By order of firm management, the IT department is engaged in a major project to overhaul the "backroom" systems to bring greater stability and performance. IT would love to immerse its small band of engineers and sysadmins to tackle the project, but one problem is persistently thwarting them: those pesky users.

An attorney's hard drive failed. Someone can't print their mail merge document. A marketing assistant has a question about Excel. Don't these people realize there are bigger problems to be tackled and IT can't coddle them right now?

This is a trap some IT departments fall into, and quite frankly, they need to get over it. If they don't, they fail. Service is a long series of interruptions. IT departments are in the business of reacting, so they better get good at it. The face of the IT department is the help desk/support center. So if users feel they are being neglected, the reputation of IT will be blemished. The better IT is reacting to the needs of their users, preventing failures, and quickly resolving incidents due to unforeseen circumstances, they will have more time for projects.

In an upcoming blog post we will discuss some ways IT departments can improve their "reaction" time.

In late 2006, Google purchased online wiki provider JotSpot, leading to speculation to when the search engine behemoth would launch “Google Wiki.” Fortunately, many eager for the supposed service didn’t hold their breath, because nothing has happened since. Until last week, that is, when JotSpot reemerged in a somewhat different form, to be called “Google Sites.” In short, it’s Google’s competitor to Microsoft’s SharePoint.

Before people start creating PowerPoint charts and Excel spreadsheets proving that SharePoint has many more features, understand this is Google’s vision of a SharePoint competitor much like its Google Apps are a different vision of the standard office suite. It is stripped down and networked, but goes after the same functionality: the ability to create intranets, extranets, and project management tracking sites. Just like SharePoint.

The question we have: will this be a “platform” or a “product.” SharePoint is a “platform”—here are the blocks, now build what you want—like a box of Legos. Before Google swallowed JotSpot, it was mostly wiki and collaboration products—built web applications for specific purposes—a Lego car or spacecraft kit. SharePoint suffers from the perception that it is an intranet application out-of-the-box, which isn’t the case. If Google Sites provides some instant gratification and makes it easy and secure to set up Intranets, wikis, and extranets, then SharePoint has a serious competitor on its hand.

If your firm is making the switch to VOIP, make sure you have an advocate for IT on the project, especially someone who has been through a VOIP migration before. If left unchecked, VOIP engineers and consultants can unknowingly run roughshod over the IT network, dictating changes and additional network services that can impart unforeseen consequences if not done correctly.

The IT advocate will protect the integrity and stability of the network and help avoid common pitfalls during a VOIP migration. He or she can:

• create an inventory of what network services would be impacted,
• point out design changes like the proper number of switches.
• properly setup and configure network services that the VOIP systems require, something a “phone guy” may be able to do, but will likely not have the experience and expertise to avoid any adverse effects that impact a pre-existing network infrastructure.

Going VOIP also means ceding some control over the network—especially in hosted VOIP services—and the IT advocate can help smooth that transition. Depending upon the type of service you select, you may lose control over vital network functions like NAT, port access translation, VPN and Citrix service redirections. (Access to internal systems you may have come to take for granted until they no longer operate properly). The IT advocate can help map out how to handle these critical services within the new environment. At the very least, an IT advocate will represent your network interests with the experience to help guide your VOIP installation in a way that will impact your existing infrastructure with as little negative effects as possible.

The company installing the VOIP system will work to provide the best phone system, but the IT advocate will make sure that it doesn’t come at the expense of network reliability, functionality and performance.

Across the pond, a study of IT claims that UK businesses lose 31 days from poor IT management. Of course, that’s the attention grabbing headline [it works, doesn’t it?], and the findings are not nearly so catastrophic. The lesson learned is that IT is a great asset, but like any asset in an organization, it requires time and money for maintenance and upkeep. Failure to do so has dire consequences, like diverting resources and lowering productivity.

The culprit is not the hardware or software, but management and maintenance. In fact, any gains in productivity, efficiency, or quality degrade over time because of poor upkeep. In the survey, 77 percent cited that insufficient upkeep wasted an estimated 13 percent of their investment in IT.

Why? Projects are high profile while operations are considered monotonous and ho-hum. Smaller firms offer divert resources from operations for projects, and service suffers and gains aren’t fully realized. Operations, however, are what keep people productive and work going out the door.

So besides giving operations its due, split IT staff along projects and operations responsibilities if your organization is large enough, or call on outside help for projects when necessary.

Posting a title like that invites the cynical among us to insert terms like “cost” and “expense.” But let’s look beyond the budget line to the business value of IT. This post at ZDNet’s Between The Lines gives a few measures and ideas for defining, calculating, and getting the maximum value of IT. We couldn’t agree with the post more when they state that there is “no such thing as an IT project. They are all business projects.”

IT Projects should not be defined by whether something was simply installed, or deployed, but whether the installed application or system creates leverage that creates efficiencies or opportunities. Value comes from impact: are processes faster and smoother because of the IT project, saving time and money; or does it generate value for the customers which translates into sales or fees?

How do you know? Use metrics such as cost reductions and increased revenue. Time savings is often a gold standard in law and professional services since it invariably directly equates to billable hours or overhead. You will have to be creative in finding metrics for returns because the generated value aren’t easily quantified, unlike the upfront investments that are measured in cold, hard cash.

They also echoed something we have mentioned many times before, the value of marketing your successes. So while every project may be a “business project,” blame for poor projects becomes easily assignable. “Every time it’s wrong it’s and IT project.”

…or IT Director, or Administrator whose duties include IT. It sure can be a thankless job: No one notices when everything is running smoothly but one little thing goes wrong like the Blackberry server crashing, and everyone points their finger at you. Here are some more professional hazards from both the top and bottom…

Are you leading changes in technology and how your company uses it, or are you just setting “acceptable use” policies? There is a tension between innovation and operations that IT Directors, CIOs, et al have to manage. Leadership wants a tight ship, but at the same time might want a few more suggestions out of you for productivity improvements. In a recent Forrester survey, 60 percent of CEOs like their CIOs, but less than a third of the time viewed them as leading the charge in innovation or process improvement.

The Young Bucks think you are the Dinosaur. Another tension is between generations within companies, between those who have learned IT on the job and those that have grown up with it. Those young people who grew up with Instant Messaging question why that port is blocked and why they can’t Skype their friend in Europe. They just don’t understand that to ensure a consistent experience for everyone, certain limits need to be set which means locking down the desktop.

So the lessons learned from these criticisms: keep the lights on but be proactive about have to help the business improve through technology; and be a little more open to ideas from the young ‘uns. So to manage all that you will probably need a little help every now and then from vendors and consultants unless you already walk on water.

Here are a couple of ideas to get you motivated for another work week. This article on O’Reilly Radar discusses the importance of an ideal or mission in motivating your team. If your team believes in something more than just working for a paycheck, higher quality, better ideas, and more productivity will follow. Whether the ideal is “outstanding customer service”—our mantra here at SAGE—our “we do it better than everyone else,” there are a host of ideals for your team to aspire to. By giving your people something to believe in, your organization will get higher customer service, quality, and greater involvement. The trick is making them believe, but that stems from the management’s sincerity and adherence to the ideal itself.

So now that you have a motivated team, when was the last time you had a blank check on a project? Yeah, we have never had one of those either. While we like to bemoan the shackles time, money, and management place on us, Chris Anderson of “The Long Tail” fame talks about something we have known for years but too often forget: those constraints can be the source of inspiration. Ingenuity is about overcoming challenges, and IT and ingenuity should go hand-in-hand. So before you complain about a small budget or a small team, think about how your constraints can be a source of inspiration. Just one example: SpaceShipOne—human spaceflight on a shoestring team and budget.

Here’s an idea we have been kicking around since the elections last week… No matter what your political stripes, one clear lesson from the razor-thin margins in the last few U.S. elections is that each vote counts. Voting is just another form of feedback, whether the medium is an election, or user input about IT support. In the United States, there are significant elections every two years, because the world is a dynamic place and people and policies need to adapt. Generally, IT matters are decided by a single vote, (or executive fiat!) that are set in stone and never revisited until the next upgrade cycle.

Information Technology is just as dynamic as American politics (if not more so), not to mention changes in the business environment. Encourage your users and staff to constantly “vote” on the state of your IT resources, whether it is network performance, custom applications, or how you are providing support. Furthermore, let them know that their “vote” matters in the choice of technology or chosen course. Dynamic systems require constant feedback to perform optimally, so make sure to continually encourage voting on your IT resources and practices.

eWeek’s Baseline Magazine has compiled their Top 10 pitfalls to avoid in project management, based on over 200 case studies. While the list is geared towards large corporate projects, legal and professional services firms are particularly susceptible to these:

• #2: Processes and technology aren't synched up.
• #3: Poor data quality leads to increased costs.
• #6: Poor design results in data-entry errors.
• #8: A system is rushed into production too quickly, resulting in duplication of effort and bugs.
• #10: A system's interface is hard to use

The complete list and accompanying case studies are well worth the read. So if we were to compile a similar list for legal and professional services firms, what do you think would break into the top 10?

When it comes to migration projects, especially large ones, there is some soul-searching regarding whether the firm has the resources in house to manage it properly. Following is a run-down of the pros and cons of outsourcing a tech migration.

Pros

• Expertise that would be too costly or time-consuming for in-house staff to acquire
• Specialized knowledge and experience in particular systems, knowing the nuances and idiosyncracies of apps and their installation
• Bring automated tools and proven processes
• Allows my staff to maintain support levels and timetables for other in-house projects
• Provide additional support and training
• Knowledgeable about coexistence issues
• Less disruption to my users
• Given the above, should be quicker and more efficient

Cons

• Cost
• I don’t trust outsiders
• No support after the project is over
• Usually left cleaning up mistakes after they have left
• Create systems so only they can make changes and updates, not my staff (Potential loss of independence)
• Never stay on schedule
• They work to cover up a problem, not to solve it (a corollary is that they work to a budget, not a solution).

So here is a question for everyone to start the week. What pros or cons would you add?

There are a couple of interesting studies about collaboration and productivity in science cited in James Surowiecki's very thought-provoking The Wisdom of Crowds. Looking at Nobel laureates, scientists' publications and collaborative activities, studies found that "the most prolific man is also by far the most collaborating" (p. 162). Nobel laureates, it seems, collaborate far more than your run-of-the-mill scientist.

So how can we collaborate more or better? The greatest barrier is often cultural. Most people are accustomed to traditional hierarchical work groups where everyone is given assignments and information flows up to the case or project lead. Changing how we work is scary and daunting, and we have a hard time imagining how to go about it or the benefits. This extends to using tools like extranets (such as MindPort), wikis, and social tagging that facilitate collaboration both inside and outside the organization.

But if collaboration works for Nobel laureates, shouldn't that be enough motivation to reevaluate our current ways of working?

Crucial to the success of any technology project is getting feedback from users and interested groups (like the technology and management committees!) Sounds easy, but during the early phases of the project when feedback will have the greatest affect at the lowest cost, users are the least equipped to provide it. At an early stage of the project, we assume that users will have the imagination to envision the final product and how they can use it. This assumption is wrong, however, because while users are imaginative in their own ways, they are not when it comes to designing and implementing new technology.

To overcome this lack of imagination and get better feedback early when it costs less to make changes, the user needs to be "mocked," and mocked often. They need mock-ups, prototypes, and other visual aids to help them conceive the finish project and how it will integrate into their work. These aids don't need to be elaborate: sketches, diagrams, wireframes, and simple proof-of-concept demonstrators often bridge the gap between conceptualizing the proposed idea and the finished product. A simple mock-up is often enough to spur valuable ideas from your test users and groups that will make the finished product much more useful. As the project progresses, you can provide more iterations of prototypes and demonstrators leading to alpha and beta tests. By providing low cost mock-ups early on, costly revisions when the project is nearly completed can be avoided.