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im reaching out to all my fellow spiceheads. i am on this site daily constantly trying to come up with projects and ideas to help my company. i work for a artist management company in NYC and im really having a tough time in this solo act.

let me explain my environment a little better. for starters today i was asked to asset a typewriter…thats not a joke. i have three users who refuse to use a computer so they have typewriters and i had to asset a new one he just got today. my company has been around since 1918 and i think some of the users were here when the place opened…again not kidding!!

its hard for me to accomplish my job tasks and get anything i need because they hold no value in IT. i got called into a meeting yesterday and was asked my thought on moving everything to cloud. I simply asked if they knew what the cloud was to which one woman replied “no but its the latest trend and all my friends are raving about it…” they wanted to shrink unnecessary sq footage and their first thought was my server room which is 10 by 10 with three racks…meanwhile her office is about 30 by 30 in the high rise overlooking central park…i told her yea i guess we could move things to the cloud but we would still need the server room in order for our network to exist to which she replied “well if its in the cloud i dont understand why we need any wires at all”

i asked if that was all and left, went to my office closed the door and banged my head on my desk until i fell unconscious hoping to wake up in a different company.(not really but u get the point) the spend ludicrous amounts of money on things you couldnt even imagine and nothing on IT. Im left to make miracles happen with nothing and its only my second month. i was left with a disaster and im really asking people who have walked the path before to give me some guidance. this is my first solo environment and im just feeling very lost. Im getting a handle on the day to day but long term i would really like your guy’s opinion. Maybe how to speak to them(i have read the articles provided on spiceworks but im looking for more personal touches) maybe some projects or anything really that could help. (i posted these paragraphs in a previous question but i thought it could use its own question)

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I like to throw out “Proactive versus Reactive” :slight_smile:

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I’m sorry, but I see a lot of statements and no question. What is your question?

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im trying to be as proactive as possible. I just went through an asset database that only had things added to it. Never updated nor cleaned out. It had 15 years of assets in there.

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I think you know the answer to the question you didn’t quite ask but were hinting at.

A company that doesn’t value IT will never value IT. And clearly they are not prepared to use IT. Why stay there?

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To people on typewriters?

First you have to ask the girls in the steno pool to type up a memo for you then go to the mimeograph machine to run off some copies and have the mailboy deliver a copy around to each of the offices.

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I guess there really is no definitive question except that im feeling a bit lost and overwhelmed at times. Its my first position that im not a temp. Advice maybe some guidance…

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i stay because its a paycheck and i have a family to support. Im trying to stay positive and not bail on the first real IT job but i have been looking elsewhere.

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Sometimes businesses just suck and don’t care. I’ve talked to businesses that said “I would rather go out of business than have a computer.” And a year later, he happily did - money isn’t everything.

Look at it as a place to learn and to teach yourself. Not a place where you are going to fix the world. Look for something else, learn what you can before you leave. Try to help them but don’t push the point. People with no interest in doing things well will never change that opinion and if you try to change it you will just make them resent you.

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That’s what you do.

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And don’t discount their “cloud” idea. It’s their idea, not yours. It’s their network, not yours. Why not go 100% cloud? I don’t know your network and needs, so I’m just throwing it out there. But consider it. Make them happy. Push your boundaries.

If you do what they want, failures are theirs, successes are yours. If you push back, any problem is your problem for not listening to what they wanted.

What do you have running in house today?

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How many users do you have? How large would your internal cabling plant need to be to handle them if you got all of the servers out?

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Sounds to me like you need to stand up for yourself a bit. They’re going to walk all over you if they start making IT decisions based on “all my friends are raving about it”. You left the meeting when you should have explained what you can do and what just isn’t feasible(like moving every piece of infrastructure you have to “the cloud”).

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Rereading the last paragraph, it looks like you want our help in telling you how to talk to your bosses and what projects you can do. Is that accurate?

If so, Here is my advice:

  1. How to communicate with the people in your company. - People in IT are often in an unofficial Business Analyst position. You coworkers and bosses don’t really understand what you do and often have unrealistic expectations. This mean that you are in a position to be a consultant. However, before you can offer advice worth it’s weight, you must first understand the industry/company/ and office processes and procedures. It is only after you understand your environment that you can offer explain how technology can assist in achieving business goals.

  2. What projects should you do? This depends on your environment. I would say get a good inventory of your assets and create a network diagram to start. Then look for a way to back up those typewriters. If they go down all hope is lost. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I agree. Never let yourself be labeled as a blockade of innovation. IT has this reputation and, from what I’ve seen, often for good reason. Don’t let them see you that way. Investigate their options, embrace their ideas, show in their terms why it might work or why it is silly, explain how even “virtual” ConEd power still requires wall plugs, etc. Explain things well and you are the hero enabling and protecting them.

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Interesting from a man named, so appropriately, Underwood.

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bow afternoon Bryan, I’d like to introduce myself, my name is [not applicable], I battle very similar problems on the regular.

I just got done updating 36 workstations from turn of the millennium stations, to actual new ones. There was a 14 year hiatus where new workstations weren’t needed, yet every 5 years the owners got new fully loaded luxury vehicles.

This means one thing. A company who thinks what they do is above their non core employees, will never see a value in what we do beyond their own asses. I’ve battled with the idea of “cloud” and fought with my boss, the “IT Manager” on what it even means. She’s still trying to figure out where it goes…

Bud its time to look for something new. That’s what I’m doing.

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I think the biggest task you would have if you don’t want to bail on them, is to find ways to get them see the value in what you are doing. If you can get them to come up with the idea of advancing something, then it is their idea and are therefor behind it and therefor you.

I agree with SAM, pursue the cloud. It is good training and it is their idea. Find the best solution for them, propose the solution, document what it will entail and make it happen. The least it will do is educate you on cloud.

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I disagree with SAM.

We’re using type writers here, you can’t cloud back up a type writer. I’d suggest a couple OCR scanners as a pretty decent project hooked to a server you currently have. A nice database set up file storage.

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This isn’t and either/or idea. More of an “and” idea.

The “Cloud” {highly overrated marketing term} isn’t just about backing up file storage. Your email, crm, firewall policies and many other things can all be cloud based. Even the project you suggest could be stored locally and backed to a cloud service.

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