#ITOperations #SupplyChain #ITManagement #DataAnalyst #ITTeamBuilding
Are you ready to take on the challenge of managing all IT operations for a 150 employee supply chain employer? Congratulations on your promotion to senior IT employee! π It’s a significant responsibility, but with the right strategies in place, you can navigate this transition successfully.
Building Your IT Team from the Ground Up
As you embark on this journey, there are several key considerations to keep in mind:
1. **Mac vs. PC Preference**: Understanding the preferences of your IT employees is crucial for seamless operations. Since you have experience with both Mac and PC, you can support both platforms effectively.
2. **Choosing the Right Tools**: FreshService is a popular choice for ticket and asset tracking. While it’s essential to consider any potential concerns or complaints, many organizations find FreshService to be a reliable solution for IT management.
3. **Avoiding Common Mistakes**: IT executives often make mistakes such as lack of communication, failing to prioritize cybersecurity, and underestimating the importance of regular IT updates. By learning from these common pitfalls, you can steer your IT team in the right direction.
4. **Budgeting for IT Expenses**: Understanding how your company approaches budgeting for IT expenses is crucial. Whether IT expenses roll up to specific departments or are part of an overall IT budget, clarity in this area will help you plan effectively.
Practical Tips for Success
To set yourself up for success in your new role, consider the following tips:
– **Communication**: Open and transparent communication with your team and leadership is key to ensuring smooth IT operations.
– **Training and Development**: Invest in continuous training and development for your IT team to keep their skills sharp and up to date.
– **Cybersecurity Measures**: Prioritize cybersecurity to protect your organization’s sensitive data and prevent cyber threats.
– **Regular IT Audits**: Conduct regular IT audits to identify areas for improvement and ensure compliance with industry standards.
Final Thoughts
Transitioning to a leadership role in IT can be challenging, but with the right strategies and proactive approach, you can build a successful IT team that supports your organization’s goals. Remember to stay curious, seek feedback from your team, and continuously strive for improvement. Best of luck on your journey to IT excellence! π»π
PC , the mac users are usually engineers and developers
from past experience freshservice has been good and works well across many departments but i find service now to be superior
* What mistakes do IT executives typically make? what do you mean ? apart from forgetting the most basics steps of troubleshouting or poor documentation or not following the right ticket closing process for reporting purposes . not sure
over all IT
I took over the IT department for a 120 person distribution company about 8 months ago.
* Win vs Mac: Really depends on your stakeholders and business, but PC is most common IMO. We run 99% windows but have a few running MacOS.
* Asset management: Have this on my list of to do’s, would love to hear what you evaluate and eventually decide on.
* Mistakes: I’m sure it varies for everyone, but figuring out your team’s top objectives (that should align with company’s objectives) and resourcing should be your top priority
* Budget: For us IT expenses role up to IT budget.
We should compare notes.
IT employees should ideally be on/familiar with the same systems your Org is. If youβre overwhelmingly Windows that would be my suggestion.
Not all ticketing systems are created equal. Might sound funny but they each have a sort of βspecializationβ. That said FreshService isnβt a bad starting place to evaluate what your unique needs are.
First mistake that comes to mind is not advocating enough for their employees. IT is support so they tend to get shafted money wise β if youβre not keeping your employees wages competitive, allocating for good equipment, keeping healthy inventory, etc you will lose them.
Budgeting will vary from organization to organization and industry to industry. You will definitely want to get help with this as a new Admin.
Start on your 1 and 5 year visions now. What did you wish IT did for you as a user when you were a data analyst? How big do you want your team to be? What about in 5 years with org growth?
Edit: my reading comprehension was lacking. I see youβre going 100% internal. Is your entire infrastructure in the cloud? Are you doing your own networking? What sort of data security obligations does your state/industry have and do you have insurance? This sounds expensive for such a small org!
Good tickets make good documentation, good documentation makes good technicians, good technicians make good tickets
This is a circle
First of all – congratulations!
1. My limited IT management experience has been 100% Windows based.
2. FreshDesk isn’t bad from what I hear. ServiceNow is the best solution overall if you can integrate it into the rest of your org (HR, finance, etc).
3. The biggest mistake I see is poor project planning. A lot of tech leaders want to move forward on many different types of projects, but they often fail to properly plan and allocate resources appropriately. This leads to a lot of half-started projects, competing priorities and frustrated employees.
4. We have a master IT budget that encomposses software licenses (Microsoft E3 licenses) and hardware for all users. We have a standard issue set of equipment we provide our end users, but occasionally there are special requests submitted (Wireless headsets, higher resolution monitor, etc). In those cases, we charge the end user’s department budget.
Mac or PC shouldn’t be a preference thing at your scale. Based on your current setup I would try and see if you can get everyone on PC. This depends on whether the applications people need to use are all supported on Windows, which will require an inventory of software. If you can get everyone using Windows you have a much easier time of centrally managing devices. A mixed environment is going to add additional complexities and difficulties, especially as you’re only one person.
Executives typically are shortsighted when it comes to IT. They won’t devote enough budget in the immediate to improve things or resolve issues that will cause more cost later if avoided. Ideally you can come up with cost-benefit analysis of immediate improvements so you don’t struggle later, especially now that you are going to be setting up a lot internally. Don’t just shift over the garbage the MSP has setup, spend the time and money to get it right from the start. For example, if they were managing on-prem AD see if you can get this in Azure/Entra ID.
> Anything else I should know?!?
Don’t change things on day 1. Document EVERYTHING THAT IS CURRENTLY IN PLACE BEFORE YOU START.
Come up with a plan which has definable (and achievable) goals. If you think the project will take a month, budget 2.
At 150 employees, you should be looking for a minimum of 1 other person in the department, preferably 2-3. You likely will not be approved to hire people like this, but if you can document the need, it may happen.
IT is almost always considered a cost centre, not a profit generator. Prove your value in things that benefits what makes your organization money.