Philosophy

Technology is not there for IT’s sake….it’s there to support the business
In any IT decision, provide 3 options and the cost/benefit of each. Let the business decide
High quality customer service is MANDATORY from IT at all times
Use the right tool for the right job. ALWAYS.
Making a mistake is better than not making a decision
In making a mistake, fix it, move on and don’t do it again
It’s okay to change your mind. Revisit and re-assess often
Have a strategy
Always have a plan….short term, long term and always, ALWAYS have a plan B!
Study your user community; how much do they know, how do they work, how do they learn, how do they communicate
Like it or not, you’re in sales
Roll up your sleeves and get dirty when necessary
Wear a lot of hats
IT requires more creativity than you think
The devil is in the details

People

Put 100% trust in your staff and hire very carefully
You can teach people technology, but you can’t teach them to have a good attitude and work ethic (well at least I can’t)
Require and cultivate a “right hand man” or a trusted “go to” person from your team. This person can do everything you can do (in most cases better)
Multiple brains are always better than a single brain
If there is a mistake made, it’s my responsibility, if there’s a job well done, it was the team
Put a good organizational structure in place where everyone has a backup and everyone has a growth path
Believe in a matrix organization….everyone is cross trained and everyone has a back-up (DON’T use matrix style as an excuse for a bad organizational structure)
Problem solving is a key skill in the IT department and the organization. It’s IT’s job to teach these skills to the organization
Don’t expect anyone to do anything you wouldn’t do
Sometimes qualified expertise will get paid more than you do. Deal with it.
IT people work 24×7. Deal with that too.

It’s nice to have the biggest and best technology, but it’s not a requirement to be successful
Cost IS an object!
Pretty is nice….but functional is better
Buy vs. build is an analysis process that HAS to be done. Assuming one or the other is wrong
Outsourcing is a viable strategy and needs to be applied wherever possible and appropriate
Vendor management is critical. Create partnerships, not vendor/supplier relationships
Negotiate hard but do not squeeze every last dime out of deal. Both sides have to have benefit from the relationship
Centralize IT management and systems control (can you say “control freak”?)
Don’t go anywhere without a white board (or two)
Establish and follow hardware and software standards
Have easy to follow request procedures for your users
IT is responsible for anything with a power cord
Use AUTOMATION wherever possible and reasonable
In a vendor relationship, the system may belong to the vendor but the data always (ALWAYS) belongs to the customer

Over communicate with your clients and user community
Study your users and communicate the way they want you to
Training and teaching people how to help themselves is a value in any organization (particularly when it comes to IT)
Companies require collaborative tools that allow them to work from wherever they are
Be accessible and provide escalations for technical issues

ALL companies should have a master data warehouse or data repository. You can’t run a business without it. This is a HUGE priority!
Data should be EASILY accessible by all groups and divisions within an organization…not just IT
Data should be protected with all the appropriate business rules, security and strategies
Data grows with the organization….data management can start small but there must be a strategy in place to handle it as it grows
Robust Integration and data management is CRITICAL. Dedicated resources need to be assigned to manage both.
STRONGLY believe in data warehousing, business intelligence and/or decision support

I believe Microsoft is a successful standard for business software
Open source is appropriate for some applications, use the right tool for the job
Systems integrations, systems auditing and reconciliation are key priorities in any transaction oriented business
Technology should be a corresponding size and scale for the business size and scale
Have a collaboration server and central document library with check in and check out
Always get the maintenance agreement
Always read the book
Someone has solved the same problem you have already. Don’t recreate the wheel
Keep up