You think it’s a joke, but we see it all the time when businesses are making IT transitions. We go evaluate a new client’s network, and we might as well be Indiana Jones solving intricate archaeological puzzles to get things cleaned up.
Here’s how it happens: IT guys LOVE to IT. Instead of doing what is best for you and your business, they treat it like a hobby. And they can do it because no one else in your business knows what is going on in the back of the kitchen. You assume your IT guy knows what he’s doing, so either his incompetence or his desire to customize everything goes unnoticed.
That is, they go unnoticed until you make a transition to another IT Managed Service Provider, or until your IT guy leaves and your new IT guy’s warm welcome is a jungle of IT nonsense. You might even get frustrated with your new IT provider, thinking that “everything was working before” when, in fact, your old IT guy’s hobby network had been a ticking timebomb for years.
Here are 3 different examples of what this “hobby farm” situation looks like:
Wasted Hours
Without some IT experience, you might not know if your IT guy is wasting your resources. Take one example: drive mapping. You probably don’t know what this is, and it doesn’t matter. But we’ve seen IT guys waste dozens of hours individually drive mapping dozens of computers on a network, when this process needs to be done centrally in ten minutes. The business owners, of course, had no idea what the correct process was, and dozens of personnel hours were wasted because an IT guy wanted to go all Frank Sinatra (cue “I did it myyyyyyy way”).
Custom Equipment
A comparable situation applies to custom equipment. Sometimes when we’ve gone into evaluate networks, we’ve found cheap or highly customized servers and endpoints instead of standard, high-quality, business-grade equipment. It’s like if your vehicle fleet needed several full-size trucks, and instead your shop is filled with customized Indy cars OR an old broken-down Yugo held together with wire clothes hangers.
Again, your network should have STANDARD, BUSINESS-GRADE equipment. Any IT tech should be able to work on familiar parts and pieces. Your IT guy generally should not be customizing your network. Simultaneously, you shouldn’t buy off-the-shelf components from box stores, as those consumer-grade materials have poorer quality and lifespan.
Information Silo
If all your network information ONLY sits inside your IT provider’s head, you have a serious problem. This isn’t necessarily a purposeful act on the part of your tech. You hired him to care for the network, and it’s his job to know the ins and outs.
But you also need to be responsible for caretaking, as well. You don’t need to know all the intricate details of your network. But you DO need to be able to access passwords, for example. It is not unusual for an IT tech to leave a company (or for a business to switch IT MSPs), and then suddenly no one knows key passwords. They aren’t recorded anywhere, and no password manager was ever set up.
Passwords aren’t the only information that can sit in silos. You should be having routine conversations with your IT MSP about what your network needs and what your upcoming costs are.
Conclusion
You don’t have the time or interest to pay significant attention to your IT network details. That’s why you pay an IT tech or an IT Managed Service Provider. However, you do need to make sure your IT guy is not building a hobby farm on your dime. He should build a high-quality network with standard, business-grade equipment. He should document processes and avoid information silos. He should manage your business’s IT needs based on your circumstances and needs, not based on his own pet projects and personal preferences.