It’s 8 p.m. and you’re still at the office.
Maybe it’s late-arriving client e-mails, or
somebody said it was just a “minor glitch” in your systems today. You choke
down some java juice, reach for the Advil
and hunker down.
In the morning, caffeine hangover full
throttle, you assure yourself that it’s just
the way IT is. But your gut tells you different. Pay attention to your gut.
In a career born in the technology boom
of the ’90s, Chris Brinkman has become an
IT doctor of sorts. His daily appointment
schedule is chock-full of corporate executives. They tell him it hurts, but they’re not
sure where. Diagnosis. Prescription.
Healing. “Next.”
Smart Business recently talked with
Brinkman about how he fixes ailments
most clients didn’t even know they had. His
hope is, he said, to heal the masses through
this column.
How might a typical diagnostic session
unfold?
Me: How are you today?
Patient A: I’ve got a pain in the neck. It’s
a nagging pain. Chronic IT snags at the
office.
Me: Are you doing anything to remedy
the pain?
Patient A: Tylenol, mostly. Three times
daily.
Me: That can cause stomach problems.
Let’s have a look at you.
Patient A: Is this gonna hurt?
Me: Only if you want it to.
To effectively treat Patient A, I have to
ask a number of key questions: danger
signs of ineffective IT management and
delivery. Feel free to administer this test on
your own.
What are those necessary questions?
- Are your IT people telling you that they’ve got IT covered and that they don’t
need any help? - What is the turnover in your IT group?
- How long does it take you to hire and
train an individual in IT? - If you have a tech issue, how long does
it take your IT department to fix the problem? Minutes? Days? Eons? - Do you currently have an IT roadmap
that assures your IT effort can grow as you
do? A concrete plan? - Would you say that your IT staff is
working an overage of hours that results in
overtime pay or disgruntled employees?
And what’s the impact of that to your company? - How can you be assured that your current staffing levels are where they need to
be or that you could do better?
What are the most common problems?
In virtually all cases of where clients are
able to voice some type of pain concerning
IT, it is most often due to inefficiencies at
the staffing level. Either it’s IT people
claiming that they know it all and can do it
all (which, given the explosion of new technologies out there, is impossible). Or it’s
companies relying on IT to deliver too
much or not enough. Tech problems are
generally people problems, not simply the
systems themselves.
The remedy is to look first at staffing
solutions. If you choose wisely, you can
likely reduce or eliminate pain by contracting out for niche IT specialists. And done
right, the solution should bring down your
overall cost of IT while significantly
enhancing day-to-day operations.
How about another example?
Patient B: Hello. I have no problems.
Me: Why are you here?
Patient B: I wanted to see my name
printed in this magazine.
Me: Great. Got what you wanted.
Happy?
Patient B: Am I good to go, then?
Me: Actually, many of my patients don’t
realize that they do have problems. Let me
ask you a few questions …
And so it goes. One appointment after
another. All with people who thought that
life was just supposed to be this way. Truth
is that you need look no further than your
desk to know if you can do IT better. If you
have Tylenol in your drawer and a ring-stained mug atop it, a checkup is undoubtedly a good idea.
CHRIS BRINKMAN is vice president of development at Mirifex,
the nation’s fastest-growing privately held business and technology consulting firm. Reach him at (440) 891-1210, ext. 232 or
[email protected].