On Tuesday, December 16, 1997 11:42 AM, Therm-O-Link
<[log in to unmask]> said:

>Now there's a real good way to win friends and influence people! (No
>Smiley)
>
>I think it's this type of "ivory tower"-ism that got DP/IS/IT into trouble
>in the first place.  The days when MIS could sit on high and dictate
>which tools the end-users were destined (forced) to use are over, at least
>in the small-to-medium-sized companies.  I manage IS for five companies at
>six different locations that are all owned by the same group of investors.

[snip]

Well, basically it had to do with the cost of IS, and the dictum from above
that IS become more self-sufficient.  This issue is different with different
companies - and one has to adopt to the culture and business nature of that
company.  The one I worked for was rather strict about time accountability.

When there is a problem with users going off on their own, purchasing
incompatible equipment or software which is not standardly used around the
company, and then expects IS to support it, then IS' costs rise and person
time suffers greatly.  To recoup IS expenditures, one needs to adopt a
position of either "no support unless procured by IS" (thus ensuring
compatibility - most of the time), or if the company is open, using some
type of chargeback to recoup the cost of maintaining this equipment and/or
software.

I understand Jim's position, because I've seen it.  The culture there is
such that Jim's group is responsible for support, and they are not in a
position to need to do the above.  That's their charter and that's what
they're paid for.  In my case, it was quite different... IS was centralized
over a large and diverse group of departments...and there needed to be some
control, or scheduled work would never get done.

Oh well...back to work - and get my refill on Starbucks :-)

Joe