+1 million. I wish I had the time to learn that skill. On Tue, Jun 16, 2015, 11:13 Stephen Potter <[email protected]> wrote:
> Several others have already mentioned that it sounds like there's > management problems at several levels and titles won't help. Some have > mentioned the split management/technical track with management roles > such as Lead, Supervising, Managing, etc and technical advancement > through Distinguished, Principal, Fellow, etc titles. > > What I see as the underlying problem is that no one has been able to > relate what IT does to the business goals and values to help the > executives really understand where IT fits. You mention that IT falls > under the VP of Administration, which generally contains groups like > real estate, facilities, logistics, HR, and perhaps regulatory > compliance. This is all just overhead and costs of doing business. > None of these have anything to do with revenue and enabling the business. > > If you really want IT to start to get some respect, you need to have > someone who can talk the language of the executives and tie their goals > into what IT can provide. Business will talk about market share > (acquiring/retaining customers), competitive differentiation, business > innovation, and profitability. You need someone who can take those and > show how IT can help develop multichannel (buzzword: omni-channel) > services that provide competitive differentiation and attract new > customers. Someone needs to talk about continuous delivery of IT > services that enable other business units (R&D, sales, etc) to change > the way they do business (mobility, supply chain management, etc) and > speed up sales (buzzword: "inventory turn", "sales close cycle") or even > enable entirely new products and services (buzzword: "time to market", > "go-to-market strategy"). And, finally, you need to be able to show how > IT can help reduce costs across the entire company (not just reducing IT > costs), reducing SG&A (sales, general, and administration), and how the > other things I've already mentioned can reduce unit costs (development > cycle, manufacturing costs, etc). > > A couple of examples I can think of, which wouldn't necessarily be > relevant to your specific company. One large fashion retailer I worked > with used to ship store layout, discount information and sales reports > to each of its several thousand stores weekly. They were spending > hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on FedEx shipping alone. IT > was able to work with the store operations teams to figure out how all > that information could be safely shared through remote access across the > network. The savings to the company was millions per year. > > Another company had dozens of desktops in their distribution facility > where product pickers went to print off pick lists for packaging and > shipping. The conditions in the DF were such that the desktops and > printers crashed regularly, requiring pickers to search for a working > desktop/printer combination, and slowing them down. IT had a person > onsite in the DF full time, just to handle desktop/printer issues. > Orders were batched every couple of hours, so there were often times > when the pickers had nothing to do. IT was able to work with > distribution to come up with a combination of thin-clients, touch > screens, and tablets that enabled more real time access to the lists, > reduced errors, reduced outages (to the point they pulled the IT guy > back to the office and redeployed him to do higher value activities), > and reduced costs. It also enabled the distribution to collect > efficiency data, which subsequently led to re-arranging how products > were stored in the DF. > > In order for IT to get respect in many companies, there needs to be a > strong leader who can tie IT to the business, rather than just being > another SG&A cost. > > -spp > > On 6/9/2015 9:52 AM, Tim Kirby wrote: > > I'm not sure if this is actually a repeat of past threads, we > > spend a lot of time talking about this sort of thing within > > "IT organizations" but I'm not sure I've seen this one. > > > > $WORK is a computer system manufacturer. Thus it is largely > > technical with an R&D component building software and hardware. > > Within our IT organization we have two or three highly > > experienced sysadmin/devop/engineer types that could hold > > their own against any of the R&D "Principal Engineers" and > > do, at time, consult for R&D. > > > > The politics and handling of "IT" is every bit as dysfunctional > > as you might expect, however, and the job titles and "official > > status" of these IT guys make them almost indistinguishable > > from a front line help desk tech (no, I'm not dissing the help > > desk tech, don't go there). > > > > I am interested in hearing from anyone who works with or has > > worked with companies that have actually recognized such > > senior folks within their organizations. One term I've heard > > the term "IT Fellow", but I'm really not hung up on the name > > so much as the perceived role within the company and how such > > people might appear in the company ranks. > > > > I suppose I should add that the "VP of Administration" who is > > the ersatz CIO (in terms of corporate position) denies all > > CIO responsibility, indicating that the Director of IT, his > > immediate report, has all IT responsibility. There is an > > "Office if the CTO", I don't know if it would be possible to > > hang these highly senior IT people off that instead. I do > > realize that the de-emphasis of IT at the VP level probably > > means we're all screwed. Sigh. > > > > Thanks for any input... > > > > Tim > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ >
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