I would like to pass on some knowledge that I have acquired over the years in managing IT departments and computing infrastructure.  Some of these lessons I have had to learn the hard way, but I assure you that if you just adopt one of these you can make major improvements in your shop and in your career.
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Identify Your Customer
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From a business perspective it is easy for the organization to identify its customer.  It’s the entity that you are providing the goods and services to.  From an IT perspective, the customer is the internal user within the organization.  IT is providing services directly to the users within the company.  If there are breakdowns or deficiencies in the services provided to those users, then the ability of the organization to provide its goods and services to its customers is directly impacted.  Too often we forget who we are serving.
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Provide solutions, not roadblocks
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ITs role is to support the staff of the organization and provide them with reliable tools to perform their job duties.  ITs job is NOT to just make things easier for IT staff.  IT is entrusted with the keys to the computing infrastructure and with that comes the responsibility of making things easier for rest of the organization.  They expect innovation, improvement and efficiency in the systems that we provide for them.
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Users often have requests for new functionality such as finding a better way to deliver large files to an external vendor.  Currently they burn them to CD and mail them to the customer.   Some might take the approach of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  Trying to provide a better solution would require work and thought on the part of IT who is already overloaded with work.  The right thing to do in this situation is to understand the overall goal what the person is trying to accomplish and develop a better solution for them such as setting up a web based transfer system or an FTP site.  Yes, it does take time to set this up, but it will make this persons job easier and will also benefit others that will come along later with the same problem.  IT needs to look out and help the users with technology.  They rely on us for it.  It’s our job.
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Customer Satisfaction
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Don’t forget customer satisfaction (CS).  Your organization measures the CS for its own customers.  IT should measure the CS of its customers to see if it is doing a good job and also to solicit feedback on changes and new services that could be provided to make their jobs easier.  Take this with a grain of salt as you will invariably have staff who expect the world and don’t understand why they can’t have the latest $5,000 laptop every year.
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Take this feedback and do something with it.  Continual improvement is a tenant of my IT department and feedback from the organization contributes to this.
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Stay with the curve
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Keep an eye on New Technology.  You don’t have to be an early adopter, but you should immerse yourself in the new trends and technologies that are available.  When they mature, you can then be ready to test those technologies for adoption into your infrastructure.  Virtualization is a great example.  There have been a lot of trailblazers that have done all the testing and built the best practices for using virtualization in their organization.  We can now take advantage of their efforts without having to reinvent the wheel.
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Keep up with Upgrades to your equipment.  Don’t rely on 5 and 7 year old equipment to run your core business systems.  Just because they are working now doesn’t mean that they will be working when you come in tomorrow.  Replace the equipment before it has failed to avoid costly downtime.  Additionally, upgrades become much more painful 5 and 7 years down the road because technology has changed so much that it requires a massive overhaul to upgrade.
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Process, Standards and Documentation
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Around here I am known as the “Process Guy”.  I have a process and a form to go with it for everything.  “Did you fill out the form?” or “Did you follow the process?” are two of my favorite things to say.  One of our goals is to build process and systems that are reliable AND repeatable.  When your processes are built this way it provides a strong framework that anchors the department.  Server builds and other daily tasks are then performed the same way each time, minimizing the risk of mistakes and the proliferation of different configurations.
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An additional benefit of Processes and Standards is bestowed upon the rest of the organization.  You are providing to them the tools and knowledge of how to deal with the IT department.  You want them to be in the mindset of “I am sure IT has a process / standard for this.  They have one for everything.”  This will cut down on the number of requests that you get where your response is, “Please go to portal and fill out the request.”  The requests and information surrounding those requests become standardized.  IT gets the correct and complete information it needs for each request and the requestor only has to submit it once.
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Consider adopting all or part of an existing IT framework such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library).  More info can be found at http://www.itil-officialsite.com/.
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Document Everything and demand that everyone document everything as well.  Set aside time in a project for documentation and ensure that it is completed.  The documentation is just as important as the project itself.  Without it, how will you be able to maintain the systems later?  How will you be able to maintain it when the person who installed it has moved on?
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You must have balance with everything.  Don’t just have process for process sake and be sure that your processes are streamlined and audited on a regular basis to ensure they are effective.  Remember who your customer is.  These tools should be used to make their job and your job easier.
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New User Indoctrination
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When new users join the organization, IT should go out of their way to be sure that they feel welcome during their first days.  Spend extra time with them familiarizing them with the computer systems.  Explain to them how best to work with IT and how to deal with questions and problems that they have.  This will go a long way to forming a strong relationship.
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Security
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Take this seriously on all levels.  Your organization might not be as big as TJ Maxx or Sweetbay, but it would be an awful day if you had to explain to your customers that you had a spreadsheet with all of their credit card numbers on your laptop and it was stolen.
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Take appropriate measures to secure equipment and educate your staff.  Enough said.
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Plan and Budget
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Maintain a 6 month, 12 month and 3 year plan along with budgetary numbers.  “Plan your work and work your plan” is another mantra of mine.  If you ever find yourself lost in the battle you can always go back to your plan to find out where you are and where you should be headed.  Keep this plan up to date on a weekly or monthly basis.  You should live by this plan.�
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Develop a budget of operating costs such as licensing renewals, hardware purchases and upgrades.  This budget should be aligned with the growth of the organization as well.  If the organization is planning on growing by 50% then you need to be sure that you have IT expenses figured into the growth plan.
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Plan out major infrastructure upgrades that will need to be made such as network gear replacement which is needed every 3 - 5 years.  A know expense such as this, while still a big one, is much easier to handle when it is planned for then when it is a surprise.
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The 3 year plan should be a loose collection of objectives to achieve.  IT changes drastically from year to year, as do the objectives of the organization.  All these things need to be kept in line.
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ROI
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Look for the Return On Investment (ROI) in all things that IT does.  If it doesn’t bring measureable and tangible benefit to the organization, then you should really consider whether or not it is a good business decision.  Produce a Business Case for each major purchase or project undertaken.  The size and importance of the project should dictate the detail of the Business Case.  It should be written from a “project supporter” as well as a “project opponent” point of view.  It is easy to skew a Business Case by only putting in the favorable detail if you want the project to be approved.  It is much harder to think from the other side and put in the detail for why the project should not be approved.  You will earn more trust by presenting both sides, trust me.
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Training and Growth
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Plan and Budget for training of your IT staff.  They need to grow as time goes so that they can continue to produce excellent solutions and understand the latest technologies that will keep your organization up to date.  Without training and growth, employees become bored and may begin to look for another job that IS using the latest technologies.  Invest if your staff so you don’t have to invest in hiring a replacement.

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