Taking Care of Business - 2

A week ago, I posted a question on Linkedin (www.linkedin.com), which asked

“What do you want from your IT Department? Are you getting it?”

I got only 8 answers in a week, which is low, particularly when compared with the 100+ answers to the question “If Vincent ran out, would you buy him some paint?”.

So, on a site with a massive number of professional members (quoted at 12 million), only 8 people had the interest in IT to answer. Of the answers, 7 of the 8 related to the IT Department as a service organisation, which goes to the topic of my Blog, posted a couple of weeks ago. Both of these facts should be slightly concerning to the IT community.

Of the answers, I thought the cleverest answer, (and it made me smile) was from Melodie Neal
“Do not ask me if I've tried rebooting to solve a problem: I tried all the routine stuff before I called you. Try to think outside your comfort zone: the answer to every technical problem does not come in a box with Microsoft's logo on it.
Warn me when you plan to disrupt services, and let that warning be at least 1 business day before the outage. I work to deadlines, and I can only manage my customer's expectations properly if I know what level of service I can expect from systems you run. 
If you know that something is on the fritz, such as the mail (again), try to let people know promptly.
Try to understand the business we are in, and what tasks we have to perform regularly. Ask a few staff to describe their working day. Spot the gaps where people are using their own equipment to make up the short falls in yours. Try and make the gaps smaller”

I received an answer that I thought summed it up, so I chose it as the Best Answer - from Stuart Ali
“Ability to make decisions based upon organisational need rather than constrained by purchasing policy, current process and budget. Isn't ICT about building capability? ... but isn’t that a mistake of most service providers... focusing on the here and now, believing they are just a "service provider"... then are struck down with bewilderment when a new competitor takes the market by storm!”