemas, etc., are highly proprietary or complex.
It's only funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious.
I appreciate the comments so far. However I did want to clarify a few things.
1) The reason for IS instead of IT-My company uses the term IS, not IT. Mea Culpa...I should have used the term Information Systems to start out with. Apologies.
2)The 3 basic Contentions-Many of you got the idea that these 3 statements were my thoughts on running an Information Systems department. They're not.
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.
This is their position. Mine has always been that service and user issues drive what I do.
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.
Once again, this is management's position. Mine is having interaction at the right points. I must have not made it clear this was their position, not mine.
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)
I guess what I meant to say on this was that it's essentially a tradeoff now; I can't do the admin functions that management has "expected" of me without systems issues (user issues with hardware, software and network) taking a hit; I've essentially sacrificed any kind of structure I can setup in order to solve user problems all day and into late nights. Most of why there's no structure is essentially a time issue; if I had any semblance of time to do it, I have lots of ways to do it, but I'd be sacrificing user issues, and that's the only thing manangement has been concerned with for 6 years.
I also did not tell them they were wrong. They accepted my proposal because I've done enough over the last 6 years for them to trust some of the things I explained. I did not threaten or force them; I simply explained what my years of experience and what my role as it applied to their business was as perceived by me. Some people seemed to comment that I stuck this down their throat; they didn't take it that way at all (in fact, the owner of the company authorized my proposal before I submitted it.)
3) Some have mentioned about proving it based on numbers and ROI. Yes, in an environment where I would have the time to be able to compile this information effectively, that would work, but I found, even when doing this proposal, that I had no time to do anything else. User issues, management inquiries, admin functions, some semblance of a home life, and sleep were what I could normally fit into my timetable. The proposal reinforced the idea that something would suffer. It did.
4) Some mentioned about being able to handle 100 users or so without breaking a sweat. Yes, under conditions in which you have a certain amount of control, time, opportunity, and budget to do it, it can work (and yes I've seen it). I have limited amounts of some, and none of others. Take your pick as to which ones. I was left with a shambles of a structure; I've been trying to maintain it for 6 years, but its not maintainable like this now.
5) S
You seem to have some amazingly bad viewpoints on the function of IS in a business. Information Services should be exactly what the name implies; managing data as a support function to internal departments. Unless you are in company which provides connectivity to customers, you are only there to assist the other departments.
Uh, no. The main job of IS is not connectivity, it is using technology to increase productivity within the organization as a whole. While connectivity is an import part of many of the advances in tech, it is only as important as it's contribution to IS as a whole.
If they had to make a choice, which would be important to your management: a pair of computers with perfect connectivity but no apps or a pair of computers with applications that allow the users to perform their work but involved sneakernetting files? All the network management in the world is useless without applications.
In a large corporation, you have specialized departments to handle these tasks, but as the only star in a one man show (I'm in the same position), you need to balance these roles.
BS. You are throwing away one of the main benefits of having talented employees: Inhouse expertise. More than your job description, you are there to provide your experience and insight into improving the business process as a whole. The majority of productivity gains come not from having technology, but from the creative application of that tech to existing departments. How the hell do you determine the best IS architecture design if you have 0% understanding of how it is used? Maybe your perfect "connectivity" is actually disrupting work flow? How would you know? Do you even care? This habit of sitting in an ivory tower and ignoring what end users need (not want) is one of the main complaints that companies have about IT/IS. At that point, it makes sense to outsource the whole operation.
Also, how are other departments supposed to make the determination of which hardware to buy without your input? Hey look, engineering just bought a nifty foomatic 7000. Too bad it uses NFS to diskless boot and we run a Windows architecture. The sales team bought a killer CRM app. Oh by the way, the vendor insists on doing the install themselves and needs root on the box to do it. Hope you don't mind. (The contract is non-refundable btw)
Ignoring the inhouse programming talent is one of your biggest mistakes. So what if it's Access. He probably knows enough VB to make your job a lot easier if you asked. Also, why wait until he's done with development. I bet you will have wished you had asked him for a silent network install option when you are visiting each one of those 100 workstations just to click 'OK'.
The Revolution. Now available as a convienent six tape series from PBS.
Feel the burn, I am an IS manager for a very large medical practice with 200+ subs and 200+ network connected devices that span 5 cities; all by my lonesome. Get organized, and MAKE the uppers know that any update to an outdated network is money in the bank!! Better now than later with the addition of a third party (and pricey) contractor to help implement the new tech.
I recommend that you: 1. not worry (most important), 2. do not go on call, 3. work smart for 8 hours a day, no more, no less. If this is enough labor to support all of the companies computing needs, then no change is needed. You will know if it is enough because things won't break. Be very aware that you may be wrong, and accept that possibility. Then you'll be able to get what you want.
First, you say that even though the hobbyist IS manager left a few years ago, and although you now are the sole IS staff, your dream of being day-to-day IS manager has not come to pass. Hmm, what, do you want them to put a crown on you and bow down? Do your job, and you will be day-to-day IS manager.
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.
What, is this GE? Chase? You work for SBC? I got news for you buddy, in a one-man IS shop, nothing is extraneous and you should be dealing with everything. Lifes a bitch, get on 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.
Is this your position, or theirs? If theirs, you are absolutely right, it's dead wrong. If it's yours, well then, I can see why you haven't gone any further in this company. Maybe IS isn't quite your calling.
-- "In order to have power, I must be taken seriously." -Mojo Jojo
management wont do jack shit unless its mission critical. In other words, they dont understand the importance of redundancy, performance over usage etc. THey will ask you to justify what you need by explaining it in writing, graphs charts etc. The problem is that they dont have the capacity (unless maybe they have IT experience) to understand what you are telling them in relation the $ amounts you are throwing at them.
I was in a similiar situation. The only way we could eventually get management to want to spend money to upgrade etc, was when the server they were so dependent on for email, db access etc just crashed because it was being overwhelmed.
Many workers these days take for granted all the dependence on computer systems. They take for granted what they have (especially sales types) until its down and unavailable. All of a sudden they realize how mission critical these machines and systems are to the company.
But the only reason they won't let you have your own staff is because they want the money. That's the bottom line. If you want to propose a staff, you need to show them a roadmap of where things have been, where they are, and where they're going. Obviously, without an experienced team, the project will go downhill and fast. It's happened before, and it will happen again. Justification on all angles is what they're looking for in hiring new people, and perhaps a re-write of NDAs is in order. Food for thought.
I'm not in IS, but I've been in the same quandary you are -- running myself ragged running a one-man show that I shouldn't have been handling by myself. The problem is that the "correction" of the problem is to replace one superhero (you) with several normal (less hardworking) people who will collectively cost several times what they pay you. The company pays more and gets the same result. You'll never be able to sell them on that. Instead, you have to promise them something they don't already get.
Incidentally, this is why you should never do anything in superhero mode -- wait until they let you do it sustainably, or you'll be stuck doing it alone forever.
Assuming those hubs aren't isolated from each other or that you have only 1 hub, it could be a big problem.
I once had a small network with a single saturated hub. I replaced it with a cheap switch but a few PCs wouldn't play nice with the switch.
I put those few PCs back on the hub which I then connected to the switch.
Now everyone is playing nice-nice, there are very few collisions, and I didn't have to shell out for the good stuff, er, I mean a decent switch.
In theory I could've done the same things on a 100+ PC network. In practice I would probably have shelled out for managed switch(es) and if necessary, thrown a router in the mix.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The first step is to realize who you're working for...
You said you are working for a manufacturing company, however you talk like you're working for just another company that doesn't understand IT--or the way 'you' understand IT/IS? (flamebait? I wonder?)
In manufacturing, computers ARE just a tool--a means to get to the final product--albeit a vital tool. That's the way they've been living since the company start-up. Mostly paper, eventually some CNC programing, and mostly fly by the seat of your pants--that's manufacturing.
You mention connectivity, but you don't mention what kind. Are you networked through a VNC server that connects your CNC programers to the operators on the floor? You said 100+ computers, so I hope so.
Manufacturing types don't cotton too well to change--unless you can show them how these changes will enhance the buisness.
The only way to do that--being that you're an IS/IT guy--is to talk to the vendors. Vendors of the 'manufacturing' solutions would be busting down your door to get in to do a dog-n-pony show. They can speak the manufacturing speak (that's what they need, and you CAN'T do it), and provide just enough 'razzle-dazzle' to get you what you need. And, you can do this without showing any proprietary/secret info.
Maybe manufacturing solutions aren't your problem, maybe you're just trying to get a lackey or two, I don't know. It sounds like you want to change the company. Not gonna happen. You are not going to get a manufacturing company to realize what a software/online buisness company needs to realize. Two totally different worlds...
Once again, it's just a tool (taken for granted)....
--j
Hmmmmm....
brainee, you said :
:
... who knew nothing about management or any of the major issues that befall a traditional IS dept.
I work in the IS department for a manufacturer
That means you are dealing with the most savy style of management in the arena of managers. You have good managers that can listen to employees, talk to each other, and work things out to keep the ship sailing. The worst environment for managers is in the manufacturing sector. It has no mercy on a manager that does not perform up to expectations. I am possitive that you are not the only one who is stressed out at your work place.
you also said:
I can't mention who I work for since we deal with government contracts
That means that the source of finance for your company to finance production and operations are not from the stock market. Your company is getting financed by treasury bills, or treasury notes.
To know the meaning of it, it simply means that the government issues a bond to investors (usually in increments of $1,000 bonds), to do a certain project, for a certain amount of years until the bond reaches maturity. T-bills are less than a year (4-weeks, 13-weeks, 26-weeks), T-notes are 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years.
What it means to you, is that sources of finance for your manufacturer has been issued already, and there is no more money coming in AT ALL.
You are working in a tight ship, just like everyone around you in the whole company. You are not the only one suffering in your company. You are NOT getting financed by Corporate America stock market. Corporate America has different dynamics for finance that works in the increments of 3 months, or quarterly budget, that drives from an annual budget.
In Corporate Amrica, you can convince people that the need for better software, hardware, networks, security, and trainning is needed, and the board of directors will be VERY VERY HAPPY, as they will issue more stocks in the market to finance the growth, making them eligible for a cut of the deal as a bonus, making them also looking good infront of the investors as they are on "the top of new technology.
That is not your case. Welcome to the world of Government contracts.
You also said:
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
That means that
1- Your management team listens to you.
2- Your management can see that you are working very hard, and trying to come up with ways to do things better.
3- Your management trusts your judgment, and willing to give you what you want IF and only IF you take it easy on them, and explain it in their language, which you did.
Bottom line; Good job.
You also said:
When the IS department was started, it was started by a hobbyist
That means you are left with old undergraded hardware, old operating systems (I estimate that you might have a win95 machine running somewhere on the floor) non-matching hardware (your ghosting process takes longer than it should), in addition to aging wires, routers, switches, and network cards.
You also said:
we have an in-house programmer in accounting who uses Access
That means you have a buddy in the place, and he is aware of the problems of Access, and wishes to use something else that has more power.
I believe that if you know how to build an application on Access, you definetly can learn how to build an application in Oracle, PHP/MySQL, and on DB2. A programmer is a programmer, and can get to work, regardless of the platform.
Above said, summery in 3 points
1- No more money coming in for major Hardeware changes.
2- Old software and small scale applications consume your companies resources.
3- Change is possible in your company, but in small steps.
Bottom line; Software change is what is needed, and the only possible one.
My suggestion is a 4 steps prorgam;
Phase A
I know I'm adding this sort of late to the discussion, but I've been through similar situations twice. The key is to develop a vision for how you think the company should use computers and to communicate that vision to your boss and, ultimately, to the executive staff.
You need to keep in mind that the purpose of computers is to provide people with information and the quality of the information determines how they will value computers.
Things to watch for are preventing islands of data and guarding valuable assests. Don't talk technical to the executive staff, stay focused on the "why" and not the "how", finally, communicate, communicate, communicate.
If it were me I would present the ROI for your proposal. You need to show them why your solution/proposal makes the most business sense. If they don't like that, then I would start looking because you are not in a long term situation.
1. Your company is in manufacturing. 2. Your company is in manufacturing. These people will never understand what you have to offer or how it can improve their business. Ever. Barring a "road to Damascus" experience in the boardroom (possible but highly improbable) you are setting yourself up for a career ending debacle if not years of poor health due to unreasonable stress level and a heart-attack. What you do might as well be in Sanskrit to management. RUN! Run your balls off. You owe it to yourself.
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!