Why IT people do not like corporate social networks?

IT managers love financial systems, enterprise management systems, SAP, large implementations, backup data centers. But if your discussion of a corporate social network begins with an IT person, then it is very likely that it will immediately end there . Why?

I see several reasons that I have combined into three categories - “sysadmin”, “financier” and “principality”.
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"Sysadmin." I quote Alex Exler: “ With a good sysadmin, everything should work so that his intervention is not required. If the admin has a job, then the grid does not work. If the grid works, then the sysadmin has no work, and he is a good sysadmin. He is paid for the money so that the grid works. And if the grid works, then he has nothing to do . " I apologize if I hit someone with the word "sysadmin", that's not the point. And the fact that the new IT system is a new problem with technical support. The new platform requires new competencies, and the IT service immediately leaves the “comfort zone”. And if the system is provided from the cloud, then these are updates, not once every three years, but generally continuous. You do not know when hard will bring.

"Financier". So historically, IT directors are often directly subordinate to financial directors in large organizations. Perhaps because there was not yet a developed institute of strategic management, and perhaps the generals did not want to deal directly with information technology, or maybe because the main IT project is the implementation of the ERP system, and the CFO is its main customer. And so IT directors are starting to behave like financial directors of IT enterprises They receive a distribution list from the finance director to reduce IT costs ... and all the rest of the work is bidding on price. Sales of business value of new systems from the IT department in the direction of the leadership does not occur, because it is in conflict with the task of the immediate supervisor. A classic example: an attempt to exclude Microsoft Office from a license agreement with Microsoft, since it constitutes about 45% of the price of the entire agreement. Here it is! What other corporate social network can we talk about? This is generally not interesting. And if you insist - go ahead, calculate your ROI.

"Principality". CIOs do not like to let their counterparts go into business and let the decision-making process take its course. I quote Vladimir Ananin : “ IT person and business look at the same subject, but see it as completely different. Business executives are well aware of how their business creates profits and do not understand well what they expect from IT, apart from costs and risks. IT person understands how IT works, but doesn’t understand how they can help a business make a profit . ” Therefore, IT directors fear that you will sell the idea to a business that does not understand IT, and business will come to them and ask them to do something inconvenient.

Besides business misunderstanding, there are also reasons for separation, which lie in the technological plane. On past projects, the IT department has grown and gained competencies, perhaps there is already a ready-made development team. This is an asset of the IT department and a liability that needs to be burdened with work. So you need to support the team and continue to develop the old platform. For example, write a corporate social network from scratch on SharePoint. From the point of view of domestic cuisine, it is more profitable.

It may come to the point that IT shniki try to crush the corporate social network. Here is an example from the National Australia Bank (view from 8:30). It is interesting because it won the corporate social network, which still works in the bank.

But IT people are needed! Who will help make the pilot? Who will support the unfortunate users? Who will allocate IT resources to support the system?

What to do?

First, show respect for people, do not talk to them about the clouds!

Report to IT people that their usual systems are not going anywhere. That the new system will be integrated into the current IT landscape (this is exactly the case, because nobody needs a corporate social network in a vacuum). Therefore, no immediate change of competencies is required, they can be gradually increased.

If you are asked to make a ROI, try it . But then you have the opportunity to go to the financial director. Who else but he can allocate the necessary budget? How to convince the financial director - a separate conversation. An interesting example on this subject was given by colleagues from the Jive Software office. Their client had a financial director, and the new one was against Jive and did not want to renew the subscription. Then his colleagues invited him to find several emails that they sent him. The average search time for each letter was 7 minutes. That was enough to resolve the issue in favor of Jive.

It is not easy to make a decision if IT people do not let you to the business. Should I go to the heads of business units? Probably worth it, but there is a risk that the business will return you back for a budget that IT managers will not give you. They already warned you.

If all else fails, take it philosophically. It may be good that problems arose immediately, and not during the project, when IT managers would stick their fingers in the wheels of the corporate social network that had not yet started.

By the way, the IT department itself can use the corporate social network. For example, to create a single window for technical support. They will be able to unload the second line of technical support, because users will be able to help each other themselves. The coordination mechanism will be improved in dealing with complex technical issues. For example, as Sberbank did in its time.

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If you have read this far, you might think that the author is dismissive of IT shnik. Not at all, they are wonderful people, and I love them! But if you look at the antipodes of the above three categories, you will get a typical entrepreneur who 1) does not concentrate on the level of administration, 2) first sees opportunities, and then the costs of them, and 3) is open to dialogue. How does the definition of "entrepreneur" fit for an IT director? Judge for yourself. I believe that the best IT people are entrepreneurs. And Terry White supports me.

In conclusion, I will give an example of IT shnik, familiar with which I am proud. When one of the largest Russian coal companies organized a common IT service center for their enterprises, they created their own corporate social network. According to the IT director, the social network of an organization is like raw matches, they will go out by themselves, but they can keep the fire going. They used a corporate social network to ensure that the local business initiative did not fade, but received information and emotional support from the center. Because the IT team was engaged in essentially business transformation. Nice to deal with such people!

Vladimir Ivanitsa

viva@supereon.ru