by Myrna Padilla
After discussing the responsibilities of an IT department, I will now talk about how to determine if you need an IT department, and if you already have one, how to determine how well it is doing.
The first question- do you need an IT department? – is easy to answer. If you have a few computers, then you need someone to be responsible for them. That someone is your IT department.
Yes, for many small businesses the IT department consists of only one person, usually the owner himself. He is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the computers and when something goes wrong… guess who gets the call? The boss.
For other small businesses the IT department consists of one individual who takes care of the computers, along with a dozen other unrelated tasks. It is an IT department of one. Which is OK.
Finally, there are the larger companies with a “real” IT department consisting of two or more individuals.
So, now the question becomes, “How is your IT department doing?”
If everything is fine-tuned and you never have any technical problems that are not addressed quickly, then that sounds good. The fact is if something can break, it usually will, so glitches are to be expected. What is important is that there is a plan in place when things go wrong. What is important is that when there is a problem it gets fixed quickly. Do you have a documented plan? Do things get fixed quickly when they go wrong?
If the answer to the above is Yes, then it’s a positive sign.
Do you have good communication with IT? If the answer is no, then you need to establish better communication. Nothing is worse than having a serious problem building over time, which could have been addressed early on had there been better communication. Do you know what your IT guys are doing? If not, you may have a problem.
Maybe most importantly, do you have the documentation you need to carry on if something happened to a member of your IT Team? Employees come and go. No matter what we do, that is just a fact of business.
However, your IT people are different than a lot of your other employees. They control the keys to invisible warehouses of very valuable information. If you lose someone tomorrow, do you know where to find the password to the server or your customer database?
If the answer is no, then someone is not doing their job. You should have detailed documentation that is kept up-to-date, and is locked away from prying eyes, that contains a blue print to your networks and the keys to your data warehouses.
One solution you should consider, regardless of your size, is to have a third party conduct an IT audit. It can be done for only a few hundred pesos per computer. We routinely do such audits for our clients. Once a third party audit is completed, you should have the answers to questions like:
• Am I fully utilizing my current technical resources? What do they do all day?
• Am I fully utilizing my existing infrastructure? Can I get more out
of what I have?
• Can I make my existing infrastructure faster, more efficient?
• If my existing technical resources were to disappear, do I have a
backup plan in place?
• And much, much more…
Next week we will discuss the pros and cons of outsourcing your IT needs. As always, if you have a question do not hesitate to contact us at info@myndconsulting.com or call 300-69-63
