I am waiting for the day that instead of pushing anti-virus software to my laptop, the IT Department pushes actual viruses. Perhaps they would even write their own virus, specially designed to overwrite all Enterprise 2.0 references on my laptop with animated SharePoint logos. Perchance my virtual shrine to Andrew McAfee would be replaced by a Shakespearean sonnet about the majesty of document management. Woe is me. Woe, indeed. (Whoah?)
Truly, I jest. For those of you who work in the IT department I mean no disrespect. None to you, and none to my man Billy Shakes. Interestingly enough, in my consulting experience with implementing and recommending E2 solutions, our clients consistently present the IT department as huddled in the bunker (obviously with the lawyers), ready to fight this thing with a fervor comparable to a Harry Potter book release. Typically, Jay and I are engaged for services by the business users, not the IT Department. This strikes me as somewhat odd. When you consider the potential scale and impact of these apps within an organization, I find it (refreshingly) strange that the users, not the administrators, are leading the charge. And moreover, the IT department is standing in the way. Why is that? Well…I have a couple thoughts (shocker).
Post Graduate A/V club – Ever since the term usability was invented, the geeks (and I am one) have been fighting the shift of technology to be more accessible and well…usable. Maybe it’s a job security thing. Maybe it’s just an ego thing. I am not sure of “why”, but the whole “I am so cool because I don’t need a GUI” contingent is definitely the “who”. I believe this translates well into the emergence of E2 solutions. Easy to implement, often available as a service, relatively affordable, and wildly popular are attributes that all but eliminate the need for an IT department. “But who will admin the AS400???” Nobody chief. And nobody should have to. Business users need capability, not overhead.
Green is a great color for you – As a possible corollary my previous point, I get the feeling that the IT department is often just pissed they didn’t come up with the idea first. “What? The users implemented a technology? For the whole organization? Inconceivable!”. Again, this translates well into the E2 world. The veritable technology innovation market is made more open to the greater community. Business users now have a chance to choose, implement, and often supplant enterprise applications. I’d be envious too.
Good and Evil – Most IT department are sort of predisposed to have an adversarial relationship with users. Clearly users are lesser humans who, if eliminated, would take with them all of the headaches associated with working in the IT Department. One of my wiki best practices is managing for success. If your go-in position is something that allows freedom (a platform) as opposed to specific functionality (an application), will instantaneously cause “user support issues” of mythic proportion, your days are numbered. If I had a nickel for every time I have heard “We have some users with very special needs here”, I could combine those nickels with my other nickels, and buy a berth for Larry Ellison’s dinghy. E2 is all about bottoms up empowerment. Who would want to empower evil?
Any thoughts?
6 responses so far ↓
1 anti virus » Blog Archive » The IT Department Hates Me // Mar 3, 2008 at 3:02 pm
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
2 » Blog Archiv » Bookmarks - 06.03.2008 ErkenntnisWerk // Mar 6, 2008 at 6:47 pm
[...] The IT Department Hates Me (Tags: adoption enterprise_2.0) When you consider the potential scale and impact of [Enterprise 2.0] apps within an organization, I find it (refreshingly) strange that the users, not the administrators, are leading the charge. And moreover, the IT department is standing in the way. Why [...]
3 wolske // Apr 4, 2008 at 9:03 am
then there is the Shadow IT Department. they hate the IT department, who can’t seem to get anything useful done (at least not in a timely manner), therefore coworkers turn to the local guy who “knows computers.”
wait, maybe that was your point — does the IT department hate you because you defy them in theory, or in practice?
4 Nate Nash // Apr 7, 2008 at 8:17 am
Thanks for the comment! First off, I don’t truly think “our” IT department hates me. The title of the post was firing for effect. Our IT department has the tough job of working in a firm where everyone believes they have the magic bullet. (Consultants…)
The larger point is trying to understand or outline why the majority of the E2 efforts we have come across are 1) rooted outside of the IT department, and 2) request our help in either co-opting of circumventing the IT department’s influence.
I am not sure there are shadow IT departments, as much as the e2 industry has made technology less about buyers and more about users. My guess is the IT department (for good reason) is concerned about control, risk, support, etc. Swinging either way in one direction (draconian vs. Laissez-faire) is probably a bad idea but I haven’t seen the right mix in practice yet.
5 Karl Vogel // Jun 12, 2008 at 6:06 pm
I’ve been working in IT since 1986, and if I had a nickel for every time I had to tell a user “This would be simple if we were actually allowed to do it”, I could hire Larry Ellison to clean my pool.
There are far too many people in IT management who just aren’t technically literate enough to handle the job. As a result, you have Sharepoint instead of a much simpler blog/wiki/email setup that could do the same thing for about one percent of the cost.
6 Nate Nash // Jun 13, 2008 at 8:34 am
Right on Karl, I hear you. This is probably exacerbated by the fact that users are now presented with so many viable consumer or opensource alternatives. Everyone is an expert!
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