An IT Question: Are Some People Special?

It's Friday afternoon and your already thinking of the weekend when your Help Desk lead comes walks briskly into your office.  "We have to talk", he demands.  He goes on to excitedly explain that he just got off of the phone with one of the VPs.  It seems the Veep wants his more storage space for his email inbox.  "Doesn't he know our standard is to set everyone up with the same amount" the tech  blurts out in an ever loudening voice as his face gets redder.  "And what about those engineers, they claim they need more than the allowed amount of network storage for their precious test data" he says as the veins begin to show in his forehead.  "Last week it was the HR folks claiming they need personal printers because of all the "confidential" work they do.  I bet they are just trying to get around our standard of having everyone on network printers."  Earlier in the day it was the graphic arts department wanting to get Macs because someone told them it would they fit their needs better.  "My gawd, don't they know we're a PC only shop!", he exclaims.  With arms flailing and spittle flying he lets out one last desperate cry - "What do these people think they are -- Special?" and then collapses to the floor. 

It seems that in all the excitement he has forgotten to inhale and has collapsed from a lack of oxygen.  Fortunately, being a well-prepared IT leader you have a staff of paramedics on call in the office next to yours for just such emergencies.  While the paramedics bring the tech back to consciousness you stop to think, you know as soon as he starts breathing he's going to want your response.

So, how do you respond?  Are some people special and deserve special treatment?  If so, how do you determine who is special?  How do you answer people when they ask, "Aren't I special too?"

"Help" photo by Cobber99

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If this topic was of interest, you might also like the other posts in the IT Question category.

Comments

[Terrence Seamon]

All people are special, Mike. Especially customers.

Terry

[Craig Brown]

Mike

I just read "Diagnosing and Changing Organisational Culture Based on the Competing Values Framework" (Cameron and Quinn 1998) and they presenta model where there are two dimensions to meansure a business on - it's degree of control-flexibility and it's internal - external focus.

Or you can just give him a hug and tell him tomorrrow will be better.

This on the back of more Henry Mintzberg reading gives me the textbook answer to your qustion of... "It depends."

It depends on your culture and your structure and they depend on your environment and your leadership team.

I have worked in environments where the tech development teams are entreprenuerial, the frontline grunts are very service oriented and senior management are living in 1950's command and control burueacracies. They are painful places to be, especially if you are aligned with one of the subordinated groups/cultures.

So, it depends. Rather than turn everyone into a customer sometimes it's better to go out and explain the benefits of standardisation, and other times it's better to just build a brick wall of burueacracy to keep them out of the way while you automate and outsource them all.

[Craig Brown]

hmm... that second para was supposed to be at the end.

[Daniel Johnson, Jr.]

At the company I currently work for, whenever someone from senior management requests something, we hop to it. The culture around here sorta dictates this mentality, akin to the thought that "there are worse things to fall on your sword for".

[Tom Fluker]

Mike,

I was rolling with that one. I have seen it before and learned CPR because of it :-)

The answer I give is that yes, everyone is special. The real question is what is the cost of being special? There is a cost to everything. If you go with Mac’s because the do something better, then ask what is the cost savings? The cost to support is $X (labor, parts, etc that you may not have). If the savings is more, then there is the business case. That then becomes a business decision for the company to make. Remember, there are a lot of hidden costs (special toner for printers, ordering costs, etc).

Standards are in place to simplify the environment so that we can drive cost/labor down. That leaves more money for the fun stuff.

Just my 2 cents.

Tom

[Mike]

Terry, Craig, Daniel, Tom

Great comments. This is definitely one of those where there is no one "right" answer. Interestingly a lot of IT folks have trouble with that concept. Maybe it because we think in binary terms, ones or zeroes. We want to see everything as black or white but the reality we live in a world of various shades of gray.

Mike

[Glenn (Customer Service Experience) Ross]

May a non IT person make a comment here? I run the CRM department for my organization. I encourage you to look at it from a customer service point of view. Each of the departments you mentioned is a customer. Within your resources, you should strive to meet their needs. Our creative services people have Macs. Our C-Level have Macs and all the rest of us have PC's.

Will the request help the company advance toward its business goals? If so, grant it if you have the resources.

IT exists to help other departments achieve their goals. And that means being flexible. IT Policy is not more important than your organization's business goals.

Regards,

Glenn

[Mike]

Glenn,

A non-IT response is most welcome. Thanks for commenting. You make an excellent point. It is more important for IT to make the IT's customers efficient than it is to make themselves efficient but the ultimate goal it to make the company efficient and that's where the delicate balancing act comes in.

Mike