Page 19 - DCAP307_PLANNING_AND_MANAGING_IT_INFRASTRUCTURE

Unit 1: IT for Managers

In addition to determining who the team members are, find out their skill sets and backgrounds. Notes
You may know a team member as a cable installer but he may have rudimentary Java skills that
the Applications Development team could use. She may be a sales manager who has some
project management experience that could help you with the new phone system rollout.

Determine How Important Technology is to Your Organisation

The technology in use can vary tremendously from organisation to organisation. In a law firm,
technology might be used simply for word processing, or it might be used to accurately track
client billings. Additionally, it could be used to scan and archive documents, so that every single
piece of paper related to a case is online where it can be indexed, cross-referenced, and
immediately retrieved.
In a retail organisation, technology can be used for all the traditional back office activities
(billing, purchasing, etc.) but probably serves its most vital function by helping the store
managers to know what products are generating the most sales and proûts, and which should be
dropped from inventory. The store might also use it for space planning so that the shelves are
stocked in a way that maximises space usage, as well as profitability.

Determine Who Your Customers are and What their Needs are

Whether your customers are other employees, suppliers, consumers, or other businesses, they
are the ones you need to serve. Find out who your customers are. Figure out what their needs
are. Then spend your time addressing those needs.

Issues to consider include:
Your customers are not necessarily retail customers (although they could be). More likely,
your customers are other internal department in the company and your boss. Different
jobs have different customers, and there are departments (like Sales and Marketing) who
should spend all day figuring out what their external customers need. IT, on the other and,
commonly serves other departments in the company like Sales, Marketing, Accounting,
and Management.

Figure out what your customers’ needs are. Are they products or services? Data and
information? Reduced costs? Improved efficiency or productivity?

Ask your customers directly about their needs. Set up meetings with representatives from
different departments, ask questions, note the answers, and change the way you’re doing
business to reflect customer needs and concerns.

Keep Your Department Central to the Company’s Operations

Make sure the strategy mentioned in the above section is carefully aligned with the goals of the
entire organisation. This is critical. If the needs of your immediate boss are out of alignment
with what the entire company is doing, you have a serious problem. Let the rest of the organisation
know what you’re doing in IT. To many of the other department managers, IT may not mean
much more than “the people at the Help Desk that can reset passwords.” Periodically, have a
meeting with the other department heads. Let them know what you’re doing in IT, what you’ve
accomplished, and what you plan to do. With a little luck, light bulbs will start going off. They
may see uses for the technology that you hadn’t thought of. Make some good discussion going
and you may learn a way to deliver a lot more value by slightly modifying your plans.

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