Caution – be careful when a client describes his problem

Posted on June 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

I was reminded of a basic client service issue last week, , , “You need to be careful in reaching conclusions based upon your client’s description of a problem”.

My wife’s cousin called us last week. He is more like a big brother to Dorine so our families are close. He was in town trying to get his PC fixed, but was getting nowhere fast.

I knew he was having a problem because he mentioned something about it a couple of weeks before. He had others work on the problem but it was apparently not yet resolved. He decided to take the PC to one of the major computer stores which apparently resulted in no help, , , so he called to see if I knew anyone who might be able to look at the issue.

I asked him to describe his problem, and here is what he told me.

  • It started when he installed a new printer. The new printer driver apparently messed up several things on his PC.
  • He took it to a local guy who was successful in removing the printer driver and restoring is PC.
  • Everything seemed to work except for his Photoshop software. For some reason, he couldn’t view his newer photos. All the older photo files could be opened and viewed but recent photos could not be opened.
  • He receives an error stating, “Can’t view the file. It is an invalid file type.”

Kenny uses Photoshop quite a lot and he was extremely frustrated. He had reinstalled Photoshop a couple of times but could not get past this “invalid file type” problem. As a result, he can’t use Photoshop to work on his new photography projects. This is a significant business problem for him.

What to do?

Initially, I thought about restoring his PC to a previous date to see if that would fix the problem. Then, I thought of a couple of other possible ways to resolve his problem.

But then I had an idea that would save us time and ultimately lead to the solution.

I thought, “Let’s focus on the problem we know we have (invalid file type) and let’s not assume the installation of the printer has caused this problem with Photoshop. Maybe the printer installation is the issue, but we need to focus on the specific problem that has been identified for us, , , Photoshop cannot open and view a new photo file, , , and we have a specific message telling us what the problem is.

How do you find the answer to a problem? 

Most of the world’s questions are answered in GOOGLE.

So, I keyed in the phrase “Photoshop – invalid file type” and search Google for possible help.

Sure enough, the first listing comes right off the Adobe web site and since Photoshop is an Adobe product, , , I’m feeling pretty good already.

I read the information and in it is listed the specific steps to diagnose and solve this problem.

To make a long story short, Kenny brought his PC over to our house and we resolved the problem in just a few minutes. Now, this was after several weeks of having others look at the problem but not able to resolve the issue.

I’m not a heavy technical person, , , in fact, you don’t want me working on your PC.

What was the problem?

The issue actually had nothing to do with the printer Kenny had installed and subsequently removed. It was an entirely different issue.

The problem was that he had bought a new camera and the Photoshop plug-in that converts a camera’s raw image to a Photoshop file that can be modified and manipulated needed to be updated to support the new camera.

The reason the others were not able to fix his problem is because they were working on what the client thought to be the problem. Unfortunately, both the client and his support people were chasing the wrong issue, , , a waste of time, , , and very frustrating for all.

Now, I’ll be the first to tell you, I was lucky to solve this issue so easily and quickly. But the reason I was able to solve it is because I focused on the defined problem (Invalid file type in Photoshop) as opposed to assuming the client was correct in his assumption that it had to do with installing a printer.

The printer may have caused other issues on his PC but it had nothing to do with the fact he could not view his new photos in Photoshop.

The lesson – Don’t just assume your client knows what is wrong. Diagnose the problem based upon the facts you can determine, , , not assumptions someone gives you. The assumptions may be helpful, but they can also lead you down the wrong path and cost valuable time and create tremendous frustration for all involved.

At the end of the day, most problems are caused by something pretty simple. The trick is to discover what that “simple thing” is that’s causing the problem.

I get real nervous when I see a PC technician start making all kinds of changes on a PC very quickly. In many cases, they create more problems rather than taking their time to troubleshoot the issue before making any type of changes to the PC.

Another lesson – GOOGLE has the answers. . . I’ve discovered the answer to many technical issues using GOOGLE searches.

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Weekend at Camp Liberty

Posted on June 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

Record heat in Middle Tennessee doesn’t deter us from spending the weekend at our Camp Liberty on the Buffalo River. We were also here last weekend.

It’s a different world down here, , , quiet and peaceful beyond description, , , except for the birds singing, , , the frogs croaking, , , and the fresh water “Alf’s Branch” spring next to our camp rippling its way into the Buffalo.

Hot as it was yesterday – 110 degrees Fahrenheit, , , this morning at 6:00am was cool and very nice. As the sun began rising above the Buffalo River, it made for some good photography time, , , here are a few photos taken this morning.

Miss Liberty as you can see is a prominent part of our camp as she watches over the river. She is why we call the camp, “Camp Liberty”.

We always find our way here as we approach the 4th of July, our Independence Day. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to stay through the 4th, , , got some work I have to do out of town, , , maybe next year.

Even so, we are having barbeque ribs tonight with Dorine’s family, Kenny and Cindy. Sure looking forward to it as Kenny is a great cook and it’s always fun to spend time with them.

Enjoy your 4th f July.

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6 things that will set you apart from other IT managers

Posted on June 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

Senior managers of companies need partners who can lead IT organizations in a way that helps the company succeed. When they find an IT manager who is able to do this, quite often they give this person more responsibility.

In many companies, business executives don’t want to spend a lot of time with an IT manager or CIO. When they see their CIO walking toward them, they literally want to find a window to jump out of or a back room to hide in until the CIO leaves.

The reason, , , the CEO believes his CIO is going to do these things:

  • Ask for more money
  • Recommend projects he can’t understand or appreciate
  • Talk in a “techie” language that makes understanding him impossible

The problem is that far too many CEOs view their IT leaders as spenders, managers who like new toys and who are infatuated with technology, and people who talk in acronyms and terms that no one can understand. They just don’t understand what their CIOs are telling them. If this is the case, business executives tend to avoid you.

A better picture of this would scenario be when the CEO can’t wait to sit down to talk with the CIO because he is genuinely interested in what he has to say. Guess what, , , he won’t be interested unless he knows he will be able to understand what his CIO is about to discuss with him.

This only happens if the CIO establishes trust and credibility, , , two key things any IT manager must have to succeed.

You earn trust and credibility, , , it is not given to you just because your title is “CIO”.

“Trust” and “credibility” are similar to “respect”, , , all three must be earned, none of these attributes will be given automatically.

Then a key question is, “How does an IT manager or CIO earn trust and credibility?”

It’s actually simpler than you might think.

There are 6 key things that will distinguish you from other IT managers, , , truly set you apart from the masses of IT managers in the world. Plus, do these things and you will earn the trust of others and establish much needed credibility.

1.  Understand and communicate business value – Succeeding in IT management is not as much about technology as it is in supporting business managers and their units effectively. It’s more about “business value” than about the technology.

Business managers and executives understand business value, , , they “get it” when you discuss issues in business value terms. They don’t understand technology, , , don’t want to, , , and aren’t going to for the most part.

Business value includes the following:

  • Increase revenue
  • Decrease cost
  • Improve productivity
  • Differentiate the company
  • Improve client satisfaction

IT managers must learn to discuss IT initiatives, projects, recommendations, etc. in business value terms, , , when they do, the business manager will start listening and understanding.

2. Project recommendations are always cost justified – There has to be a reasonable benefit for spending money and using company resources to work on a project. These benefits are ideally presented with a Return on Investment (ROI). At a minimum, there needs to be quantifiable and tangible benefits discussed in business value terms that makes a project worthwhile to do.

If you cannot articulate the business value your project recommendation will provide, then you probably shouldn’t be recommending it.

Put your “owner’s hat” on. If you own the company, you only spend money on things that are going to provide some type of business value for the company. You invest in things, , , you don’t simply spend money. If there is no return on investment (i.e., no real benefit), then you keep the money to use it on something that will provide a benefit for your company.

3.  Develop an IT strategy and gain approval – Do this and there is no way your IT organization can be out of sync with your company’s business needs and issues. Too many IT managers simply want to go do the work and avoid the effort associated with developing an IT strategy, presenting it and gaining approval.

Other managers suggest that they can’t develop an IT strategy because there is no formalized company strategy. Unacceptable! Even if the company has no formal company strategy, IT managers still need to develop their IT strategy, present it and gain approval before you spend money and use resources, , , otherwise there is a big risk of IT being out of sync with your company’s needs.

4.  Communicate proactively – IT managers are generally shy and introverted. We don’t particularly like the idea of having to communicate with department managers and executives of the company, , , we just want to be left alone so we can get the work completed.

Shy and introverted people have a lower desire to communicate. An IT manager must break through this challenge and set up processes that forces him to communicate with key department managers (the big users of technology support), senior management, and IT employees.

And when you communicate with business managers, be sure to communicate in business value terms, not in technical terms and acronyms.

5.  Manage within your budget – Many managers in IT don’t seem to realize the importance of managing their organization within financial guidelines, , , and the key piece to this is your operational budget.

IT managers who show they have an appreciation for the financial side of the business and the importance of achieving their financial business plan earn respect from senior executives.

The keys to the kingdom lie in the financial aspects of managing IT support. Look at the components of business value, , , every item has a financial implication.

IT managers who do things that are financially supportive of the company’s success stick out, , , most executives view IT managers as “spenders”, , , not managers who always seek “value add initiatives”.

6.  Deliver projects successfully – Another way you earn credibility is when you deliver projects successfully, , , they are on time, within budget, and meet your client’s expectations.

When you do what you say you will do by delivering projects successfully, you gain trust by the company managers and executives you support.

Summary
The CEO will eager to sit down with you to hear what you have to say when you

  • Develop an IT strategy and get confirmation from senior management to insure your team is in sync with the business.
  • Always recommend projects that are cost justified and provide quantifiable business value.
  • Complete projects successfully and demonstrate your IT organization will “do what you say you will do”.
  • Communicate in business value terms.

IT managers who operate in this manner gain credibility and trust in their companies, , , and executives view them as partners who become integral components to the success of the company. As a result, they quite often give these type of managers more responsibility.

So, next time the CEO sees you walking down the hall toward his office, will he run and hide, , , or will he step forward to meet you because he wants to hear what you have to say. When IT managers operate more like business owners, executives usually want to hear what you have to say.

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New IT manager opportunity

Posted on June 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

I received an email recently from one of my Practical IT Manager Newsletter subscribers. In it, he told me he had accepted a new IT manager position with a start-up company, , , a new bank.

His question, “Which books do you recommend I read that you have written to prepare for my new IT manager position?”

Here is what I told him.

I would recommend several things:

  1. Read IT Management-101: fundamentals to achieve more – this is free when signing up for my newsletter and you may already have it. It was rewritten late last year so let me know if you do not have the current copy and I’ll send it to you.
  2. Getting started in any new IT manager role is all about determining what your IT organization should work on and in what priority to work on things so your organization is in sync with your company’s business needs and issues. To get to this, I would follow the processes outlined in two books:
    IT Due Diligence  –  $29.95  –  This book and the tools in it will guide you through a process of conducting an IT assessment to gain an understanding of two key things: 1) Business needs and issues, , , and 2) IT capability and capacity. Once you have a grasp of the demand for IT support and understand what it is you can deliver (supply), you can develop an IT strategy and prioritize the work your team needs to focus on.
    IT Strategy –  $29.95 – Before you start working on things, you should develop an IT strategy recommendation and present it to your senior management team for approval. This is a key step in keeping the IT organization aligned with your company’s business needs. This book walks you through the entire process step by step.
  3. If you are going to build an IT organization, , , you may also want to read IT Organization –  $29.95. This book will give you insight on what you should consider when building an IT organization and includes tools to help you assess specific needs in that regard.
  4. Browse my ITLever BLOG for lots of free articles and download tools – www.itlever.com
  5. Take a look at this 20 Minute IT Manager Session – Fast Start for a New IT Manager

There are some bundled options, , , you might want to consider one of them as they are more cost effective:

  1. Practical IT Manager GOLD Series (includes 10 e-books plus the IT Manager ToolKit) – $279.00  BEST SELLING ITEM
  2. IT Manager Institute Self Study – If you are looking for complete training on how to manage an IT organization effectively, this is the class you want – practical and easy to use processes, , ,  same material taught in the classroom program (includes all my books and tools) – $995.00
  3. Practical IT Manager GOLD Membership – monthly subscription gives you access to my entire library of books, tools, and 20 Minute IT Manager training, plus new training and personal coaching every month, plus access to the IT Manager Institute Self Study to achieve ITBMC status. BEST BUY – $299.00 per month

Once you have your IT strategy agreed upon by senior management and you get your team focused on the appropriate work, the next thing is “delivering the goods”.

The key to gaining credibility in a company is being able to deliver projects successfully, , , or better put, “Delivering what you say you will deliver.”

You won’t go very far if you can’t deliver projects successfully, , , without credibility you simply won’t be viewed as a successful IT organization.

I use a practical project management approach and a few simple tools to help me manage projects successfully. All are discussed in IT Project Management: a practical approach – $29.95. This book comes complete with a simple and straightforward project management methodology as well as tools to help you achieve success. 

The resources and tools included in these items can help you get off to a fast start in a new manager position.

Best of success,

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Is your company being ripped off?

Posted on May 31, 2012 | Leave a comment

You find some of the strangest things exist in some companies. It never fails to amaze me when I conduct a quick IT assessment how much I usually find in “low hanging fruit” cost savings.

Let me give you two extreme examples that I discovered with the last company I joined as their new CIO.

The time frame is October, 1999, , , leading up to Y2K. Remember how uncertain it was?

Once I got there I conducted a quick IT assessment, something I’ve done dozens of times for company acquisitions and a few times as a new CIO or consultant.

In the discovery I found two things that almost shocked me, , , but over the years I’ve learned not to be too surprised by what you see.

First issue:
I discover we are paying $950.00 per month to a local company to host our company web site. This web site is approximately 15 pages and information only, no special functionality, , , and we maintain the web pages ourselves.

WOW – $950.00 a month to host our web site, , , what a great deal !!!

WRONG, , , we are getting ripped off. A service like this shouldn’t cost more than say $25.00 a month for what we are needing, , , even in 1999.

Second issue
This same local Internet hosting company also provides PCs for our Headquarters office which has about 120 people.

A problem I detect is that “new PCs are breaking” plus the PCs we are buying cost us about 20% more than what I can buy the same configuration for from Dell or Compaq at the time.

This company also provides a maintenance service for all of our Corporate Headquarters desktops, , , something we need because we have so much breakage. They only charge us $50.00 per month per device for an all-inclusive maintenance package that includes parts and labor.

Let’s see here, , , how much is this costing?

  • 20% more to purchase the PC
  • $50/month or $600/year to maintain the PC

We are spending over $5,000 a month with this vendor just on PC maintenance plus paying more for  “new PCs” than what we could buy them from Dell.

What’s going on here?

Our company is being ripped off.

This vendor is selling us PCs made up of used parts (it’s why they break within a year) and then selling us a maintenance package disguised as a premium support service.

Well, I quickly fired this vendor, , , hosted our Internet web site myself, developed a standard PC image with Dell and created a purchase contract with them that indeed cost us less money to buy new PCs, , , and our warranty was great, , , and the new Dell PCs didn’t break, , , and we eliminated the monthly PC maintenance cost.

I saved the company roughly $100,000 a year simply by identifying a couple of “abnormal” expenses.

Imagine that!

We were getting ripped off to the tune of somewhere between $8,000 to $10,000 a month by this vendor.

When I fired the vendor, I was a bit surprised as to why one of our Accountants got so upset. Turns out he was getting some of the money from this vendor. That’s usually the case when such a rip-off is occurring.

“It takes two to tango”, they say. My take is that I like saving the money and receiving value for what we are spending with our vendors.

Do you have any “war stories” to share? If so, Leave a Reply!

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Understand supply and demand to manage client expectations

Posted on May 30, 2012 | 2 comments

One of the keys to success as an IT manager is being able to manage your client’s expectations. There are many other keys to success, but this one is critical.

To manage your client’s expectations, you must know some things about the concept of “supply and demand” and how it applies within an IT support organization.

Demand is the technology support needed by your clients to address their business needs and issues.

Supply is your IT organization’s capability and capacity to deliver IT support.

In most situations, there will be more demand than supply, , , your clients need or want more from IT than the IT organization can deliver. This is normal and exists for most IT organizations. That’s OK, but to succeed, you are going to have to balance the two somehow.

Let’s take a team of five programmers and use them as an example to discuss these issues.

Here, you see we have one great team of five programmers. Let’s assume they all work on the same software application to make our example easier.

The Demand Side
Our demand for programming work is defined by a couple of things:

  1. Day to day support required of the programmers
  2. Backlog of programming enhancement requests

Your Help Desk should give you some sense for the “disruptive nature” of day to day support issues that hinder a programmer’s coding productivity. If you don’t have anything, do a 2-week time study and have each of your programmer’s chart where they spend their time for every hour of the day.

You might be surprised, , , and this simple exercise will tell you a lot about what’s being pulled out of your team’s capacity to handle daily support issues.

Maybe you think your team is totally isolated and immune from day to day support. Don’t be fooled, , , do the time exercise and discover the reality of your situation.

The second part of Demand is detailed in your Programming Backlog. You should have a database of some type (maybe it’s just an EXCEL spreadsheet) that lists every programming request and an estimate of how many hours it will take to program the project.

If you aren’t managing your backlog like this, then you don’t know what your demand for programming is, , , and if you don’t know, you can’t manage client expectations.

The Supply Side
On average, a programmer can produce about 100 – 120 hours of productive code per month. There are 160 hours in a normal month of work (4 weeks at 40 hours each), and when you pull out time for meetings, training, sick, vacation and holidays, , , what is left is the actual productive coding time you get from a programmer.

Some months will be less than this average of 100 – 120 hours of productive coding time, some months will be better, , , but over 12 months time you should see this average work out.

If you are delivering less than 100-120 hours per programmer per month on average for 6 or more months, you have a productivity issue that needs attention.

OK, if we have 5 programmers that means our supply of productive coding (or capacity) is somewhere between 500 – 600 hours per month as a team.

Let’s assume the demand for coding new reports, enhancements, and new features for this application is considerably more than our capacity. How do we increase our output, , , our supply?

There are several ways to increase the output of a programming team:

  1. Improve the existing team’s productivity
  2. Have the team work more hours
  3. Pay programmers incentive pay to do certain projects on their own time (on weekends and holidays or in the evenings after work)
  4. Hire new programmers
  5. Contract programmers from the outside

I’ve used all of these and every option will work to improve your programming team’s output. One caution though is that “requiring the team to work more hours” will work to an extent, but long term use of this approach can create morale problems and put your programmers at risk of leaving your company.

You essentially have three options to address a programming backlog that exceeds your capacity, , , reduce the amount of backlog, , , take longer to do the work, , , or increase capacity to attack the backlog.

The bottom line though is that you aren’t going to get twice the capacity with the five programmers you have on board now. If need is truly higher than your capacity to deliver, you have to manage your client’s expectations. There are several ways:

  1. Reduce the demand
  2. Increase your capacity to deliver
  3. Take longer

Usually the answer lies within all three of these. However, Item #3 (Take longer) really isn’t doing anything different. You attack the problem when you do something about reducing the demand and/or increasing capacity.

The next thing you need to have a good grasp on is, “How much of your capacity goes to day to day support?”

It might be 80% of your total programming capacity to troubleshoot issues, fix things, or provide day to day support for the users. If it is 80%, that doesn’t leave much to develop real enhancements.

You need to have a realistic estimate of what day to day support requires from your team, , , without it, you are doomed.

To manage client expectations, you have to know what your capacity to deliver is and of that capacity, , , how much of it is required for day to day support.

Without this understanding, it is virtually impossible to manage your client’s expectations.

Be conservative
The next thing is that when you are making commitments to your clients, you must be conservative. Remember the “Golden IT Rule”, , ,

Always position your team to over deliver. No one gets upset if you exceed their expectations.

One method I use is that I always start managing a new programming staff with an expectation that we can deliver 100 hours of code per programmer per month, , , the bottom of the 100-120 hours a month range you typically see.

Now, when you do this, you need to know that I consider these programmers to be truly isolated from day to day support issues, , , their full time is focused on software development.

I know that if we are operating properly, each of these programmers will actually deliver on average more than 100 hours per month. When I give my client a forecast that we can deliver up to 500 hours a month for the team (5 programmers * 100 hours), I’m positioning the team to over deliver.

Summary
Four key things will help you manage your client’s expectations:

  1. Understand the demand for your resources
  2. Know your capability and capacity to deliver
  3. Realize how much is used for day to day support
  4. Be conservative in your commitments

Do these things with your programming staff and other parts of your IT support organization and you will be able to manage your client’s expectations much better.

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Key reasons to develop your IT staff

Posted on May 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

There are many reasons why you should invest in your IT staff and develop their capabilities. I can’t think of a single reason why you should not.

Are you aware that many IT managers don’t want to invest in training and developing their employees?

Hard to believe but it is true, , , many managers are afraid that once an employee gets trained he or she might leave the company for a better job somewhere else.

I’m sure this probably happens on occasion, but here is what I would say about this perception:

“Investing in your employees and developing their skills tends to cause them to stay with you , , , not leave you.”

Key reasons to invest in your IT staff:
A. Creates a stronger team – Stronger, more capable employees can do more, , , they are more productive, and your team will become much more successful.

B. Easier to manage – Stronger teams are easier to manage. More capable employees require less direction and can simply achieve more.

C. Motivation – IT employees are motivated by training and education. They are hungry to learn more, keep current in changing technologies, and appreciate it when their company invests in developing their capabilities.

D. Reduce turnover – What I’ve seen is that employees tend to stay with you when you invest in them.

E. Build depth – Creating a Training Plan for every employee you have gives you opportunity to build depth in mission critical skills, , , this gives your team flexibility and an ability to deal with issues much more effectively.

F. Identify your replacement – Developing a candidate to replace you positions you for more responsibility. New opportunities are not given to managers who are not prepared to take them, and being positioned with a replacement is a key part of being prepared.

G. More responsibility – Coupled with Item-F above, organizations that achieve more tend to be asked to take on more responsibility, , , a good thing for all.

Every employee on your team should have an annual training and education focus!

The motivational value alone is too great to miss out on. It also gives you an exceptional ability to fill in gaps in your team’s skill sets and things you need to support your clients effectively.

Each employee on my team receives an annual Performance Plan, and in each plan I include a section titled, Training and Education. This way, it forces me to invest in each employee and focus their development in areas that will help the team and our company.

To determine what you put in each employee’s Performance Plan, begin with a global look at your IT support situation. Here is a quick approach:

1. Take some time to identify what you need in terms of IT support skills and capabilities (don’t forget soft skills).

2. Quantify what you have.

3. Develop a list of needs to focus on based upon the skill gaps you identify in “what you need” versus “what you have”.

4. Identify training and education that will address your gaps.

5. Target individuals to receive the training focus you decide to invest in.

6. Put each employee’s list of training to be targeted in their Performance Plan.

Be sure you review every employee to ensure each has specific training and education targeted for him or her.

Every employee needs an annual training and education plan!

Be proactive in developing your IT employees and you will see good things come from it, , , a stronger, more motivated team, , , and an organization capable of achieving more success.

These are some mighty good reasons to invest in your IT employees.

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51st IT Manager Institute held in Atlanta, Georgia

Posted on May 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

Last week, I held the 51st IT Manager Institute in Norcross, GA, , , just north of Atlanta and next to Roswell, GA where I lived for 20 years.

Samuel and Georgette – IT Manager Institute #51

The 51st class was small. We had 4 students drop out the week before the class due to vacation, project commitments, , , or in the case of one student from Venezuela who had difficulties in coordinating the trip. Fortunately, all plan to attend the fall class I have scheduled for Columbia, TN the week of September 24-28, 2012. I can hardly wait to meet them.

Normally, I would probably cancel such a small class when I have to travel, but one of the students, Samuel Alabi, came all the way from Lagos, Nigeria. His company is headquartered in Houston so he is spending a couple of more weeks in the US.

The other student, Georgette Correa, works right around the corner from where we held the class so I decided to go ahead and make it happen, , , and I’m so glad I did.

This was just a FUN CLASS, , , both Georgette and Samuel are extremely likable and fun to be around, , , we laughed quite a lot in this class. Small classes are not quite as profitable for us, but the positive thing is I’m able to get to know the students much better than in a big class, , , and, I’m “helping IT managers of the world achieve more success” , , , one manager at a time.

It’s worth the effort.

Driving around my old neighborhood brought back some great memories, , , plus I was able to have dinner with my brother, Mark.

On another night, I met Tom Mochal at the Cheesecake Factory in Perimeter Mall where we met one another for the first time in 2002. Tom and I have become close and share ideas with each other in meetings and our wives enjoy getting together.

Joining us was Craig Telfer, a long time friend who I worked with in two companies. It is always good to see Craig and I consider him a “brother”.

Dexter Oliver and his best friend for many years, Irvin, also joined us for dinner, , , I met Dex in February 2007 when he attended the IT Manager Institute (#23) in Nashville, TN. Dex hosted this Atlanta class and has sent 10 or more of his managers through the program over the years we have known one another. He is a great guy.

Dex makes a great comment about the program, “There is a huge difference in a manager who has attended the IT Manager Institute. Working with a manager who has gone through the program is ‘night and day’ compared to someone who has not.”

I was remiss not to get a photo of the dinner with Tom, Craig, Dex and Irvin.

But, , , here are a couple more photos of the 51st IT Manager Institute class.

Dinner at Ippolito’s

Samuel and Georgette after a great meal at Ippolito’s

Here are a few of their comments:
“This course is the best course pertaining to IT that I’ve ever taken. I highly recommend it for anyone in IT – not just managers.”

“Mike Sisco is ranked, in my book, one of the greatest teachers. He has made a huge impact in my thought process in reference to my IT career.”

“The content is very much a “must know” for IT managers who are hungry to succeed.”

“This is a mini MBA for IT managers.”

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Risk #6: Security

Posted on May 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

The sixth risk listed in the Six Key Risks a CIO Must Avoid post is

Security in a company includes many things, , , from physical security, systems security, Data Center security to network access security. Most of these security aspects have technology involved in some way.

Security plays a huge role in our lives today, , , especially for technology managers.

As systems become more advanced and are depended upon more by everyone in your company to do their job, your ability to provide a secure technology environment is a prerequisite to IT success.

A CIO now needs to be aware of all types of security issues, , , even potentially physical security as certain physical security devices and processes are dependent upon technology.

In a company of any size, it behooves the CIO and senior management team to have a security officer who can focus time and attention to security.

A security breach can have major impact on the productivity and stability of a company. Security is a risk all CIO’s need to focus on to protect the company and its employees.

To provide reliable security for your company, you should:

  • Have a security focus and assign accountability for each security component
    • Systems
    • Database
    • Network
    • Building and facilities
    • Privacy
    • Password
  • Develop security policies and procedures and communicate them to your work force
  • Create monitoring systems to evaluate compliance
  • Conduct random security breach tests to evaluate your security procedures

It’s important to constantly evaluate your company’s security measures as things, especially technology, changes constantly. Becoming complacent into thinking everything is “OK” can cause you to experience a big and possibly painful surprise one day. Managing security needs a proactive focus that always asks two questions:

  • “Is this security component still secure?”
  • “What is the impact if this security component fails?”

Place a focus on security and make someone accountable can help you sleep better at night.

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Risk #5: Downtime

Posted on May 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

The fifth risk listed in the Six Key Risks a CIO Must Avoid post is

This risk is actually two things, , , downtime plus what I like to call “lack of systems availability” when Users can’t access technology needed to do their job.

Downtime is straightforward, , , a server has crashed, a printer has broken, or a remote office router has failed. Something isn’t working so we have downtime.

System unavailability can mean the systems and network are all working properly but something prevents a User from accessing a system. An example might be when the IT organization freezes a server to perform an upgrade or maintenance.

In both situations, the User sees it as downtime. “I can’t work so something must be broken.”

A CIO must create a stable and reliable technology environment. Nothing will get you fired quicker than managing an IT organization that experiences lots of downtime. It is simply unacceptable.

The reason downtime is unacceptable is because it costs the company so much in many ways:

  • Loss of productivity
  • Morale issues
  • Client satisfaction problems
  • Troubleshooting and resolution expense
  • Loss of revenue

Effective CIO’s understand, “UPTIME IS KING !”

It’s important for a CIO to create an environment that supports a stable systems and network environment. To do this, the CIO should put in place a few key things:

  • Reliable hardware and network components – It goes without saying that an environment made up of old, dilapidated systems and network components is going to have failure. Understand where your “achilles heels” are and upgrade as needed to improve the stability of your technology environment.
  • Infrastructure support staff – Your infrastructure support can be staffed in-house or outsourced, but the staff must be capable and qualified to support the technologies used by the company. This team must also be positioned to respond quickly to problem issues.
  • Reliable support vendors – You need vendors you can count on, , , the type that provides reliable and responsive support.
  • Change management processes – Implementing processes to control changes made to networks and systems will help ensure thoroughness and quality of upgrade projects.
  • Monitoring systems – One of the best tools an infrastructure manager can have is an early warning of an impending failure. Good monitoring systems help you anticipate need.
  • Escalation procedures – When a system or network component goes down, you need to fix the problem as quickly as possible, , , this will be handled faster and more effectively when you have sound escalation procedures to follow.

Two additional things the CIO should understand is:

  1. How much downtime the company is experiencing
  2. The cost of downtime

When I joined a small company I knew we were having downtime issues, but with no Help Desk I couldn’t get a good handle on what kind of issues we were having. To gain a better understanding of our downtime situation, I created a simple spreadsheet and started tracking every downtime event we encountered. Within a couple of months I had a very good sense of what was going on which helped me in developing our strategy to stabilize our technology environment.

The other thing I’m a big advocate of is to understand the cost of downtime.

You can do this very easily for any component in your technology environment, from a larger server, a remote office router, , , even a desktop PC. Take a look at an ITLever post I wrote about this and download the Cost of Downtime tool. There is a link to a 20 Minute IT Manager training session that explains it all.

Reducing downtime should be a key focus of any CIO.

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