Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1037
the quarterly magazine of ILTA 7 Peer to Peer Manage Your Vendors As my mother used to say about clerks at the grocery store,"You've got to watch them like a hawk." I may be dating myself, but that was before the era of barcodes and scanners. In any event, it still holds true that a little diligence and vigilance can pay off big when dealing with your vendors. You've got to keep them honest. Make sure your data pipes and phone circuits are properly provisioned and sized. Hold vendors accountable and ask for concessions and credits when they make mistakes. Negotiate software deals and contracts like Donald Trump. Also, be willing to give as much as you take. A good vendor relationship can be extremely helpful when things go badly. ILTA Know When to Punt Sometimes things just don't work out. For whatever reason, a system, project or process becomes more harmful to continue than to eliminate, kind of like an old car. Eventually, it costs more to repair than the car is worth. You can get rid of it, or buy a new car. Perhaps you have another car that works perfectly well, or you live near the bus line. In other words, know your options. Know When to Say No "No" is sometimes the right answer; practice saying it. We all want to be IT superheroes and bend over backward to accommodate our users' requests, but there are times when you need to keep your eye on the ball. You can't do everything, and you especially can't do everything right now. You may need to brush up on your diplomacy skills to learn how to say no without actually saying the word. Oftentimes, people will understand your resource constraints and be patient if you take the time to communicate effectively. Know your limits and what services you can effectively provide. Make sure that you continually manage the firm's expectations with regard to service levels. Standardize and Simplify Simplicity is a beautiful thing. To the extent you can, reduce the number of models of PCs, printers, phones and mobile devices you support. This simplifies troubleshooting and training. Try to reduce the complexity of your systems and processes. It is difficult, time-consuming and expensive to manage complexity. Keep it simple, and everyone will be appreciative. Keep Learning Keep up with the changes going on out there. ILTA has numerous resources for continuing education, and I have yet to meet a vendor who won't gladly give you a webinar extolling the virtues and wonders of their new products. Take advantage of as many free learning opportunities as you can. You may find a better mousetrap out there, and it may cost less and save you money. Know When to Triage Part of this streamlining process involves triage, a process used in medicine to prioritize patients based on the severity of their condition. This rations patient treatment efficiently when resources are insufficient for all to be treated immediately. It may be helpful to think of your systems and processes as patients, and your staff and budget as your resources. Chances are, you will come across several serious issues in your assessment that need immediate attention. Address these first. If you have a critical business system running on a ten-year-old server, it is a pretty good bet that you'll want to address that before building a new intranet. Be Flexible Strategies are not written in stone, so be willing to change direction if necessary. Over the years I have come to realize that a key skill to surviving in IT, especially legal IT, is learning to "embrace the change." Change can be minor and slow, or major and earth-shattering, but change is always happening. Learn to manage and even make change work for you. Does anyone remember migrating from WordPerfect to Word? If we lived through that, we can certainly live through Windows Vista and Office 2007. Use Frameworks Even the smallest organizations and departments can benefit from structure and order. Try to implement sensible management frameworks in your department. The last thing you want to do is introduce dysfunctional bureaucratic hurdles, but there are distinct benefits to be had by cherry-picking and implementing certain elements of the PMI or ITIL frameworks. A Staff of All-Stars Make sure you have the right people in the right roles. IT staffs can become bloated, and employees can become complacent. Though it may sound harsh, if you want to run a lean, mean IT machine, you need to have a high-performing team, and some people might not make the cut. In our firm, IT staff members wear multiple hats and are self-starters. You need people who don't wait for the work to come to them, but instead know what to do and why. Make sure your team understands their role in the success of the firm. Though adjusting staff levels is never pleasant, in times like these, it may become necessary. And, when the going gets tough, I know that I want star players on my team.