End of Year Specials
One more month left in what has been an eventful year for us at MDE.

The IT Manager Development Series is now available on CD. Get the full series on CD with three free bonuses:

IT Manager ToolKit
Technology Cost Saving Strategies
Mike Sisco's IT Manager Articles
      Collection  (new)

Take advantage of the biggest offer we have made as we celebrate another successful year.

MDE News
Training classes held
The 2nd IT Manager Institute was held October 13-17 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. This 5-day course is the most comprehensive and practical IT Manager development program available and is the "flag ship" of MDE's training program.

On November 10-11, the IT Due Diligence and Assimilation class was held at Belmont University. This class teaches the entire process of discovery and transitional planning for the technology associated with a company acquisition. The process and tools were developed by me in supporting the 40 acquisitions I have been involved with.

Training program options planned for 2004
A comprehensive IT Manager training curriculum has been developed and will be available in 2004.

MDE will offer three options in 2004 to improve the effectiveness of your IT management team.

1.  Attend training at a scheduled class.
2.  Host a training program in your city.
3.  Contract an individual or group IT Manager
     development program customized to your needs.

2004 class dates are being set. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring a class or developing a customized program for your company.

The following classes are available now and can be grouped as needed to meet your needs.

1-day
- Traits of an Effective IT Manager / IT Management
     Process
- IT Assessment
- Building an IT Strategy / Technology Cost Saving
     Strategies
- Developing an IT Business Plan (Budgeting)
- Building a Successful IT Organization / Motivating
     and Developing Your IT Staff
- IT Project Management
- Change Management, Measurement, and
    Communication
- IT Manager Prep Course
- Managing a Programming Support Organization

2-day
- IT Due Diligence and Assimilation 

3-day
- IT Manager Workshop

5-day
- IT Manager Institute

IT Tidbits Corner

70%  Percent of companies that will outsource some part of their business application software development by 2004. 
Gartner

75%  Amount of surveyed consumers that favor a national no spam registry.
Information Week

1 in 700  Odds of an identity thief being caught.
Internet Week

IT Manager ToolKit 50% off in December
Get the 80 management tools in the IT Manager ToolKit for only $75.00 in December.

Practical IT Manager Tips 

Client service is a process, not an event

Better said, excellent client service is a culture, not a project. Sure, you may initiate specific projects or install a process to improve the levels of client service you provide, but organizations that live and breathe doing the things that improves client relations truly stand out from the crowd.

You've heard me say in past articles that it all starts with the IT Manager. When you "walk the walk" and "talk the talk" and act as though you understand what's important in helping your technology clients, it carries throughout your IT Organization.

Not only that, it spreads to other organizations in the company and even to external clients if you have them.

What's great is that great client service does spread out to those you touch. The flip side is that poor client service does the same thing and with significantly more adverse impact.

What's the old saying? Make a client angry and he or she tells at least 20 other people? Well, it holds true in the IT world as well.

I'll be the first to tell you that not all of my IT Organizations were considered to have excellent client service. What I can tell you for certain is that you never achieve great relations with your client unless you are making proactive efforts to help them achieve their objectives.

That's actually what client service is all about: helping others do their job as productively and painlessly as possible.

OK, so how do we begin?

First, determine what it takes to be considered a "world class" client service organization in your company.

To do this, you have to go ask those that you support.  Organizations that rely on technology are interested in the following key areas:
    1.  Focus on their priorities
    2.  Anticipate their needs
    3.  Be responsive to their requests
    4.  Keep them "out of the dark"
    5.  Provide high systems "uptime" and availability
    6.  Be cost effective
    7.  Fix it and fix it right the first time

I'm sure none of this is a surprise. Take these "wants" and formulate your own questions to determine if you are providing support services that address these needs.

The answers will lead you to issues that define where you need to focus energy to improve client service. For example, if your clients are telling you that you aren't working on their priorities, find out what the priorities are and refocus your organization's efforts.

Likewise, implement processes that help you become a more responsive support organization if you hear things like, "We never know the status of our projects." or one of my favorites, "It's like sending a request to a 'black hole'."

It's really not hard, but it takes a conscientious effort to understand what your customer needs and how well you are doing in meeting those needs. Once you know, it's a matter of doing things that address specific needs.

Create a targeted "client service project initiative" and watch the relationships improve. Don't try to do this alone. It helps when you have other department managers involved in your crusade and they like the fact you are doing this to help them.

The result can be a big "win-win" for everyone involved.

IT Management Models

2 birds with 1 shot

There are many situations where "hitting 2 birds with 1 stone" can make a big difference in IT.

Here are just a few for you to think about:

1. When hiring, it's nice to be able to hire someone that meets multiple needs in your organization. Finding someone that addresses several skill needs of the organization is a plus and well worth the effort to find.
   
2. When programming requests are prioritized, it improves productivity when you can knock off several request changes in the same project when the requests affect the same program.
   
3. Technology initiatives that can address multiple needs of the company are great ways to enhance IT's reputation. Doing things that provide value and improve client service are big winners for the client and for IT.
   

Key points to consider:

-  Always look for leverage opportunities
-  Incremental expense or effort can have big return
-  Involve your staff in identifying "two bird" possibilities
-  Measure the improved gains
-  Create awareness of successes

Final thought:

Anything you do that leverages your IT Organization's productivity is a benefit for all concerned. Take a proactive approach in seeking out situations that allow you to address multiple issues with one focused effort.

"War Story" Lessons

Focus on "core competency" to succeed

I joined a small company one time that had two operating divisions. What was interesting about this was the fact that the main focus of the business was in the larger division making up over 90% of the company's revenue.

The smaller division had significant challenges including management focus (or lack of) and needed lots of attention to turn it around.

The other challenge this division had was that it was a very capital intense organization due to equipment requirements to provide specific services that made it somewhat unique.

As an executive team, we liked the fact that the smaller division provided unique services that at some point would become very complimentary services to our core business in the much larger division.

The challenge: Lots of opportunity but where do you focus your limited resources?

In my IT assessment, it was also clear that the technology needed to be updated, especially the business applications which had become obsolete as the small division grew.

We had limited resources, especially cash and capital to fuel the growth of our company.

Likewise, we had limited management resources and both divisions of the company were under stress from poor management of the past.

I knew we could turn the small division around if we were able to focus dollars and experienced management attention to it. The problem was that the small division didn't have qualified leadership to turn around a problematic situation.

My recommendation was that we sell the small division and focus our full energy in establishing a firm foundation for what we believed to be our core business and what made up the bulk of our revenue.

After much deliberation, that's exactly what we did.

We could have made the decision to repair both divisions but it would have taken longer and placed tremendous strain on our weak capital position.

It's important to take a realistic view of what your organization, or company can do. I know for certain that several of our managers could have turned the small division around. The question is at what price do we have to pay to do it.

It was a clear decision for me and why I made such a strong recommendation to focus our limited resources on what was going to be most important for the future of the company.

Early on it was not a popular recommendation and a difficult decision, but over time it became clear it was what was best for our company's future.

Letters from the Field

"How much should I be spending in IT ?"

I get this question quite a bit.

Measuring IT expense as a percentage of revenue is a key measurement I want to evaluate what it is costing the company for technology support.

I have looked for industry standards but haven't found any that I thought were reliable, , , and there is often a real problem with so called standards anyway.

Here's why. You can take two almost identical companies in the same industry with roughly the same revenue base, similar number of clients, etc., and the cost to support their technology may be vastly different for appropriate reasons.

If one company is highly automated with a single primary business application while the second company has very little automation and multiple technologies due to recent acquisitions, the needs are totally different.

Even when on the surface they look so similar in all aspects.

On the surface, both have similar characteristics (revenue, # of clients, same industry and mission, etc.).

Closer inspection shows that the two companies are so different that from a technology needs standpoint, they barely resemble one another.

The automated company may be spending half as much as a percent of revenue as the other company and they could both be spending at an appropriate level.

The real issue boils down to spending at a level that is appropriate for the business at any given time based upon the circumstances and what you are trying to do.

That's why I place so much emphasis on conducting a thorough IT assessment. It is the key piece that tells you all you need to know in order to make a positive impact for your company in your IT Manager role.

If you are interested in learning how to conduct an effective IT assessment, take a look at IT Due Diligence. It contains a complete process and tools that walk you through it.

Product & Services Review

DearHosting.com

Web site hosting services are a dime a dozen. In other words, there are lots of them with all types of services, etc. Most small businesses do not need a whole lot of capacity or functionality for their web site since the primary use of their web site is for informational purposes.

To me, what it comes down to is finding a reliable host that provides excellent service at the most affordable price.

Take a look at DearHosting.com the next time you need to find a web site host. You may even want to consider transferring your existing domain to their hosting service. The price is exceptional and my past experience with the owners of this business has been outstanding. They do what they say and provide solid support.

One of the features I like about DearHosting.com's approach is that they supply you a domain of your choice with their very economical annual or monthly hosting fee. There is an easy domain name lookup feature on their main web page.

DearHosting.com keeps it very simple as you will see when you visit their site. The clean look, organization, and presentation of what they have is consistent with everything I have seen from the company. Kevin Lee, President and founder does a nice job and provides a very cost effective service.

I want to wish you all a wonderful holiday as we approach year end. 2003 has been a great year for us at MDE and we appreciate your interest and support in what we do to help IT Managers of the world achieve higher levels of success.

To celebrate our company's success and relocation "back home" to middle Tennessee, we will be donating 20% of all IT Manager book sales in December to the Tennessee Children's Home to help support homeless children in middle Tennessee. This is to become an annual tradition on behalf of the memory of my Dad and for our son, Eddie.
                                            Mike Sisco