This item came to me from Zachary Cohen of Briarwood Associates. Zak is a longtime trainer from the BCR days, and is working with the Telecom+UC Training group. Here are some of his thoughts on challenges that IT departments face these days:
Empty desks are becoming the new feature in IT departments. Some of these losses are from layoffs due to the economy, while other losses are from outsourcing. Business need to save money, but that must come through increased productivity. By slashing the IT budget, you can wind up impairing the very systems you need to deliver those productivity improvements.
In these challenging times, every employee wants to be seen as a valuable asset to the business, and they measure that value by what they can contribute to the organization. Nicholas Carr, in his controversial 2003 article, "Why IT Doesn't Matter Anymore" argued that, "The key to success is no longer to seek advantage aggressively but to manage costs and risks meticulously." In his 2009 article titled "Nurturing IT," Mike Schaffner, of Forbes.com points out that training is one of the cheaper benefits we can provide in tough times.
Both of these articles articulate the need to manage costs and risks, and to increase productivity, but also recognize that a highly trained workforce can have a direct impact on the company's ability to prosper. The move to electronic business continues to be one of the key drivers for increased productivity, but network outages negate that effect. Today, our marketing efforts will depend on the Internet to advertise our products, support our customers, and ultimately to enact the sale. Our Internet presence has gone from being the online Yellow Pages to comprising the store and the customer service vehicle. Network downtime translates directly into lost sales, as prospective customers will waste no time in searching for a competitor.
With voice communications moving to VoIP, it will depend on the data facilities from our locations to our communications vendor. If the service is down or engineered incorrectly, a critical vehicle for our communications will be lost. Further, constraints in travel budgets are driving the increased use of video conferencing, but again, without a well-designed and well-maintained network infrastructure, any of those planned productivity gains goes up in smoke.
The key to weathering this economic storm will be to continue to improve productivity, but all of that depends on a sound and reliable infrastructure. Those networks depend on highly trained personnel who can engineer networks that are dependable, cost effective, and come with the Service Level Agreements needed to guarantee ongoing network performance. You can only cut your personnel costs so far before they begin to impact the quality of the tools the rest of the organization must depend on.
Sound networks require trained network engineers. With downsizing and outsourcing, IT departments are being forced to do more with less, and very often the remaining staff are being pushed into roles for which they are not adequately prepared. Managers have to look carefully at the skill sets they have to work with, and ensure they have the tools to do their jobs effectively.
Uncertain times and increased workloads are stressful. Confidence and competence reduce the stress, and trained personnel feel better about themselves, which in itself increases productivity. Maintaining your people's skills also shows you're committed to them, and those are the people who will stick with you when things turn around again. Failing to keep your network house in order is too big a risk to be taking today.
Zak has taught the BCR "Introduction to Telecom: Voice, Data, and Video" seminar for over 15 years to thousands of attendees. He now teaches the same program through Telecom+UC Training, and his first public course will run April 20th ad 21st in Chicago. Information can be found at www.telecomuctraining.com.
In these challenging times, every employee wants to be seen as a valuable asset to the business, and they measure that value by what they can contribute to the organization. Nicholas Carr, in his controversial 2003 article, "Why IT Doesn't Matter Anymore" argued that, "The key to success is no longer to seek advantage aggressively but to manage costs and risks meticulously." In his 2009 article titled "Nurturing IT," Mike Schaffner, of Forbes.com points out that training is one of the cheaper benefits we can provide in tough times.
Both of these articles articulate the need to manage costs and risks, and to increase productivity, but also recognize that a highly trained workforce can have a direct impact on the company's ability to prosper. The move to electronic business continues to be one of the key drivers for increased productivity, but network outages negate that effect. Today, our marketing efforts will depend on the Internet to advertise our products, support our customers, and ultimately to enact the sale. Our Internet presence has gone from being the online Yellow Pages to comprising the store and the customer service vehicle. Network downtime translates directly into lost sales, as prospective customers will waste no time in searching for a competitor.
With voice communications moving to VoIP, it will depend on the data facilities from our locations to our communications vendor. If the service is down or engineered incorrectly, a critical vehicle for our communications will be lost. Further, constraints in travel budgets are driving the increased use of video conferencing, but again, without a well-designed and well-maintained network infrastructure, any of those planned productivity gains goes up in smoke.
The key to weathering this economic storm will be to continue to improve productivity, but all of that depends on a sound and reliable infrastructure. Those networks depend on highly trained personnel who can engineer networks that are dependable, cost effective, and come with the Service Level Agreements needed to guarantee ongoing network performance. You can only cut your personnel costs so far before they begin to impact the quality of the tools the rest of the organization must depend on.
Sound networks require trained network engineers. With downsizing and outsourcing, IT departments are being forced to do more with less, and very often the remaining staff are being pushed into roles for which they are not adequately prepared. Managers have to look carefully at the skill sets they have to work with, and ensure they have the tools to do their jobs effectively.
Uncertain times and increased workloads are stressful. Confidence and competence reduce the stress, and trained personnel feel better about themselves, which in itself increases productivity. Maintaining your people's skills also shows you're committed to them, and those are the people who will stick with you when things turn around again. Failing to keep your network house in order is too big a risk to be taking today.
Zak has taught the BCR "Introduction to Telecom: Voice, Data, and Video" seminar for over 15 years to thousands of attendees. He now teaches the same program through Telecom+UC Training, and his first public course will run April 20th ad 21st in Chicago. Information can be found at www.telecomuctraining.com.
