Enterprise IT organizations have taken a drubbing this year. To name just a few issues: there was the stupendous program failure of Healthcare.gov, Snowden walking out with government secrets on a thumb drive, and business users fleeing to "shadow" Cloud IT services to avoid the perceived challenges and high costs of enterprise IT. Many business users have lost faith in their IT organizations, if they even had faith in the first place. Even worse, some IT organizations have lost faith in themselves: they've conceded to shadow IT as being the new normal and they refuse to address Cloud, mobile, and BYOD policies out of fear and misunderstanding.
Is this loss of faith based upon failed programs and projects? Is it based upon security and privacy breaches? Or is it more a matter of cost and ease-to-acquire? It's all of these issues and more but I believe that faith in enterprise IT begins to erode at the beginning, when an employee first joins an agency, business, or organization. Allow me to describe my first days at a previous employer. This was my on-boarding experience:
- On "Day One," I must find and download a form to request access to an application necessary for doing my job. I had to ask several teammates where the PDF form was located. I got several different answers but eventually found the form on a shared server.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
- I download and complete only certain sections of this very long form, which was used for multiple types of requests ranging from getting a new desktop, procuring a blackberry, and gaining or modifying access to a panoply of desktop and enterprise applications. It was understandably difficult to determine which fields to fill out and which fields to leave blank - lots of checking N/A boxes. And what was my eight-digit cost center code? No one seemed to know which code to use!
- As instructed, I print the completed form and place it in my manager's inbox. My manager was a busy person, the request sat on his desk for two days. And for two days I thought to myself, who uses paper anymore? Why couldn't I at least email my manager the PDF form?
- After two-days of visiting the neglected form sitting in my manager's inbox, I rescue the form and corner my manager in the elevator where he signs the form without looking at it. The application I requested was a necessary tool for my role in the organization. It didn't require my manager's approval but IT either didn't know this, was implementing a CYA policy, or both.
- Next, I walk down three flight of stairs and stand before large, intimidating, locked metal doors leading to the holy of holies - the data center.
- Located to the left of these stronghold doors, there's a wooden box bolted to the wall that looks like an over-sized suggestion box. The box is labeled "IT Requests." I placed my completed request form within the "mouth" of the box and hope it gets the attention it deserves. I get no confirmation that it's received, no expectation as to when the form will be retrieved, or when a person will fulfill my request.
- Two days after my visit to the stronghold, I receive a call from a technician confirming my request. However, the technician informs me that I didn't complete the request form properly. Luckily the technician was in a good mood and willing to correct the form for me. Normally, she tells me, she would reject the request and send the form back to me in interoffice mail.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. - Three days later, I receive an email notifying me that access has been granted. However, the email doesn't provide my account name or password, or how to access the application. For this, the email states, I must forward this approval email to the Application Security team and they will provide my credentials along with instructions for installing and accessing the application.
- Two days later, I receive my credentials and successfully access the application. Provisioning complete, finally after two weeks on the job!
A total of nine business days passed before I was able to use the application! Did I mention I absolutely needed access to this application to accomplish the main objectives of my job? I was ready to quit before my first paycheck was ever issued! Stubbornly, I accepted the process for what it was and soon learned to "game" the system as any process with lots of manual interactions and hand-offs has loopholes and workarounds.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I bet many IT employees feel this process is acceptable. It's not perfect, they would say, but the process works. But in most instances, no one particular IT support group actually knows how complex and convoluted the entire provisioning process is; they're just cogs in the machine. I say this with a sad confidence because I spent many years in IT and was one of those "cogs." But it's time for a wake-up call! Customers and end-users are fed up with how IT does a crummy job of providing resources, it makes them despise and ridicule IT. We need to address servicing our customers and we need to address better servicing them the minute they become our customers.
Enabling IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) technologies, such as virtualization and cloud, can greatly improve the provisioning process by automating both the request and the actual provisioning of an application, system, or resource thus saving both time and money. ITaaS technology can also improve the security and governance of IT provisioning: My buddy in IT can "bend" a rule and give me access but an automated system doesn't know me from the CEO - it's very difficult to game a fully automated provisioning system.
But most importantly, ITaaS can help IT organizations re-examine how they handle provisioning and access requests, and how they treat their customers (internal, external, or both). It's not about doing old things in new ways, it's about moving towards a services-based culture, which opens up opportunities to improve the relationships and reputation IT has with its clients. Hopefully, from the real-life example above, you'll agree we are ripe with opportunities to improve the relationship between IT and the clients IT serves. We have the opportunity and power to set a positive tone from "Day One." In my next blog, I'll offer advice for creating a services-based culture in your IT organization and how ITaaS technologies can seed your services-based transformation.