Who Do IT Departments Serve?

In this week's ELATED Extra (http://www.elated.com/newsletter/), I had a moan at IT departments who won't listen to users and who deliberately keep their systems in a state of stultifying impotence. Do you agree? Are you an IT worker who feels differently? Let's hear you!

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Simon, you've obviously never worked in an IT department. There are very good reasons for having a homogeneous set of apps across a network:

1) Security issues (as you mentioned).

2) Reliability issues - if one untrusted app is allowed on the network and starts misbehaving (eg sucking up bandwidth, causing router/firewall problems, or bringing down another popular app) it affects everyone, not just IT. This can be a big problem in a 100+ employee company.

3) Cost-saving - IT departments constantly have their budgets thrust in their face (no-one likes spending money on IT). Supporting the same set of apps is much easier, and therefore much cheaper.

Having worked as an IT manager, I can tell you that the 80/20 rule kicks in all too often - I used to spend days on end supporting one sales guy who insisted on getting some obscure piece of software working on his laptop, while the rest of the network went to pieces. At the end of it all the sales guy decided to use a different app anyway!

All that said, you are absolutely right that there is often an attitude amongst IT staff that the rest of the company are "bothersome bozos". There's even a whole hacker slang around this (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luser for an example).

I think the answer, as always, is better communication between IT and the rest of the company. Rather than the "us and them" mentality, with users bitching about IT and IT secretly locking down PCs and squirrelling away useful information, there needs to be much more openness and an understanding of the needs of both IT and users. Then compromises can be reached.

Also, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt9j80Jkc_A

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I have never worked in IT, it's true, but I think what I'm saying is that regardless of all the good reasons for what they do, none of it is serving the user in anything other than providing a stable platform. It should be about accepting that some people are going to need other things, and accommodating that as best one can, as well as keeping systems up to date, pre-empting the need to use vaguely modern software.

Compromise is it though. Your sales guy for instance; a system could be put in place that says IT will attempt to support software within a decent timeframe, say a week of the request, but will also try to get it working only for a reasonable length of time, say two hours. If it can be made to work in that time, then great, if not then it's a no-go. IT is then seen as responsive and reasonable.

The reason I think people don't like and distrust IT is simply that IT depts project the air of hating users. IT should be there to help and serve, not hinder the user.

Simon

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Haven't worked in IT either (I'm a senior designer) but know a lot of IT people in my place. They're all nice guys, and I haven't had any trouble with installing software on my laptop (if I ask nicely first). They tend to leave us design guys alone though, so we just do our own thing

These kinds of rifts are as old as the hills though in big corps - sales vs IT, IT vs accounts, HR vs engineering - they all have their personal scapegoats!

z

15 years in corporate IT (I already feel older) and this debate keeps rearing it's head up, it's always good a for a bit of spirited debate.

There's 2 opposing forces at work - consistency and flexibility. For consistency, with a fleet of 40,000+ machine, with an engineering apps portfolio of 400+, you need to spend a lot of time making sure that your base build is solid (can be challenging with hardware getting obsolete so quickly) and that any of the apps you install don't conflict with any other apps. This needs a lot of resources for design and scripting, so the IT department has a vested interest in control, to enable enterprise support and recovery of the entire infrastructure. Most companies try and do this, to a greater or lesser extent.

For flexibility, a company needs to be able to review and take advantage of newer technologies that might benefit them. This is where IT is traditionally bad, they don't respond quick enough to requests for new applications, customers get upset and don't think IT listens to them - to be fair, IT does a piss-poor job of explaining to the customer in business terms why it does what it does. It's always a joy when you're talking to a ranting project manager about why he can't get his pet apps installed and you explain that he is merely one of many customers that I have to look after and keep working - he's a medium sized fish, in a very large pond.

There is a third way and when I'm CIO of a medium sized company, this is what I'll be implementing. 5% of your laptop/desktop belongs to me - I own your anti-virus, your updates, your security policies and anything else that enables me to protect and enhance the environment. I'll give you a place to replicate your data to and I'll provide a sandbox environment (either VMware or Citrix or similar) where you can install whatever you want to footle about with. Go hog wild. The only caveat is, if you break your machine, I don't mess about fixing it, I reimage it back to basic, replicate your data back down and you carry on. I don't support anything that isn't the base-load of the machine or the corporate apps. I'll give you a solid, supported environment where you have everything you need to do your work and I'll respond quickly if there's a new app or function that needs to be available to all, but as soon as you step off the straight and narrow, you're on your own.

I am available for interviews and further discussions on this.

Good points all, Goat Boy. I like your third way, though I wonder if it'll be a bit complicated for users? That said, the more responsibility you give them, the better they'll be. Right now, they're hopeless, because they're not allowed to do anything!

IT does do a poor job of explaining things, but the PM *should* be able to request something, and have that looked at reasonably quickly and seriously. It's not unreasonable that they should be miffed at being ignored or told that they'll have to wait months. The balance of power, I would argue, is too much in IT's favour.

@Zaphod. I also find it best if you drug them.

Simon

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That's fine, they should be aware of the complexities of the systems involved providing them the ability to be able to surf the net for pictures of half-clothed celebrities during their lunchhour. It's not and never will be a simple system, and once customers understand that, so much the better. IT is not a utility and until people stop asking for new and more complicated applications, it never will be.

Just because everyone has a PC at home that they futz about with on their own internet connection, does not make them IT support. I don't draw moustaches on people in adverts and declare myself a marketer.

I agree that IT should be more responsive and be able to talk in commercial rather than technology terms to their customers, that's a long road, that one. But if you have customers that absolutely insist on having their own sandbox, give them "PC on a stick" or similar and let them play as much as they like.

I don't think IT has much power here and they use it negatively - denying what customers ask for, rather than going out and promoting what they can do and working with them.

Apart from when they ask for Macs. Then they can all sling their hooks, the poncey gets.

"IT is not a utility and until people stop asking for new and more complicated applications, it never will be. "

Indeed. Do you use thin clients and/or diskless workstations? Do they help?

"I agree that IT should be more responsive and be able to talk in commercial rather than technology terms to their customers, that's a long road, that one."

Maybe what you need is a "customer"-facing project manager type that acts as a buffer between IT and the rest of the company! Someone who can translate between both worlds.

"Apart from when they ask for Macs. Then they can all sling their hooks, the poncey gets."

I get the impression that Macs are lovely to administer in an all-Mac network. Hard work in a mixed environment though, I'd imagine?

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"Indeed. Do you use thin clients and/or diskless workstations? Do they help?"

We've tried it a bit int he past and they can work for some applications, but we do a fair amount of heavy engineering here, so we need the speed on the desk. And if you start segregating people into thin client/fat client buckets, some people get miffed that you don't think they use their computer enough/properly. Have you ever tried to take a PC off a secretary? I'd rather face down a starving rabid rottweiler whilst wearing bacon underpants.

"Maybe what you need is a "customer"-facing project manager type that acts as a buffer between IT and the rest of the company! Someone who can translate between both worlds."

This is pretty much my job description. The customers have been burnt a lot of times before, so they are wary and the IT department is still not massively behind the "service level management" concept, though I am going to London next week for meeting/workshop on this. Given the opportunity, though, parts of IT will happily shoot their feet off with a bazooka, rather than think for a second about the customer (what I've been dealing with this morning is just priceless lack of customer service from our application group).

"I get the impression that Macs are lovely to administer in an all-Mac network. Hard work in a mixed environment though, I'd imagine?"

Any homogeneous environment is much simpler to admin, though there's enough standards now that it make interoperability much easier, though you still can get tripped up. It's more the attitude - "oh, we're creative types and thus we require Macs" - that's fair enough, they're the right tool for the job. "oh and we won't follow any of the rules that PC users have to follow and you can't restrict our machines in any way" - <fires up overclocked cattleprod>

@goatboy: ""oh and we won't follow any of the rules that PC users have to follow and you can't restrict our machines in any way" - <fires up overclocked cattleprod>"

It's awful when the users start to think for themselves isn't it?

Simon

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"It's awful when the users start to think for themselves isn't it?"

Getting in a car and driving the wrong way down a one way street because it's quicker for them is thinking for themselves, but not following the rules put in place to benefit the majority. I'm all for thinking for themselves and bringing me good ideas and improvements that I can implement, but not for them to think they are judge, jury and root because they have a small knowledge about one part of the environment.

It's a fair point, Mac users tend towards the awkward squad. It seems part of their genetic makeup.

Can we have some points on which we might agree? eg:

IT
- IT depts should start being more responsive to user requirements
- IT depts should keep the basic software on a network up to date
- IT depts should be more proactive in user education

Users
- Users should start taking more responsibility for their PCs
- Users should be more understanding of the requirements of maintaining networks, so as to lessen daft requests

What else?

Si xx

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Along i pop to poke my nose in.

Working in creative IT for more years than i can remember i think i am the Lib dems between the red and the blue. When i say creative IT, i mean Mac, Design, Video and Music. Before i get stamped on for being elitist or being accused that i want to ostracise myself from normal IT. Which in most part i do, but that's not the point. Right. The point.

It's just an understanding issue and what they need to actually do the job. That's a sas far as i'm concerned. Most corp IT PC builds are decided without any of the relevant people in the building, let alone the meeting to decide the build.

"What else would you need other than Email and Web and word?"
Well, how about asking the users then coming to an agreement after that, so that the case never arises that Billy in procurement doesn't moan when he need adobe PDF maker and hasn't got adobe PDF maker.


I have just rolled out a 4 tier mac os build for a big TV company, it took ages to come to a decision on what people wanted, but we got there.

There are Video Editors, sub editors, Designers and web. All have a generic base build which is locked down to a certain criteria, it's then added to depending on what users need. Discussions with the 4 teams came up with a software criteria. It was agreed and rolled out. I never get people coming to me asking for software, because it's all there. The base system is 'locked down' in as much as they can't change fundamental parts of the OS. You always need a compliant OS that doesn't differ across the board.

I actually sat there with a few members of each team and went through the dock size, left position or bottom? Font and icon size, mouse behavior etc etc.

All these are server based profiles and can be changed if need be.

I've had discussions with designers in the past where an argument insured regarding being able to change the time on the mac.

It went something like this

Why do you want to change the time on the mac? I asked

I just do...

I have given you everything you need, over and above what you actually need to use on a day to day basis.

I just want to change the time, why can't i just change the time

________

It's just some strange power trip some creatives have.
"I can deliver a 30k project to a client where i have been in charge of the creative, yet i'm not allowed to change the freakin time on my mac"

You will always get these types, but IT whether Mac or PC is about talking to your client and getting a requirement, once you have that you can then roll something out that they were actually a part of designing. There are certain things that they appreciate they cannot have charge of, once this has been set the rest is a piece of cake.

I've designed and built this over a big Editing dept and i barely have to support it as it was built to support itself

So essentially, Stuey, your plan was to ask the users what they wanted and give it to them, thereby heading them off at the pass? This seems like a good plan, though harder if you're not starting from a clean slate I guess?

Still, good, forward-thinking stuff!

Simon

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Yeah sure. I mean who else uses the machines?

I really fail to see what point it is to restrict access. You only find yourself repeating yourself endlessly if you do. The way i see things is thus.

Support is just that, Support. We're here to help the 'talent' whoever that may be, to finish whatever they have to finish, all with the less downtime as possible. it's a thankless task as we all know..

Although this was a clean install, there was a legacy infrastructure there. That was upgraded and hence, so were all the builds. Just to make it easy for me more than anything else. Final Cut alone is an 8 disc install !!

I think this veers more into change management than anything else. The human being is an odd beast to change. They do like their ways. But essentially yes. I met with certain members of the team and went through what they wanted, and gave it to them. By also alluding that they have a say in it helps too ; )

Enlightened stuff! Thanks Stuey. I hope they're all grateful!

Simon

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Off course they're not Simon. We're only here when something goes wrong. The rest of the time we get ignored. That said, if you have a system that is pretty reliable, that suits me just fine

; )

Stuey

Stuey's got the absolute right idea - ask them what they need to do their job, provide it, then lock everything else down. And they'll never say thanks for giving them all of this, with added uptime.