The old adage about the typical IT department is that it gets treated like a crop of mushrooms; kept in the dark 99% of the time, except when someone opens the door and covers everyone in another pile of excrement!
A UK county council recently automated some of its WAN management processes; streamlining what used to be a horrendous ongoing firefight overseeing connections to over 500 schools, libraries, depots, offices and other remote sites. Aside from the cost savings, how did it affect the working lives of the IT personnel inside that department? One thing’s for sure, the place looks a lot tidier now 
No more lever-arch files cluttering the floor, old cardboard boxes that once held kit, unopened mail all over the place – all of it which was literally years old, untouched and gathering dust. Mushrooms? Not any more…
Perhaps that doesn’t sound like the most compelling benefit of automating IT, but in fact it symbolizes the real change which impacted that particular team of IT professionals. The saying goes something like: “a clear desk allows a clear mind” – and in this case the change that IT automation has actually brought about is one that alters mind-sets away from being reactive to the point of battle-weary, to a place where all members of the team are planning the value they can bring to their organization through IT.
Automation isn’t a threat; something to catch out IT professionals or expose their dispensability. It’s an opportunity to do what you were supposed to do: come out of the dark, and stop being fed manure…
July 27th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Let’s be clear, we’re not talking about ‘Automating for Automating’s sake’ here… automation has to brought in with the right objectives in mind.
Once that bridge is crossed, I think it should be seen as a great opportunity for the whole IT department (as a team of professional individuals) to show what it’s really made of – there’s a heap of skills and resource out there and we definatley don’t need manure thrown on us to flourish!
July 27th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Equally, it probably cleared the mess to reveal a phone…talking to your users (rather than looking inward within the IT dept) is critical to understanding how you can provide more value to an organisation. Automating the boring stuff means you can get out and speak to the people whose connections you were once fire-fighting – they’re the ones who can tell you what works, what doesn’t, and what IT value really is. Whoop, embrace the fresh air! I’m outta here…