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Where Does IT Fall Within Your Organization?

Posted by timothy on from the it-is-very-important dept.

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

6 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Few places... by nametaken · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A few places I've worked IT fell under Operations, the same people that keep the lightbulbs changed, the warehouse shipping and the driveway plowed.

    Presently I work at a smaller business, where I represent the department. I'm lateral to Operations Director, sales director, etc and report directly to the President and VP.

    1. Re:Few places... by InsertWittyNameHere · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It has been structurally different in every company I've been in. Especially smaller ones. Sometimes IT reports to the CFO to keep costs in check. Sometimes to COO to get business processes automated and computerized. And if you're lucky you have a CTO who reports to the CEO/board but is free to make decisions.

      Most companies view IT as pure overhead and try to micromanage it's budget out of fear of excess spending. I can't blame them. Once upon a time all you paid for was an office and some basic office supplies. Now your yearly software license costs alone rival your rent.

      A better motivation would be to stick close to their IT department to make sure both sides understand what the businesses goals and visions are.

      "We want to mobilize out sales force"
      "We want a stronger web presence"
      "We want ensure 24/7 up time even in the case of a disaster"
      "We want to make X process and Y process work together more seemlessly using available technology"

      Getting lost in small details or second guessing the decisions of the IT people you pay to make IT decisions for you ends up hurting businesses. Like "Hey! Stop buying $100 antivirus software buy $19.99 ones!" If IT has to waste time cleaning viruses and reformating machines then they have no time to plan for future growth or to research solutions to real business problems. It stifles growth and wastes money in other areas.

  2. Not sure how much this will help you specifically by Pojut · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I recommend reading The Geek Gap. It might give you some further insight into the topic (and, if nothing else, it might help your boss and their boss understand the importance of a proper department).

    I also would recommend anyone in an IT or management position to read that book. It's a great read that can be finished over a weekend.

    --
    Living With a Nerd
  3. operations by Ubertech · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm also in a smaller IT company (~140 ppl). We have a department of 6 and fall under the Operations area. When we were smaller, it was a wandering soul of a department, but now that we have an IT manager who really knows his stuff, it's great.

    --
    Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
  4. I had a management setup like this once... by supremebob · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was the sole system administrator for a finance software development department in a big company, and reported directly to the manager of the finance team. She wasn't a technical person, and had an home office 1,500 miles away. Amusingly, I NEVER saw her in person for the 18 months that I worked for her.

    The good thing about working for her is that she didn't understand what I did, and didn't particularly care to learn. She didn't bother asking questions as to what I was up to, just assumed that I was doing a good job, and gave me great reviews every year. The flip side of that is that she didn't understand why we needed things like new equipment, new software, or training... which left me running the entire development department on 6 year old refurbished equipment that I could "borrow" from other departments.

    That said, it was a good time. I thought myself a lot of useful skills during my downtime, which made me a better sysadmin later on. I wish that I had more managers like that now :)

  5. Re:Nowhere by Grishnakh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I worked at Freescale, there actually was no real IT department there: it was outsourced to an Indian company. They got paid based on the number of tickets resolved, so they were always trying to make up more work for themselves to do, such as creating tickets to set up IM on an employee's computer, or various other trivial tasks.