Organizations must manage their IT operations, or they risk catastrophic outages and failures. What are the signs that your company’s IT operations are not functioning properly?
We recently sought expert advice from our key executives on signs that a company’s IT operations are failing.
Here are their responses…
Michael Willis, Head of Sports Business Operations
(embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiPVb-pM6TA (/embed)
The IT department is the backbone of the NFL’s off-field and on-field operations. With IT operations failing, it proved nearly impossible to maintain the necessary communications and infrastructure needed to operate on a professional sports arena.
Signs of IT failure include:
1. Offsite work
- Home Networking and Connection Issues
- You have suffered an IT security breach more than once
- In-person meetings take longer due to Wi-Fi issues
- Backup and recovery plans are a mystery
- staff productivity decline
- Game day IT issues between league office and teams
2. On-site operation
- Communication problems between coaches and quarterbacks
- Sideline tablet doesn’t work on game day
- Game officials won’t be able to use instant replay
- Media Operations – Cutting Edge Graphics and Storytelling
- Safe intelligent navigation monitors dangerous weapons
- Referees contact league office for crucial call
Failed IT operations can damage the NFL’s main product – the game!
michael willis 18+ years of experience working with accounting and sports organizations, managing P&Ls from $10 million to over $125 million and budgets from $3 million to over $50 million. He worked in the NFL for 22 1/2 years, mostly with game officials on the financial/accounting side.
Lynn Holland, Vice President of Sales and Business Development
Image via Bigstock
In my work evangelizing various SaaS technology solutions on behalf of emerging startups and growth founders, primarily enterprise companies, I have had the privilege of helping operational leaders recognize and address the following operational challenges:
- put them at risk
- incur excess operating costs
- reduce the profitability of its operations
From an objective, outside-in vantage point, I help them through practical considerations to help them identify where their operations are underperforming due to technology, or lack thereof, and justify fixing the problem by:
- Map an end-to-end transaction or process as it flows through siled workgroups, their existing systems and data requirements
- Recognize when tolerable low-value activities can be automated into new processes with measurable near-term returns, eliminating the risk of errors, freeing up staff to engage in revenue-generating activities, and creating greater capacity to increase output without adding more Multiple infrastructure
- Acquire, evaluate and select objective best-fit technology solutions and partners by auditing end-to-end operations, preventing shelf software, and building technology purchase solution specifications based on needs and best resources.
- Build an organization-wide business case for selecting and adopting new solutions, benefiting key stakeholders and their leaders
However, like the proverbial frog in a pot, business leaders can have a hard time sensing when it’s time to look under the hood because their operational technology is no longer serving them well. Here are five signs that it’s time to check:
- Lack of ownership of organization-wide end-to-end technical and operational processes to understand the flow of relevant data flowing through the organization, departments, into and out of each system, and then into the platform of record
- Lack of regular end-to-end audits of organization-wide technical and operational processes
- Existing operations required manual processes or data entry to transfer, share or archive data between departments
- Excel spreadsheets remain a core tool in operational processes
- Redundancies in applications, off-the-shelf software, and tolerable manual processes have not been identified without an end-to-end technical and process audit
Lynn Holland is a business development executive with 18+ years of experience bringing operations, IoT and retail technology, product and consumer engagement to market with a focus on oil and convenience retail.
Carla Biasi, Personal Stylist
Image via Bigstock
If you think your company’s IT operations are failing, I would look for signs.
First, do you have the same problem all the time? We know there are problems with technology, but they should be solved or are being solved. If your IT problems aren’t being addressed, there may be bigger problems at hand.
Second, is your company outsourcing its IT operations? If there is no internal department to handle IT issues, it makes sense for a company to outsource this function. If you have an internal IT department, they should be dealing with many issues.
Finally, is there a lot of turnover or employee turmoil in the IT department? If so, it could be a sign of an interdepartmental issue causing the team to underperform.
Carla Biasi is a personal stylist living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She currently owns her own business, works part-time at an upscale womenswear boutique, and works as a virtual and suit stylist for a womenswear specialist brand.
Ana Smith, Talent Architect and Global Learning Strategist
Image via Bigstock
IT operations are a lot like your car: If something goes wrong, you’ll know!
If your car is not making the correct sound when starting, or if it is taking longer than usual to start, there is a problem. There are other signs: check the oil; look for leaks; check the tires and make sure they’re properly inflated.
The same is true for IT systems. If your network is not up to par, or you experience performance issues with applications and services, there may be a problem with your infrastructure.
IT operational failures are often caused by poor asset management, so it is important to regularly monitor utilization levels and ensure assets are sized for their workloads. Failure to do so can lead to increased costs through underutilization or over-provisioning, which in turn can lead to a poor user experience, negatively impacting productivity and customer satisfaction levels within the organization.
My bottom line comment is to get the metrics and expectations of the different stakeholders aligned, then measure and adjust as needed!
anna smith Helps people and organizations realize their full potential by developing and co-creating people strategies and custom solutions, and translating them into impactful outcomes and collaborative relationships, with coaching as the “red thread”.
What are other signs that your company’s IT operations are failing?join the conversation inside Work It Daily’s Execution Plan.
Articles from your website
Related articles on the web
