Why you should fire your IT guy
Over time things change, people change, and your organization’s needs change as well.
Here are some of the things to look out for with your current IT guy.
Complacency
Number one reason to fire your IT guy is complacency. Just like politicians holding the same public office position for 20+ years, they get use to the easy life! Doing things “the way they have always been done” is one of the easiest ways to spot complacency! “The way things have been done?” Technology changes soo fast that the way things have been done 3-5 years ago is more than likely NOT the way things should be done today.
Look I am not saying to reinvent the wheel, but if you are still hosting your exchange email on premise for your 5 employees maybe it’s time to change some things up?
No reason to innovate or implement new technology
Why innovate and implement new technology in networking, software and workflow when that requires work.
Much easier approach is just to keep collecting the monthly check for managed services and go on with life. This approach only works for so long until you realize your servers, software, network equipment are all out of date and need a major overhaul. Having proper End of Life procedures in place forces change and upgrade.
EOL procedures also prevents a business from needing a huge capital investment into infrastructure all at once if hardware and software is upgraded on a set schedule of usually 2-3 years depending on the industry.
Reinventing the wheel all together.
As I said earlier there is no reason to reinvent the wheel, until its reinvented for you. Many companies find that their software that they used in the past required a server to run. Now that same software might be available as a cloud based service accessible via a browser.
Well this really sucks for your IT guy… This is one less thing they can charge your company for to maintain and this directly impacts their monthly invoice to you. Cloud has effectively removed the need to have an on-premise server and freed up infrastructure overhead. Don’t get me wrong there is plenty of reason and benefits to keep this in house, but its always good to know your options! If your IT guy is not staying current on new trends and software in your industry he is out of touch with your business and you should fire your IT guy.
Find IT guys that have expertise in your particular business that will drive innovation for you!
IT guy doesn’t understand your business.
Throwing technology at something is never a solution. If excel works fine, there is no reason to run an SQL server with costly software if that doesn’t actually solve any problems. One of the main things I try to understand first is the workflow of your average employee. What happens after they make the coffee in the AM and sit down in front of the computer? What do they do next?
What do they login to? Where do they get the tasks or work for the day? What software they use to accomplish this task? What does the software do and where does it run? Are there things that frustrate your employees?
Understanding the workflow for an IT guy is extremely important in order to suggest IT solutions that could enhance that work flow. You should fire your IT guy if they never took the time to fully understand what it is that you do and simply jumped into supporting the legacy systems in place.
Proactively Finding solutions to known problems
This is a big one that is easily overlooked on why you should fire your IT guy. Everyone knows that one problem, like our connection to the server gets slow after launch hour, or this one error keeps popping up every time we open a program. If your IT guy is not aware and proactively working on resolving these lingering issues then you should fire your IT guy.
The key take away here is PROACTIVE! Doing things before they become a problem is the reason you have the IT guy in the first place. Not being proactive circles back around to becoming complaisant and knowing that monthly check is still coming… Find an IT vendor that at the end of the week will send you a report that tells you all the things that went wrong without your knowledge and how they fixed them all. Its easier said than done! Most claim 24/7 monitoring etc etc. when it comes down to it, claims are baseless without action.
If your IT guy checks off all the things in this article, consider yourself lucky! Maybe send a guy an Amazon gift card to show your appreciation and refer them to a friend!
If your organization is in need of a technology partner AlphaCIS can help! We can help your IT guy with an IT project or manage your IT infrastructure all together. If your business is located in Metro Atlanta or the surrounding areas please contact us for a quick discovery phone call with an engineer here.
