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I work for a company that fired my boss who was the most involved it the IT of the company. Company is working with 5 year old computers and network equipment. Company has no budget for IT and has never had one. No one knows anything about computers but me the IT person of the company. They had 2000, 2003 servers. Just purchased 2008 R2 and moved from 2003 to 2008. Still in process of moving data to new server due to drive issue on 2003 server. They do not know where they want to go with computers and just want to maintain as much as possible. I feel like I have no direction and need to create the direction for the company but with no budget where do you start? Can anyone give me any knowledge if they have ever been in this position. Boss got fired due to issues outside of IT stuff and with other employees in company.

Thanks for any info

36 Spice ups
2

Sounds like you got a dirty job!

What industry are you in, how big is your company, how many users, computers, what else?

Lots of questions.

I would suggest finding a reputable consulting company, one that isn’t going to try and sell you the equipment / licenses / etc, and have them quote on coming in to do a discovery. When they are done you should have a document that shows where you are and what you have, and then where they think you should be heading.

Now is the time to do this, the boss man got fired, you need to get a handle on the situation, and as you point out you will be setting the direction for the company for the future. Assuming they don’t bring someone else in to be the new boss-man.

3 Spice ups
3

The best advice I can give you is to talk to management about the direction of IT and your concerns and ask them for feedback. If they are not heading in the same direction that you want to be or addressing your concerns start looking. If they provide answers that you are comfortable with use what they say and your own ideas to form a direction.

I have done this and the answers vary. One company flat out told me they had no intention of doing anything more than minimal IT and weren’t interested in growth. I resigned a week later. My current company when I expressed concerns began providing more money to IT for growth and even gave me a raise.

8 Spice ups
4

Is there a new “IT prescence” in the upper management? Does your new boss know anything about what is going on in your job?

I would get to know the new boss and let them know where you are in keeping things current. You might use the analogy of a truck fleet in maintaining and renewing your infrastructure.

Good luck!

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First thing i would do is make a list over everything you have now - how its all done - then have a look at the big picture - are there any quick fix’s you can think of that would improve where you are at.

What you need to do is establish with the company management that you are improving on what you have. Look for fix’s that cost no money - like re-imaging the computers (if they were good enough for the job before why are they not good enough now?

Now your the only IT you need to have the big picture in mind as well as the day to day “My login don’t work” stuff.

Once you have an idea of where you are at now - suggest on or two improvements to the management - then if you want investment in your department then show them what you had, what improvements you made and then explain what you still want to achieve for them but need some money.

And the hardest thing every - start to think like a manager…

Worst case – you do all the work – put effort in but they then bring in another IT manager? Well you have gained your self experience in the post for however short a period and build on it in future – best case, they see you are thinking like a manager – give you the position, bring someone in under you of they can afford it and you can build a decent network – just cause its old does not mean you cant improve it for buttons. (Extra RAM here or there? Maybe a replacement hard drive in Key machines now and then?) start small and build from there.

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Communication is really the best idea as Justin said. If you show initiative to take the first move and express your desire for an IT roadmap, it could go a long way to showing them that you are serious. Getting management on your side is essential. Once that is done, then posibly a consultant, like Limey suggested, would be best.

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The first thing I would address is the “no budget” issue. Ask your new boss how much money the company would lose if all the computers went down. Ask him/her how much the company’s data is worth. Point out that by not spending money on IT, they are taking a huge risk that could cost them a lot more than the cost of a few new computers and servers.

A new business class computer can be purchased for under a grand. If a sales person lost a sale because their 5-year-old computer was down and they couldn’t put out a quote in a timely manner, how much would that cost?

No one ever thinks IT is important until something goes wrong. Having a sensible IT budget is akin to having insurance. You may save money in the short term by skimping on it, but eventually it’s going to cost you big time. Pay a little now, or pay a lot later.

</rant off>

2 Spice ups
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Education is going to be the big thing. Demonstrate to them how a good strategy can lower costs or drive profits. I’d worry less about a budget - budgets are for “loss” departments with no value. That isn’t IT. IT can drive innovation, reduce operating expenses, etc. Find ways where you add value and demonstrate IT’s value for a specific project (desktop refresh, more memory, new server, etc.)

I’ve never had an IT department with a budget. We work off of value for each thing we do, not a set budget for the year.

8 Spice ups
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Even if they won’t give you a budget per se, I would still come up with an equipment turnover schedule.

It depends on your devices and users, but I have a schedule where each quarter I turn over x number of machines with new. Working up a cost-benefit analysis on why it’s makes financial sense to replace on a conservative schedule rather than to take the far more expensive hits of replacing upon death and failure - which means more money for emergency purchases and loss of productivity - can help make the case.

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Been in a similar situation myself (minus the fired boss) joined a business that had no IT direction.

First thing i did was write up a report listing the Current situation (Servers, Clients, Network etc.) listed the problems with the current situation and made a proposal.

This was good as it broke everything down into clear Projects to prioritise and approach finance people with for funding.

1 Spice up
11

It’s a difficult position to be supporting IT when there’s no guidance or budget from the people who are paying the bills. Agree with those that have said you need to get a clear picture from management as to what they expect, and what support they are going to give you in getting things done. If they seem to be giving you an impossible task, start looking elsewhere.

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Years ago, I took over a network that was running their whole domain on one 400 Mhz server with one hard drive. After several months trying to convince them it was time for an upgrade using logic and simple analogies, I finally just told them, “When, not if, that hard drive fails, I’m just going to laugh and walk out of here never to be seen again.” Somehow, that struck home and I got new hard drives. Within a year, I got two new servers.

I don’t think this tactic will work in most cases. However, you do need to convince them that you can not effectively do your job or be held responsible for failures if they will not take your advice. You probably will need to do provide some fancy documents showing how much more they are or will be spending after the fact by not spending the money required to upgrade now. Like show them how much it costs to recover data off a dead drive…or how much a specialist costs for some software that isn’t under a support contract. Things like that.

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First of all, don’t worry about strategy at this point. Just focus on stability. Are backups current and restorable? Are there any fires that need to be put out? Stabilize things first and then start working on a strategy.

Sounds like your company views IT as a necessary evil. Companies like that are reactionary by nature. So when you’re ready to start thinking strategy, you have frame your IT discussion in a manner that’s understood by the “necessary evil types”: Dollars and cents. There is a huge cost associated with being reactionary. You need to put that on paper and show the powers that be that the company can avoid the costs associated with downtime and lack of productivity with a proactive approach.

You won’t get everything you want and so you’ll have to figure out what you can and can’t live without.

1 Spice up
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I feel for ya Mike. I’m in a similar situation.Just like Scott said, I would start pushing education heavily. You need to get your users to help you out as much as possible by making them feel comfortable with the new changes. Once your users are comfy, you can begin educating them. I would then use the SANS top 20 controls as a road map for stabilizing your environment. the SANS website also has a lot of reports and data that can be shown to MGMT. These reports may help you get a budget going.

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Scott Alan Miller wrote:

Education is going to be the big thing. Demonstrate to them how a good strategy can lower costs or drive profits…

Documentation and direct informative slides can assist:

  • User case studies
  • Inventory (compliance, warranty, etc)
  • Trouble ticket disbursement (inefficiencies, time lost, etc)

Careful about being too zealous or evangelical, yet retain enthusiasm & vigor.

As you know, timing is important. Make the case, disperse the information, but be prepared for “no”. Another opportunity will arise, be it in a other quarter or another fiscal year.

Know of one place where such a report was issued three years running until relief was procured.

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ITSlave wrote:

First of all, don’t worry about strategy at this point. Just focus on stability. Are backups current and restorable? Are there any fires that need to be put out? Stabilize things first and then start working on a strategy.

Totally agree with that. Here’s a book that will help you navigate:

The Practice of System and Network Administration, Second Edition by Limoncelli, Hogal, Chalup

From the Back Cover

“Your organization needs this book!” –Peter Salus, Chief Knowledge Officer, Matrix.Net, “The Bookworm”

This book describes the best practices of system and network administration, independent of specific platforms or technologies. It features six key principles of site design and support practices: simplicity, clarity, generality, automation, communication, and basics first. It examines the major areas of responsibility for system administrators within the context of these principles. The book also discusses change management and revision control, server upgrades, maintenance windows, and service conversions. You will find experience-based advice on topics such as:

  • The key elements your networks/systems need that will make all other services run better

  • Building and running reliable, scalable services, including email, printing, and remote access

  • Creating security policies and enforcing them

  • Upgrading thousands of hosts without creating havoc

  • Planning for and performing flawless scheduled maintenance windows

  • Superior helpdesks, customer care, and avoiding the temporary fix trap

  • Building data centers that prevent problems

  • Designing networks for speed and reliability

  • Email scaling and security issues

  • Why building a backup system isn’t about backups

  • Monitoring what you have and predicting what you will need

  • How to stay technical and how not to be pushed into management

And there’s more! When was the last time you read a book that dealt with:

  • Real-world technical management issues, including morale, organization building, coaching, maintaining positive visibility, and communicating with nontechnical management

  • Personal skill techniques, including our secrets for getting more done each day, dealing with less technical people, ethical dilemmas, managing your boss, and loving your job

  • System administration salary negotiation tips–the first book that includes this topic!

Chapters are divided into The Basics and The Icing. The Basics are those key elements that, when done right, make every other aspect of the job easier. Things like starting all new hosts with the same configuration and picking the right things to automate first. The Icing sections contain all those powerful things that can be done on top of the basics to wow customers and managers. Do the basics first. The icing is a vision for the future that usually only comes with decades of experience.

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Create a list of absolutely everything you have IT related, try and pinpoint how old it is and see if it clashes with a policy about equipment replacement programs. Then take it to management and give them figures on replacing the old and maintaining the old. They only seem to work in numbers sometimes so this way should work. Then you need to tell them that to make the company more reputible, you will need to upgrade to make sure that you can compete effectively

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A lot of good things have been said - my approach would be:

  • Create an IT Plan - reasonable cost, but where you think the company should be in 2-3 years to have a solid IT infrastructure

  • Use the plan to ask your questions - is the company committed to building and protecting its infrastructure, etc.

If you get brushed off, put the same effort into building a resume and find someone who wants to have an IT infrastructure.

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You’ve had some great responses to your question! I would just add that you need to frame any improvements you propose in a business context. Look for the low-hanging fruit where the ROI is in the realm of a few months. It doesn’t have to be big ROI, but you should be able to show a quick payoff.

Be careful about presenting inventory lists of hardware and software. Doesn’t sound like your management will care, anyway. If you can demonstrate how an investment in something like a cloud-based billing app will cut costs and payment times, though, you’ll get their attention.

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Do you have any type of drawing of the network such as Visio? I would start there, or create one with the basics. Using this, you could explain where they are, and where they need to be in order to accomplish whatever it is they do.

Show them the cost savings and ROI on any new equipment needed. Also specify areas that are the most vulnerable and would need upgrades first. If they are going to 2008 R2, then they are on the right track, but still sounds like they need some advice and guidance.

There is a lot of good info already posted on other options and ideas so I will not repeat them here.

Good luck on this one! You will be fine.