Thriving with Lean Data Center Staffing. Johna Till Johnson President & Sr. Founding Partner

Transcription

1 Thriving with Lean Data Center Staffing Johna Till Johnson President & Sr. Founding Partner

2 About Nemertes Analyze business value of emerging technologies Advise Fortune 100-2,000 businesses on critical IT strategies t Benchmark reality h 2,500+ IT executives share strategies, costs, vendor satisfaction. Analysts have years experience, including operational Founded d 2002

3 The Business Problem: IT Teams Stretched To The Limit!

4 Recommendation 1: Don t just cut staff. When organizations are looking to trim budget one of the first places they look: people costs. That doesn t automatically mean layoffs. IT can reduce staff costs many ways: Hiring freezes Elimination/reduction of bonuses Elimination/reduction of overtime Teleworking mandates Cross training/reorganization Pooling of support staff resources Outsourcing

5 Recommendation 2: Virtualize Servers

6 The 3 (Well, 4) Rs of Recession Reassessment What are we doing Reorganization R i and Reengineering i How do we do IT? How are we organized and why? Resilience How do we change to be ready for what's next?

7 Recommendation 3: Reassess Knowing what you are doing collectively. Knowing what you are doing cyclically. Service Catalogs organize your assessment. hwhat do you do hwhen do you do it hwho do you do it for hwhy do you do it? hhow much does it cost? Why is VERY important. Lots of IT Service Management guidance.

8 Recommendations 4 & 5: Re-engineer and Reorganize With each service goes one or more processes With each process goes staff Re-engineer Combine processes, tools Simplify processes, environments Automate processes Reorganize Shift perspectives, goals Combine positions Centralize direction Distribute effort

9 Re-engineer and Reorganize Cross training h Technical and Institutional Knowledge Shared hinterpersonal h Reciprocal htech leads and stars Incentives Bonus if you can work yourself out of a job Bonus for each position you can learn to cover Bonuses don t have to cash recognition, autonomy, flexibility, a seat at the table

10 Recommendation 6: Organize for Resilience Meta-process: maintain the catalog and the processes. hbuild the service catalog to be a living thing. hdocument processes with links into the catalog. hadding new service needs to pass through these gates. hbuild it into job descriptions and project plans. Burn no bridges. Continue the cross train heven when staff is growing again, cross-training strengthens the organization hbuild it into job descriptions hiring, progress, promotion, compensation

11 Recommendation 7: One MoM is Enough

12 Recommendation 8: Capture Staff Self-Interest Staff always have a better chance of staying on if they Expand their skill sets e.g. by cross training with peers Expand their horizons - accepting or asking for new responsibilities Increase their leverage learn how to automate tasks using scripting, i workflow, etc. Focus on working with people, both in and out of IT h Managers have to both conserve skill sets and retain teams that work well together and with clients.

13 Recommendation 9: Improve Change Management Fewer mistakes means less time lost in cleanup Less time in clean up means more time for productive work Better CM means better asset tracking, usually, which helps save money elsewhere in the budget

14 Recommendations Virtualize Reduce Tool Redundancy Complete a full staff assessment for skills Complete a Service Catalog and assess each service h Criticality, Improvability h Staff coverage Map processes and use the maps! Consider ways to trim costs Stop least critical services Increase teleworking Cross train IT staff, merge teams Reward efficiency Copyright Nemertes Research

15 Thank You Johna Till Johnson President & Sr. Founding Partner