Executive Summary of Effective IT Management
- Sr. Management ignore at your peril
John Miller
The purpose of this article is to give non technical senior management(beyond using your own computer) an insight on the pitfalls of having the 100,000 ft view of one of you most import pillars of your business.
So to the point most senior management in business have a more in-depth understanding of the finances then they do of IT , because just not knowing how to read financial reports or financial statements for irregularities and possible theft, fraud , embezzlement or some other financial hanky-panky could cripple the business or organization.
IT is one of the most greased pigs to wrangle when things go wrong, absolutely the worst.
IT not only can have serious financial losses in the form of money, data loss, loss of business reputation and damage to equipment. It can also have liability implications in the form of legal penalties and law suites brought forward if there are allegations of lack of due diligence on the part of the entity for failing to protect data and privacy.
When it comes to IT senior management needs to get to the 40000 ft view so if there is a rat to be smelled, you would be there to smell it be for things go really wrong.
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Only the fool fears not when the other shoe will fall, but sooner or later gravity will bring all things down"
Failing to plan, is planning to fail. Few words are more true in IT.
As senior management you need at least one or two from you level the can liaison between the overlords and the geeks. Some of the stupidest decisions I've seen are because senior management has the final word, and unfortunately do so without a technical understanding (just enough to recognize trouble) of the possible fall out.
As senior Management most of us prefer our comfort zones, instead do this:
always ask your dept what the hell they are up to, make a point of understanding it(try)
Setup a system that will let you see what they are up to like Trello. - Trello Example(pic) this maybe absolutely separate from your business's ticketing system but it should be simple, as in you are not going to dread checking in and making sense of it.
This simple setup will like the instruments on the dash of you car, help you spot trouble.
Is stuff taking to long in your opinion? This could be trouble, too much to deal with, or it's just a large ask and it takes time. Next the time as a senior management you'll either know it's time consuming or make very sure that there is not thing else on deck when this needs to be done again you'll know to allocate the IT team's freedom to focus on that one task.
Be clear about your budget and expenditure expectations, remembering the most expensive is not necessarily the best and the lowest price does not necessarily equate to the best savings. The pitfall here for both senior management and the IT team is to collaboratively service the issue to a successful resolution.
Training, training, training, training and more training. Everyone needs to be up on their game(IT wise, hopefully IT policies too) for their position in the organization. Acting as if they give a $h1t if the organization was taken down by hackers! In our close to 30 years of being in the field, what I see that should scare ANY senior management team with commonsense. BORED PEOPLE surfing and clicking away on Porn(most porn sites have back links to child porn), Sales 80 -90% off an amazing Prada purse - click here etc etc, a please click here and install this update we are the Microsoft team & want to help you for FREE as we saw there is something wrong with your computer( total BS), checking out Plenty of Fish etc, and etc., etc., etc.. NO LIES, BORED PEOPLE and people that don't give a $h1t are your biggest enemy bar none. Training is engagement with your staff and it shows you expect better and you give a $h1t and expect reciprocation. At the very least it will make terminating someone easier for drawing unwanted attention to your network and possibly your business name. Don't let the enemy be within the gate. They are more dangerous then some mysterious hacker team in North Korea.
Know the difference between on premise and off premise(a.k.a. third party). When the debacle with Crowdstrike and Microsoft brought down companies and organizations globally, that should of been a warning shot to anybody with a brain that it's time to evaluate what it would mean if that type of service(s) took down you business for a week. In a situation like this what is the plan? Did anyone think this could happen and if so what did you have for a plan as a contingency. How are you keeping you customers from making friends with you competition as they are scrambling to me their needs?.