Postings like this is the reason why IT people need to become more than IT people and get into marketing, finance, etc.

Another thing you're forgetting, a lot of people out here are FAR from computer savvy. Sure, you might think they are, but, plenty of people would tell you differently.

Definitely, I think IT needs to redefine itself. Also, I believe that to embrace these new possibilities generally requires a whole new business philosophy. Decision makers need to stop putting so much weight on what they've learned 30, 20, or even 10 years ago.

another view: I worked in a PACNW company, a little off-the-wall where money was tight and the boss was a half tilt to the left. Sooo, instead of an industry savy IT honcho, we got a guy who took a secretary and put her in charge of the "computers." She learned on-the-job. No kidding. Luckily, she caught on, one mistake after the other. Training sessions out of town in Seattle, Portland, and Boise, one right after the other. Hardware, software by the thou$and$, but she got the reputation as the $oftware "Queen" of the joint. She just leaned it day-by-day. Zero formal learning.
You see, you IT people think everyone thinks and speak in zero's and One's. A lot of CEOs don't. The point is, a lot of them DON'T KNOW, AND THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW THEY don't KNOW.
Get it? So they fake it. Get it? They are CEO's of Multi-Million dollar corporations and they are faking it about the nuts and bolts of the stuff under them. They are guessing. He propped up a girl in the MIS Dept as the Department Director who a year before was a secretary and milked cows on a farm on the weekend.
She didn't know a router from an utter. She thought a "hard drive" was her husband on the weekend. Now she makes $75,000 a year and buys a quarter million dollars worth of hardware.
Great industry computers. I was there. I saw all this.
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Yet another article in the "dump on IT" series. All you MBA smartasses want to get rid of "the IT guy". He enjoys his job, is well paid, and doesn't have to lie for a living like sales and marketing do. Even after you've outsourced everything to India (you'll see how that works out) you still can't get enough payback on the IT guy. You're just jealous that he actually understands computers and you don't. After you smart guys finish gutting the middle class, and the USA looks like Brazil, let me ask you: who's left to buy your products?

PS your jobs are getting outsourced too. Be sure to turn off the lights when you leave the building.

I love this. All the excitement and anger about one article in FC!

Personally, I say "bring it on". I own an IT consulting company; we are the IT department for small businesses. Let them try this ... they'll be calling us so fast it will make their head spin.

And if it works to their advantage? Super! I can take that successful model and market my business thusly: Ditch your IT department, go online, and keep us around for insurance.

Thanks, FC, for the idea! I'm already setting up a speaking engagement to sell this idea to local industry!

You, Sir, are an idiot (misinformed).

Your case study only hits on a few high points and you leave out a lot of areas where you just don’t know where IT expense is incurred, but you soon will be figuring it out when you audit your books next year.

I, of course, am an IT guy. Having recently left a small company on terms mutual to both parties I can truly say, if you depend on technology, more than MS Word, you are setting your self up for disaster. On the terms of my departure, I agreed to offer consulting services for a period of time at a much higher rate $100 / hr. Let me be the first to say, over the last year I have made a little over double what my base salary was. They still think that once the systems get taken out of house this will go down, not likely at all as now instead of spending 1 hour a week working on the exchange server, I have spent 10 hours @ $100 /hr fixing the outsourced email because the bone-head production employee totally had no clue what she was doing and everyone was without email for 3 days before I was called.

$100k / yr is nothing compared to the money you stand to loose when your clients can not get in touch with you, your site is offline, workers can’t work, etc. Even if the disruptions are small as in minutes or hours, and god forbid, days. While with this small company for a little over 3 years before we parted, the most we were ever down was 1 hour, and that was a failure of our communication lines from Bell. Now MAC’s (moves/adds/changes) require the phone system vendor @ $125/hr and their minimum billing is at least 1 hour on 30 minute increments and take several days to happen, Ha!

As an independent consultant, I still think you are an Idiot as you are giving really bad advice to the small business community, but you have just increased my income exponentially, thank you!!!

I love the premise of your article...I'm a consultant and would love to assist companies in this effort.

A little background...15+ years IT experience, master's degree in IT, working on my MBA. I understand it's all about business. I want to help you understand IT is about making business better, faster, and more competitive...and at the cheapest price possible. I also want you to understand your IT guy is a technician, nothing more. You should not hold high expectations for this employee. He is smart...but he gets off on bits and bytes, not closing a deal or making new business contacts.

Recommendation...hire more than a technician if you expect more out of your IT Guy than someone who keeps your network up and operating and your website updated.

Finally, you listed a hodge podge of web services that are not integrated with one another. You want to hear your employees scream...tell them they are now going to have to log into several different web sites to do their job. Yeah, that will go over well. Again, IT is an enabler and should make things better and faster, not complicate the way you do business.

Hire a good consultant...you will be amazed at what we can do for you!

Jeff Doolin
jeffdoolin@gmail.com

Wow...

So basically you would rather pay a secretary a salary + employment taxes + benefits + 401k to sit around and answer a phone and take messages? Rather than pay someone that can actually expand your business, upgrade your processes and procedures? And in most cases, cut your overall operating costs by bringing you into the new century? Its all about learning. Theres people who are too cheap to pay for car insurance...What happens when they crash? Their screwed. Then there 90% of america..People who pay for insurance so that when stuff happens, they are protected..The previous articles are right...Spend your time LEARNING the technology..Meanwhile you arent doing what you are an expert at and theres no way that will bring in more revenue...Why do you think there are IT guys and this is one of the fastest growing markets in the US? Because time is money and 90% of people understand that their time should be spent on their core business, not learning Windows....

Silly..

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