IT Departments Fear Growing Expertise of Users

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @08:42AM from the illusion-of-control dept.

flatfilsoc recommends a long article in CIO magazine on users who know too much and the IT leaders who fear them. Dubbing the universe of consumer technology the "shadow IT department," the article highlights the extent to which the boundary between users' workplace and home have broken down. It notes the increasing clash — familiar to anyone who works in a company with an IT department — between users' home-grown productivity boosters and IT's mandate to protect corporate data. The inherent tendency of the IT department to want to crack down and control technology that it doesn't supply should be resisted at all costs, according to CIO. The article outlines strategies for co-existence. It just might persuade some desperate CIO somewhere not to embark on a career-limiting path of decreeing against gmail and IM.

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70-270, bitches! by LibertineR · 2007-02-20 09:34 · Score: 1, Troll

For our clients, this is what we do:
Somebody says they are an 'expert user', we have them take the Trancender 70-270 practice test for Windows XP. If they can pass it with an 80+ score, we give them local admin rights or put them in an approved OU.
It is part of our SLA, and if anyone bitches, we just point them at the contract.
Having seen the hundreds of various ways an enduser can fuck up their data, this is one thing we DO NOT bend on. I have never had a CEO or CIO complain about this clause, and to date, out of maybe 20 users testing, NONE passed with even a 50 score.
User says they're expert? Make them prove it.