Top things in managing an IT department - Part 5

The next 6 things to address in the series 'managing an IT department'. We are now at numbers 25-30 and again they are not necessarily in any order of importance. This will be a series of postings until I have completed the total, which stands at about 36 at the moment. Please feed back any comments.

25. PR (Public Relations to us)
Consider proactive PR. Consider how you can communicate your successes and plans to the wider community. This could be very key in a major business transformation project. Think outside the box on this, from posters to videos, from t-shirts to mouse mats, from pod casting to the Intranet. When you have completed projects with suppliers consider a press release. Maybe enter some technology or business awards. No matter what - tell them!


26. Supplier relationships
This is worth putting some effort into. A good relationship with a supplier can pay back handsomely. You should treat suppliers fairly, recognise that they also need to make a profit and have a business to run and look for a win-win situation. If you ‘screw’ your supplier then maybe you get some credit up front but when the chips are down that supplier is not going to have you high on his list of buddies and he will look after those customers that are of more value to him. Spend time exchanging information so you understand the supplier and they understand your business. Have regular review meetings and create supplier records so you and your team know who to contact, where the contracts are held, types of services provided etc.

27. Supplier contracts
Don’t just accept the contract no matter how good the company that is offering it seems. Contracts only come into their own when things go wrong and in most cases that won’t happen but when it does you will wish you had spent some time on the contract. So assume the worst and get your lawyer to go through the contract and ensure it’s fair and balanced.

28. Get to understand the clients (the value chain)
The customer is king was an old saying that still remains true today. In IT we have two customers internal and external. All things that we do should consider the external customer and ensure that we are adding value to the customer process. In order to do that we need to understand what makes the customer tick. We can understand our internal process in some detail but we also need to understand the ‘touch’ points where the customer process interacts with our process. It would be even better if we could go beyond that and get information on the customer’s internal process. Understanding that may provide an opportunity to add extra value and get ahead of the competition.

29. Check out the competition
Find out what your competitors are up to. Attend industry conferences and special interest groups. Exchange information with peers. Check industry web sites and magazines. Just be aware don’t necessarily keep up with the joneses! But make sure you are not missing a trick!

30. Change management is king
Protect the production environment at all costs. Remember issues and errors are often caused by change so don’t let any changes into that environment without scrutiny. Consider a Change advisory board CAB to review and agree changes. Make sure changes have a back out plan and make sure they have been tested.