Don’t suffer with in-house technology management if that’s is not your business!
Instead, focus on helping users to succeed. Shift resources to prioritize their effectiveness. Move from a high-tech staff to problem-solving tech collaboration.
The best IT departments remove user obstacles and streamlinine workflows. Outsource the rest — IT infrastructure, security management, remote device management, etc. Good tech requires experts. You wouldn’t hire an in house medical doctor.
Nor should you expect a small company CIO to do both hard core tech security and outstanding user support. Instead hire a managed services provider to take care of the network, security, end user support, etc. Then focus on what really matters: leveraging technology to improve operations, revenue, and employee satisfaction.
Three high-value results will follow:
- Systems and information security; robust, reliable, managed, and monitored infrastructure (usually virtual); and effective end user support
- Workflow improvements and increased employee satisfaction, leading to
- Improved return on IT investment
Non-tech companies rarely benefit from in-house infrastructure management. It’s impossible to keep up with the industry unless that’s your focus — thus managed service providers have become critical success factors.
If this describes you, then you’re paying through the nose for crappy IT infrastructure and ineffective user support.
Here are five principles of stakeholder-focused IT — five operational priorities that stand up to most ethical tests. Make your IT systems:
- Easy — continuously improve the user experience, remove impediments and confusion
- Available — access to information where and when it’s needed, secure without security obstacles
- Reliable — the systems are always available and predictable
- Secure — constantly vigilant security controls and 24/7 proactive mo
- Cost-effective
Technology… how does yours help you and your colleagues? How does it hinder? And where are you spending your money?
Great piece. I think that one of the questions I would ask is whether the IT seems to be serving the business or whether the business is serving the IT. I say this with the understanding that IT is difficult. It forces people to change the way that they work. This is something that requires change management and training. But, too often it seems that IT departments view the change management process as how the users need to change to maximize the way that they use the IT, rather than asking the question of what type of change does this IT platform require and is there a reasonable return on the investment when one considers the cost of those changes. Will the whole — the required change by the user and the functionality of the IT platform — result in a net positive return on investment. Is there a chance that the technology will be indistinguishable from magic?
Yes, exactly right — it feels like magic when people collaborate using really great tools! You describe is a good process for IT to develop and implement new systems to meet constantly changing user and strategic needs — making the work feasible, and perhaps more enjoyable for user-stakeholders.