[TriLUG] [OT] What's the value of IT?

[Jim Ray]

IT value is more related to industrial engineering and time study than technical prowess. If a person trained in the field has the ability to perform any given operation faster than a person not trained in the field, value exists.

For example, one of my customers messed around for 4 days trying to get a label printer to work prior to call us. Several employees were involved. I may charge ten times the labor rate of the employees of the customer yet was able to set up the print queue and get them going in an hour. Value exists when the cost is lower for an IT person to handle a situation less expensively than for a non-IT person to handle the situation.

Efficiency and automation is key. That's why we as a company have doubled our size this year and have hired 2 more part time people last month. Customers rely on us to produce and to not sit around in the server room twiddling our thumbs and waiting on the next trouble ticket.

On another note, it is very important to love what you do as opposed to working for the paycheck. I cannot stress the importance of attitude enough. I am no shining example of success having been in business for 11 years and still only having a small company with half a dozen people. I can say that I am happy every day I wake up and would go to Home Depot and put up boxes in the middle of the night to keep my ship sailing. There have been 2 times in my 11 year history where I almost had to get a job to support my company. For the first few years of existence, I could not turn a buck and did keep a day job.

Business is not for the faint hearted. Myself? Well, I am unemployable due to age and due to the possibility that I would say something smart and get fired the first day I work.

Personally, I'd rather die than get a day job.

Regards,

Jim Ray, MCSE, NCSU EE '85
President
Neuse River Networks
tel: 919-838-1672 x111 cell: 919-606-1772
http://www.neuserivernetworks.com


Founded in 1997, Neuse River Networks is a Raleigh, NC based IT Outsourcing Partner that is committed to specialized customer solutions to reduce costs and increase productivity with The ONE Plan.  By taking a proactive approach The ONE Plan is designed to manage your computer network so you don't have to.  Since its inception Neuse River Networks has built its foundation on earning the trust of its customers and will continue to strive toward this standard of excellence. 

Contact Information:

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-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On Behalf Of Phillip Rhodes
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 2:41 AM
To: Triangle Linux Users Group General Discussion
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] [OT] What's the value of IT?

William Sutton wrote:
> What, exactly, are you looking for?  The ability of IT to provide 
> information support services to help a company be more efficient?  The 
> actual IT services businesses implement to accomplish their goals?

So what I'm getting at is this:  Why do companies have IT at all?  One answer is, as you mentioned above, "to be more efficient."  Another would be "to extend the reach of our company," and another might be "to build deeper relationships with our customers."

I'd be curious to see other people's take on the *really* high level reasons why, as well as lower level tactical implementations (which could probably be categorized at the higher level as well).

I should probably back up and say this...  if I write the book I'm picturing in my head, it would be a book with a goal of justifying the existence / use of computing technology in business, and written for people who don't necessarily intuit all the ways computing can benefit their business.  I think that - for people like us (geeks) - it seems so obvious why we use computers, that we never even bother to ask the question.  But I suspect that some (many?) small business owners don't appreciate the use of computing (or appreciate it only at the most naive level).



TTYL,


--
Phillip Rhodes