Management Information - do it yourself or go to the IT department?

Maxim, I think it depends on the competitive advantage and best use of time. Would the time trying to solve the IT challenge be better spent on other core business activites? Example, if you could solve the problem in 30 mins then it would probably be more beneficial to solve it. However if it would you 4hrs to solve it while the IT department could solve it in 30mins then it would probably more beneficial not to do it yourself. It depends on the IT competency of the team and what else you could be doing w/ that time.

Hi Maxim,

I believe that the role of a IT department in defining platforms, policies and standards that must be observed for the whole workforce in a company to ensure consistency, reduce complexity in administration, minimize platform maintenance issues and achieve employee’s satisfaction should be developed without giving up to the freedom that the user of the corporate technology’s platform requires in the management of his/her relevant information to be productive, responsive and dynamic.

When micromanagement practices are applied as a norm in IT management the excessive regulations, obsessive controls and the lack of perceived trust between IT management, and its user’s base hurt the promised potential of the technology in being utilized as a fundamental driver to encourage personal productivity and generate user’s satisfaction.

A key factor to ensure user’s satisfaction with compliance to IT policies, procedures and standards is by preserving a delicate balance between user’s freedom and autonomy and the normative role that an IT management must assume effectively to warrant consistency, compliance and minimum diversity in the corporate IT platform.

I hope this helps you.
Octavio

Maxim -

By doing it yourself you could end up spending too much time developing and updating regular reports which could be managed more quickly with expert involvement.

It's surprising how many times people end up needlessly "reinventing the wheel" only to find that the regular information they need is already available / obtainable in a practical format.

If it's a quick "one off" fix then it's probably OK to put it together yourself (as Richard says); however if it's something you will be using regularly it would be better to talk with the guys in IT.

"DIY" reports by their very nature will not be integrated with any others in the business, increasing complexity and fragmentation: with management information / business intelligence a "single version of the truth" is a desirable principle, to avoid confusion and minimise time taken to interpret different report formats (and possibly the pointless debates that might result).

The challenge is to create and promote an environment where users can define their needs effectively and get buy-in from IT to meet them (especially if they can be met using existing, tried and tested approaches). The interface between users and IT could be at different levels depending on specific support needs.

Eddie

I guess you could link this issue to the status of IT in an organisation - is it just a support function to help people if they have a simple problem (i.e. like the TV repair man) or is it a vital strategic and tactical enabler?! It could be compared to HR which has traditionally been an administrative function ("personnel" and which now should really be a strategic function (especially given concerns about talent management etc).

A good question - I wish I'd thought of it!

Eddie

You're right Eddie. It depends of the status of IT. In my experience IT is in general too busy with incident management, problem management and releasing upgrades and updates. Besides of that I still see IT as a mean to reach business goals. So in this perspective I don't believe in successful development and initiatives within the regular IT department. I suggest that we reorganize IT by bringing the development part back to business. In this way the business can react fast again to the environment and will be able to create new initiatives in cooperation with IT. I guess that such an organization will also stimulate and inspire the IT-people to bring in initiatives themselves and make things better

Thanks,
Bastiaan