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?"

Comments

What is IS?

[sita]

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.

Re:What is IS?

[jaygatsby27]

That depends of what your definition of IS is. --Bill Clinton

Re:What is IS?

[AKAImBatman]

It's a shortening of the old term for technology departments: MIS (Management Information Systems)

MIS was commonly used back in the days of mainframes, because the department encompassed a lot more than just administration. They were responsible for the development, deployment, and operation of all mainframe programs, as well as all hardware related to information flow. Key punchers were also often assigned to MIS. In the olden days, they formed the core of a company's ability to produce bills, compute sales, and just about every other function that required data processing.

Today, many companies have eschewed the idea of central processing for a technology department (IT) that merely installs the applicaitons that users run to do their own processing. Larger companies also have a software development department which is usually at odds with IT.

Vacation?

[AnonymousCactus]

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...

I.S.?

[dbolger]

Information Systems?

Only Way

[nico60513]

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).

You Can't -- Resign

[Monkelectric]

Find another job, and quit. Cite as your reasons for leaving the stupid stuff that goes on. They may surprise you and make a counter offer. They probably will not.

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.

Ignore all technical details

[endrue]

Remeber that upper management generally hates technical details. Explain how the widespread changes will benefit the company in relation to things that you know are important to them. Make sure that you underline the importance of the changes and the specifice benefits they entail; things like money saved, less training, less downtime, and less support calls.

show initiative

[boxlight]

What is the best way for new IS managers to convince their superiors of the need for widespread change?

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

Chances are...

[Karl Cocknozzle]

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.

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.

Re:Chances are...

[soulsteal]

"Why hello there young lady, I'm the IS Manager. Instant Satifaction, oh yeah!"

That would play out well.

Re:Chances are...

[kimvette]

er, one can infer directly from the context what the author is referring to.

And for what it's worth connectivity is not the primary function of IS. Providing and supporting the infrastructure for company data, processes, and infrastructure and making it as transparent (that is, problem free) for the users is what "IS" departments are for.

I've gone into companies and improved security (brought them beyond HIPAA compliance - they're behind two firewalls), reliability, etc. and now we hear from most of them very little. One customer we hadn't heard for in four months contacted us a couple of weeks ago. I had been wondering if there was a problem (e.g., they thought IT services were too costly) but when they called they had a laundry list of items, mostly concerning computers we didn't provide (mainly problems with Dell systems, which on the low end have a HORRENDOUS failure rate). When he called he said "I know you haven't heard from us in a while but to tell you the truth things have been running GREAT." It was satisfying to know that a nontechnical manager at a client understands the value of IT and that it is when you don't even think about your network that things have been done right.

Incidentally that was one of my clients where we deployed Open Office (saved $400 to $500 per seat on software there), Firefox, and other free/OSS solutions. Users (secretary/receptionist types) took to OOo immediately and discovered functioality that I didn't even know was in OOo, which underscores just how well OOo stacks up against M$ Office for typical office use. Sure, if they were working with 1200+ row formatted/hyperlinked spreadsheets they would not be able to use OOo due to severe performance issues, but they'll never encounter that there.

They have gone from continual downtime between spyware and a lousy (and insecure) network setup and flaky hardware to never even thinking about the computers. Their only remaining problem is they're still on Verizon DSL so they experience bandwidth issues when lots of terminal service users are logged in, but that's unavoidable until they bite the bullet and go with a T1 line, since Verizon STILL doesn't offer sDSL here. They had one minor incident where one individual who had the admin password was canned and they didn't change the admin password or let me know, and that user was a little spiteful and changed the admin password. That was quickly addressed (thanks to UBCD) and now I've created a secondary admin account just in case another manager has the same idea. Aside from that they have had no real problems.

My point?

Express your goals:
- minimized downtime
- data integrity - redundancy, automated backups, etc.
- solid disaster recovery plans (minimize downtime in event of a failure)
- facilitate better communication and data exchange
- Make your IT infrastructure transparent. By transparent, I mean so problem-free that the users don't even have to think about you.

Remind them that a single day's worth of downtime for a business of that size costs more than it will cost to implement a proper network and process up front. I've seen a 130+ employee company (a software company) lose exchange due to HDD crashes (the acting IT director ignored the RAID warning when one drive failed, then a second failed) and the acting IT director was clueless. Management approached me to recover the data (knowing my background in Windows, Exchange, M$ mail, etc. prior to QA) but when I checked out the backups, I found that the acting IT director (the previous IT director left) had changed the backup several months prior, so that ONLY the directory structure was being backed up. No System State backup, no info store backup. No files backed up. They were toast. Also, ALL of the previous backup tapes had been recycled, including the ones at Iron Mountain, so they had NO backup. That situation lead to about a week's worth of no email, and likely hundreds of thousands worth of lost revenue. Fortunately

ROI

[isotope23]

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.

Re:Me Oh My

[diersing]

Ditching ship is ONE path. The other is to use your "management" skills and convince them your way is better.

If you wanna run around with the big title you have to back it up with the soft skills of massaging management to see it your way. Give them cost/benefits analysis and identify the risks of non-action ~ require them to sign something that they are accepting the risk. Once business decision makers are on the spot and putting their name on something they'll usually read it and give it due consideration.

Single point of failure

[CodeShark]

Sounds to me like you are doing your job well, and are the 'single point of failure' critical resource. Which translates to a) job security in that you are the only point where things can be fixed, and b)job overload, because a one man IT department has to keep up with every change on every workstation and entry point into the network (including software, printers, modems, net connections, etc.) and the points of attack or network/application corruption problems are multiplying faster than a single person can possibly track, unless the company is hopelessly mired in '80s technology.

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.

Re:Me Oh My

[Geoff NoNick]

What makes you think the company's management is acting illogically? The system works, the computers get the job done and there are no problems other than the fact that someone hired as a System Administrator now wants to be an I.S. Manager and feels he needs a few more people on staff to justify that title. This company isn't in the business of running a computer network, so why should it dedicate more staff than necessary to maintaining one perfectly when there's nothing impeding the daily running of what the comapny does do?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Obviously this System Administrator thinks that proper I.S. management is the well-spring of all company productivity, but everything looks like a nail to someone with a hammer. I say he just accept the fact that he isn't going to advance his career very far at this company. He should quit for that reason, but don't blame the company for it.

Read my full post...

[thebdj]

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.

Schedule sheets and VMWare

[SysKoll]

You should point out that compliance with government regulation (especially for contractors) requires a good IS system. Otherwise, sooner or later, you'll have to supply records that you don't have. Talk with your accountants, see what they need.

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.

Re:Me Oh My

[rovingeyes]

Time to update the ol' resume and make for the exits.

Seriously, I would never hire you. In fact mentality like yours is definitely a sure fire disaster recipe. Here is what I deduce from your comment:

• You run away from challenges.
• You lack proper communication skills (It is important for IT person to explain stuff to average Joe in his language).
• You definitely are not a leader.
• You apparently think very higly of yourself.
• You are definitely not a self starter.
• You are not reliable.

With qualities like that I am amazed, you still have a job. This guy has the zeal to learn and to introduce change. He is showing leadership skills, trying to improve how things work in the company. A guy like that is an asset. Instead of giving him useful advise, you tell him to bolt and you have been modded insightful. And still you wonder why your job is being outsourced. Come to think of it you are asking for it.

Re:Me Oh My

[moorley]

Well said... But...

He's been there for years and they haven't listened to him.

By what miracles of miracles are they going to start listening to him now?

I've been outsourced. I was the last one there and turned off the lights as we left. It wasn't because we were incompetent it's because they had already made the decision many months ago to send it to another geographic region. We were already the contractors running 12 hour shifts. The moral of this story is to look at the big picture and make your best decision.

I resemble your remark. I'm not incompetent. But my 20/20 hindsight tells me that after 6 months to a year if I haven't gotten what I wanted even though I outperformed every expectation and made the case for improvement you leave. Yes there are things you can do better but the time has already passed. We don't live for miracles, that's why we need to make good decisions.

He needs to make decisions for himself, not the company he works for.

I disagree with your three issues

[dillon_rinker]

"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.