I, too, work for a construction company, specifically, a roofing company with over 200 employees. As you are aware, we have about 25% of these employees actually in the office while the other 75% are out on the roofs. I run a one-man IT department, but have also attempted to get myself included in some aspect of every part of the organization. This makes me a valuable commodity and ensures job security.
I agree with postings that reference how the IT department could be valuated on the amount of actual down time compared to the time spent working. I always recall a saying that "I don't get paid for what I do, but rather, I get paid for what I CAN do". Take the first time the network goes down and those 50 employees can't work in the office. Take the amount of money each of these employees get paid per hour and how many hours the system could or may be down for. Now, consider how much the IT department is worth in these terms and what it would have cost the company if these individuals weren't at the top of their game.
A Server, $2,000
An IT professional on staff, $25/hour,
The first time the server goes down, the $1 million sales proposal is due in the next 10 minutes and stored on the server, the IT professional revives the server and retrieves the file--- Priceless.
I know that outsourcing is always an option, but consider that keeping an IT person on staff is not a high price to pay for the ability to tap into their knowledge on a moments notice. I can't provide you an actual return on investment formula that could be used to calculate the valuation of an IT department (I don't know if anyone can), but I know I have my employees crying when something is wrong and they can't fix it on their own.
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I, too, work for a construction company, specifically, a roofing company with over 200 employees. As you are aware, we have about 25% of these employees actually in the office while the other 75% are out on the roofs. I run a one-man IT department, but have also attempted to get myself included in some aspect of every part of the organization. This makes me a valuable commodity and ensures job security. I agree with postings that reference how the IT department could be valuated on the amount of actual down time compared to the time spent working. I always recall a saying that "I don't get paid for what I do, but rather, I get paid for what I CAN do". Take the first time the network goes down and those 50 employees can't work in the office. Take the amount of money each of these employees get paid per hour and how many hours the system could or may be down for. Now, consider how much the IT department is worth in these terms and what it would have cost the company if these individuals weren't at the top of their game. A Server, $2,000 An IT professional on staff, $25/hour, The first time the server goes down, the $1 million sales proposal is due in the next 10 minutes and stored on the server, the IT professional revives the server and retrieves the file--- Priceless. I know that outsourcing is always an option, but consider that keeping an IT person on staff is not a high price to pay for the ability to tap into their knowledge on a moments notice. I can't provide you an actual return on investment formula that could be used to calculate the valuation of an IT department (I don't know if anyone can), but I know I have my employees crying when something is wrong and they can't fix it on their own.