For us, the trend is most apparent with regard to PDAs and Smartphones. Almost from the beginning, we’ve been very liberal in terms of what we allow and support. In fact, we’ve simultaneously allowed the use of Blackberry, Palm (Goodlink), and ActiveSync devices on our systems. We’re soon eliminating support for Palm-based devices, but at the same time we’re going to be adding support for the iPhone.
At first we were concerned about our ability to support all the different devices, but I’ve found it more and more difficult to make this argument. Beyond the initial setup, and possibly the need to support a specialized server, we really haven’t been taxed in terms of having to support these devices. For the most part, we get involved during the initial setup, and the basics of configuring a device for Blackberry server or Exchange Activesync are pretty much the same from one device to another. We’re currently telling users they can use any device they want as long as it supports ActiveSync (soon to include the iPhone), and we only limit Blackberry’s because of the licensing costs.
The issue becomes a whole lot trickier when we begin talking about computers and applications. We’ve always had pretty clear lines dividing our PC users and our Mac users. We’ve also had some pretty clear rules dictating who gets laptops. The applications we use have generally been even more defined. When new employees walk through the door we never asked them if they would prefer to run Outlook or Lotus Notes. Exceptions to these standards have been few and far between. It just seemed to make sense for us to standardize on the products we support.
However, I’ve seen the cracks beginning to appear in these areas too. The Macs are beginning to find their way into areas traditionally reserved for PCs. It’s usually been the result of moving an employee between departments, and not feeling that it was worth the effort to take away their computer just because they were switching departments. I still think it makes sense to standardize on hardware platforms for purposes of support, but I do think the day is coming in when we’re going to find ourselves facing some real battles over which platform we expect an employee to use.
While our software platforms have been more rigid, there is one excellent example of letting the users dictate our software choices. A few years ago, our Creative users decided they wanted to make the change from Quark Xpress to Adobe Creative Suite. IT was definitely involved in the process of switching, but the switch itself was definitely dictated by the end users.
This will be an interesting trend to keep an eye on, and I do think we may be seeing it impact our industry sooner than others.
]]>IT people and Creative generally don’t think alike, with IT people tending to be much more logical and Creatives being much more, well, Creative. I guess we could get into the whole right-brain, left-brained thing, but the bottom-line is that we tend to be different. Generally, this doesn’t cause many problems, and in fact we seem to work pretty well together.
There are many users in Creative who just don’t have that troubleshooting mentality when they encounter an issue. A simple example - when a document doesn’t print, try printing a different document, or try using a different printer. Over the years, we’ve found that many of our Creative users do catch on to these relatively simple troubleshooting steps we ask them to take, and now many of them have already tried these things before calling us. The part of this I wrestle with the most is whether they’re really any different from any other department we support in this respect.
However, I do think there are definitely IT types who don’t thrive in this environment. I’ve had IT guys over the years who are outstanding in what they do, but who just don’t have the personality to survive in this particular business. The problem comes when we try to hard down to lock things down, and to force too much structure on our users. It’s probably a whole lot easier to do in a financial environment. I can think of one IT person who struggled in our environment, and who is now thriving in an engineering company.
I’ve also found that you can find ways around the personality issues, but it’s only when you have options available to you because you’re growing. One of the things we’ve done in the past is to move folks who don’t thrive in the desktop support role into backroom IT roles as Systems Administrators. Keep them in the server room where they have less interaction with the end-users.
When I think about supporting Creative due to the personalities involved, I’m just not sure they are all that different from Account Service or other non-Creative departments. I keep coming back to the bigger issues and differences stemming from supporting Creative, and that’s the Mac-PC thing, and the file sizes they routinely deal with. Those issues outweigh by far any personality-type differences
]]>I think the biggest issue facing Apple is going to be how they handle this growth and whatever inroads they do make into corporate IT. A good example of what I’m talking about is a tool such as Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. This is comprehensive tool for the deployment, management, and updating of systems across our network. It’s a great tool. Other than some 3rd party tools, Apple has no equivalent product, but these are the types of tools we need in a corporate IT infrastructure. I realize that 3rd party tools can fill this void, but the problem with them is that they can breakdown when the systems they support are upgraded. I’ve seen this happen over and over again in both the Microsoft and Apple worlds. It makes sense to me to use Microsoft support tools to support Microsoft OS’s, and it would make just as much sense to use Apple tools to support Apple OS’s.
I suppose we can go with 3rd party tools in the interim, but I think this is an area which Apple needs to address. If they don’t they’re simply going to reach a point where they’re not going to gain significant ground into corporate IT. Adding Activesync to the iPhone is certainly a step in the right direction in terms of providing this type of support. It will be interesting to see what, if any, tools might begin to appear for desktop and server support.
]]>Yes, I do think the iPhone will make some significant inroads into corporate IT as a result of the upcoming changes, chief among them the addition of 3G and Activesync. We’ve already got between 5-10 employees with iPhones, and they’re already using them to hit Exchange via Outlook Web Access. For us, connecting them via Activesync makes a lot more sense, and it should add some significant security features such as the ability to perform a remote wipe. However, we are an ad agency, so what makes sense for us might not make quite as much sense for other industries.
Frankly, it will be much more interesting to see what happens in those other industries. Will corporate IT be as willing to accept iPhones on their systems? I’m guessing they won’t be as receptive as we are, but I’m also well aware of how difficult it is to say no to the CEO.
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