The Four Biggest IT Management Mistakes

Mistakes are a part of life… they happen. We all make them at some point. Some are little mistakes and we can learn and grow from them and others are catastrophic and can have long-lasting, life-altering consequences.

Just as in life, businesses are not immune from mistakes being made that can affect them in any number of ways. Employees are only human after all.

For those employed in the IT management sphere the stakes are often high and when mistakes are made they can take the entire company down as well as careers.

IT managers are responsible for the functioning, security, reliability and integrity of a range of information technology equipment, software, systems and processes that are the backbone of an organization. When IT systems fail they can halt production or the ability of a company to deliver its projects.

Mistakes in the IT realm not only have financial consequences and can cause an organization to lose lots of money, they can inhibit growth, damage reputation and even cause legal problems.

Some of the biggest mistakes that IT management can make include:

1. Not having the appropriate resources

Whether it’s having the right people for the job or having the right equipment, when you are running an IT department and your resources aren’t fit-for-purpose, it can be a recipe for disaster.

2. Inadequate technical support

Employees find it frustrating when they require technical support only to find they have to embark on a lengthy, complicated, time-consuming process that doesn’t result in their problems being solved.

But when the IT problem is so serious it prevents the employee from actually doing their job or delivering a project, incompetence at the IT support level can have catastrophic consequences for the entire organization.

Investing in a system like DeskAlerts can help to take pressure off the IT help desk by sending mass notifications to all staff when there is a wide-spread issue affecting many users, freeing your IT staff up to get on with the job of fixing the issue.

3. Outsourcing to the wrong company

These days many companies outsource some aspects – or all aspects – of their IT needs to third party organizations. This can be cost effective, but it can also be disastrous.

If the third party organization doesn’t understand your business, has too many clients and doesn’t prioritize yours, or takes too long to respond when there is a serious issue, it can actually be much more costly in the long run than if you provided these services in-house.

4. Failure to protect digital assets

There are a number of ways digital assets can be vulnerable. From viruses, to hacking, to physical theft, to storage systems and back ups failing, software malfunction, natural disasters and everything in between.

When these systems are compromised or fail, the consequences can be far-reaching.

Having robust systems in place such as firewalls and anti-virus software as well as strategies, policies and procedures to follow and enforce can help with most of these potential problems.