IT Departments Overloaded and Constricted, Yet Boardroom Has No Clue, New Survey Shows

By the DynaSis Team

The results of a survey, conducted this year at an IT support conference, indicates that corporate IT departments are stretched way too thin and at the same time constricted by lack of budget (36 percent), resources (24 percent) or team skills (20 percent). Furthermore, 44 percent of IT managers polled for the survey said lack of technological awareness at the executive management level has created a divide between the board room and the IT department, in terms of priorities.

If you are an IT professional reading this, you are probably nodding your head in agreement. If you are a small or medium-sized business (SMB) owner, you are probably thinking, “That doesn’t apply to my firm.”  This disconnect is precisely where the problem lies.

According to the survey, if given free reign over IT decision-making, 58 percent of IT professionals would prioritize long-term, back-end infrastructure investment. Another 24 percent would pursue virtualization, and 18 percent would add more storage. Yet, according to survey respondents, none of these long-term investments topped the priority list at the upper management level. The executive priority most often cited by survey respondents (20%) was upgrading productivity software―such as Microsoft Office.

We’re not discouraging anyone from upgrading their productivity software. In fact, DynaSis is behind Office 365 (Microsoft’s new subscription-based licensing model for Office) 100 percent. We even offer a solution package for this product that includes planning, migration and support.

We are suggesting that the ability of many companies to operate effectively and competitively is being hampered because overtaxed IT professionals are trying unsuccessfully to run shoe-string operations with stressed out, often insufficient or inadequately skilled IT teams. In some cases, they’re trying to do everything themselves.

Technology is simply too important―and too much of a productivity builder―for executive leaders not to listen to their IT managers and work towards giving them the budget and resources to do their jobs. This doesn’t mean that organizations have to hire and train more workers or make major directional shifts.

At DynaSis, we have long assisted companies in a “back-up” capacity―coordinating closely with IT managers and taking over important tasks, such as help desk support or hardware installation, that they do not have time to manage effectively. In doing so, we give them the “breathing room” they need to focus on planning, coordination and strategic initiatives.

Of course, at some point business owners also must increase their budgets and give their IT managers some measure of control over decision-making to achieve the best outcomes. Frequently, we find that once business leaders stop and really look at the bottom-line benefits that more technology can bring them, they find those increases aren’t as painful as they expected.

If you are a business owner (with or without an IT manager), we would be happy to sit down and talk with you about what your next step should be. If you are a frustrated IT manager, we can help pull together the metrics you need to persuade executive leadership to see things your way. We can also back you up, wherever and whenever you need help. For more information, fill out our inquiry form or give us a call at (770) 569-4600.