
The end of the IT department - hjw3001
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2785-the-end-of-the-it-department
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eitally
He's completely wrong about the one pretty important detail: why businesses
are fed up with their IT departments. The reason isn't because of IT's
unwillingness to adopt new technology (his Exchange-to-Gmail example), or that
there isn't any "feedback loop for improvement." IT departments were created
and exist because external vendors haven't satisfied business needs
adequately. In small to medium sized businesses that's changing rapidly, but
in large enterprises it's a glacial shift specifically due to what David
doesn't get: IT is slow because businesses don't know what they want, they
create overly complex specifications, they are slow to make decisions, and
they often enforce draconian regulations. There are an abundance of ways IT
can perform better in the age of web, not the least of which is knowing when
to strategically outsource NVA functions. Sometimes these are obvious, like
email, but a number of other core SG&A-type systems can be moved off-premise,
too: HRIS, project management, helpdesk, and many more (there are even SAAS
ERPs popping up).

As AngeloAnolin notes, this is forcing every IT staffer -- especially managers
-- to be as close to the business as only CIOs have been.

~~~
elptacek
Someone has to hire that first IT manager to build and integrate technology
into an existing business. Nobody is going to get this right. To us, this is
an old problem, because we're completely steeped in this world. On the grand
scale of the history of business, this is a relatively new problem. The
mismatch between business' expectations for technology and support staff and
the reality is a symptom of the instability of a significant change.

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elptacek
Since I am not at liberty to discuss what I've been doing for the last two
weeks and why that makes this assertion completely, utterly and shamefully
naive (and ridiculous), I'm just going to tell you a story.

Years ago, my mother worked for a company that did installations and technical
support for PoS appliances. She was employee number four. This company figured
that since it was chock full of highly technical people, they had no real need
for an established IT department or any sort of formal policy for servers or
services on site.

Guess what the password to their payroll server was?

Despite having grown from a small start-up to a respectably financially
successful company in less than a decade (note: BEFORE the dot.com bubble,
mind you), once their staff of technical people found out that some techs were
being paid more than others... well, you can imagine what happened. My mother
was one of the last people out the door.

Every time I read or hear someone shrug off the importance of IT, complain
about policies or refer to IT staff as a 'cost center', I am reminded of how
'mainstream' staff still have a lot of trouble wrapping their minds around how
much trouble one badly behaved employee can cause. Even when there is an
established IT department, it usually suffers from such a paucity of resources
and effective management that the enterprise network... well, the word
'bloodbath' comes to mind.

And now I'm going to start a stopwatch to see how much time elapses before
tptacek makes me delete this comment. :-)

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danielh
I'm not a big fan of prohibitive IT departments, but this article is probably
as biased as you'd expect an article from a major SaaS provider to be.

I witnessed the shift from a very restrictive environment (central SVN
accessible only through VPN, all authenticated through Active Directory,
limited access to servers) towards "the cloud" (Google Docs, Github, AWS, etc)
at my last employer. While the latter has it's advantages, but it's not all
rainbows and unicorns.

One major issue is user management. I quit yesterday (self employed now,
yeah), who ensures that my accounts gets deactivated on all these services?
With a centralized approach, it's just one click.

~~~
iuygtfhnjmn
Simple - one of the developers does it.

The nice thing about cutting IT is that you save lots of money because all the
time that your developers spend configuring new printers for secretaries,
reinstalling windows on the bosses virus laden laptop doesn't count - thats
all free

My new rule - if there are any non-tech staff on site and you don't have an IT
person I'm not working there as a developer - especially if you are the only
'computer person'

~~~
johngalt
There is always someone who is pressed into service for this type of thing. It
will happen as early as 5-6 staff members, and it doesn't go away when you
hire an outsourced IT vendor. In fact it gets even more insulting.

"Thanks for spending 6 hours fixing all that stuff, I didn't want to spend
$100 calling in the IT guy!"

~~~
iuygtfhnjmn
Don't get me started on outsourced IT ......

They came and stuck asset tags on all our IT equipment, then decided we were
charged $100/year for support on each item. Including a $15 ethernet hub that
I got because I only have one socket near my desk.

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zdw
I will agree that there are a lot of legacy IT departments that need a serious
shakeup, but...

Sure, nobody has complex needs that can't be satisfied by a bunch of web apps,
and everyone already knows exactly the hardware they're going to need to
properly do a job.

Additionally, everyone online offering said web apps is totally competent,
never has data loss, is alway available, and meets the exact needs of every
customer.

There's a huge market for bespoke solutions, and people who understand
technology and guide customers into good decisions. This is what sysadmins and
other competent "full-stack" people are for. Don't use them at your own peril.

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edw519
A sensational title with illogical predictions based upon no data.

Like lawyers, insurance agents, and government officials, everyone bitches and
moans about IT...until they need them.

Does OP honestly believe that small business people can maintain their own
servers? Remember, these are mostly people who believe that theBrowser =
theInternet, all you have to do is "plug and play", and when in doubt, reboot.

Does OP really believe that small business people can rely on "local expertise
from a web site somewhere" to insure mission critical up time, maintenance,
and fiduciary compliance. Not anywhere I've ever been.

I get it that 37signals is cool and has built a really nice silo within which
to operate. But please stop with the posts about the other 99% of the world
you know nothing about.

~~~
dgabriel
Welcome, new sales guy, new HR rep, new project manager! Now set up your
gmail, google calendar, share with this list of other calendars, use this
other password to sign into your laptop, on which you should install these
apps (you can probably download them from the internet somewhere), and which
you will maintain entirely on your own. There is no one to help you. IT is
obsolete...

~~~
theBobMcCormick
I was with you up until "you should install these apps".. Wow is _that_ gonna
end up a disaster. Virus infection in 3..2..1

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neovive
Clearly the conventional notion of an IT department will transition over time
as major shifts in technology occur. However, the shift requires technology to
be embedded within the business processes as both a profit enhancer and an
efficiency driver. A company that outsources all of it's technology expertise
would find it hard to compete in the long term.

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arecibodrake
It's "The End of History" all over again. It would seem that this post merely
demonstrated the necessity of the IT department managing resources.

(There are some good comments on that page, so I won't bother to repeat what
they said.)

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didip
Huh?? Don't they have big-iron machines as their database servers?

Who's replacing RAID controllers on those beasts?

~~~
sudont
What 20 man shop that isn't completely technical has big iron?

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johngalt
IT department says you can only use software approved by them, for your own
good. _boo_ _hiss_ "IT is a doomed industry!"

Apple says you can only use software approved by them, for your own good
_applause_ "New era of curated computing!"

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AngeloAnolin
Unless your IT department is the core of the business, this just gives one
more reason why people in IT should learn their core businesses.

