September, 2009

Managing During Disasters Part 2

Although this disaster was not hard to over come, it really alerted me to have a good communication system in place under a bigger disaster recovery plan. I already have a plan to make a solid “disaster recovery plan”, but I never felt the urgency to include a plan on how to keep work flowing while our phone system and internet were out.

We discussed an alternate phone system or internet connection, we can use mobile internet as a back up for our wired LAN. We need to keep good call back numbers for all our clients in case we have to initiate the contact. We will also consider including a mobile phone number in our company contact numbers in the instance of our land line malfunctioning. Also, we designated another location for our technicians if everything else fails.

This was a fast resolution for an unexpected problem; a fully detailed disaster recovery plan is a must for any organization. Many people may think “oh I am sure they have a good back up plan”, but you will be surprised by how many, large and small organizations, who don’t have a solid disaster recovery or back up plan in place.

Managing During Disasters Part 1

You may have the best staff in world, you may have the best technology money can buy, you may have an unlimited budget, but when a disaster strikes, you better be prepared.

I learned a hard lesson when, our phone system and the internet went down, and we were not reachable. Imagine being in the customer service business and your customers can’t reach you, what effect does an issue like this have on your customers and your business reputation.

I wasn’t at all prepared do deal with such a disaster. We called the phone company but more than 24 hours passed and we were still without phones. I thought something like this would be rare in today’s technologically advanced world, but I know now that I have to deal with facts and never assume anything.

We don’t have a disaster recovery plan, so what do we do to get back to our normal operation?

I had to act fast and my staff made huge efforts to keep things in running order.

This incident made me come up with some quick resolutions and put the “disaster recovery plan” on top of my “things to do” list.

We were able to manage by:

1- Making an extensive use of cell phones: although you can never use cell phones to run a business, not yet at least, we had to resort to our cell phones to stay in touch with our customers. We contacted out main clients and informed them about the situation. I asked the site manager to start to call all customers who have pending issues, to inform them about our status and assure them that we are on top of things.
2- One of our managers has a relative who holds a high position with the phone company so we asked him to get his contact involved and try to expedite a fix for our phone system.
3- I made sure all the staff was on location each day with a cell phone.
4- We hired our own electrician to check the phone lines, as we were waiting for the phone company technician to arrive.
5- I was on hand for any extra help.

Managing in an ever changing technical world

*** I first posted this article almost 2 years ago***
In my daily work, I am faced with the same question everyday, what next? Interaction with my staff, our clients, and reading the news, lead me to ask more questions. What new technology that I have to watch for? What skills my staff will need to develop over the next few months in order for them to remain technically competitive? How long the demand for our current skill set will will last?

As a manager, I must always be prepared for the next big technical trend and shift in demand. From my daily observation, I can see which skills will be in demand for few years to come and which skills will be in low demand.

Networking skills will be in high demand for few years to come, demands will include:

1-Network engineers of various skill levels from home networking to large corporate networks
2- Network equipments of various size and functionality from small routers which support few computers to fiber optic cables that span the globe.

Data back up will be in high demand too. I have seen the disasters that were caused by date lose; I have seen it at small firms as well as big corporations. The demand will be more noticeable with small businesses. Since much of the world is going digital, the traditional archiving using paper folders and steel cabinets is giving way to the more convenient digital archiving. Many small business need to be educated on the advantages of having their data backed up digitally, since sooner or later most of their business transactions will be done online 100%

I believe most small business owners will good potential clients for data backup technology if:

1- They were presented with easy to use and understand back up solutions
2- The solution is within their budget, which is possible since the price for backup equipment is dropping rapidly

VOIP is growing rapidly and eventually all phone communication will be done using Voice over IP technology. VOIP will lower the cost of long distance calls to almost nothing. Worrying about your long distance phone bill will be a thing of the past.

In my daily work, I have noticed the momentum the above three technologies is gaining, of course there are many other technical advances that are being achieved in other areas which also worth observing.

As I notice technologies that are gaining momentum, I see the demand is dropping or will soon drop for other technologies or equipments.

The prices of desktops dropped scientifically over the past two to three years. Today you could find a used brand name P4 computer in very good working condition with less than $100. These drops in prices will very soon lead to a drop in demands for desktop PC technicians. It will be cheaper for a customer to buy a new Desktop PC than to repair the not functioning one.

I haven’t used any official statistics in this article; I only reported my daily observations and my feeling about the future in my field.

Break in Communications can cost business a fortune

I called the airlines to make my flight reservation, the agent made my return date on sept 27th instead of sept2th as I requested, either I didn’t speak clearly or he didn’t listen carefully, but it costs me and my company time and money. Another example, I called my secretary to check on a reservation for me, but she didn’t only check the reservation but she actually made the reservation, another costly mistake.

A client of our company was suppose to bring some timely sensitive business documents, but she didn’t, she thought it was our job to remind her and our secretary thought it was the client responsibility to bring the documents on time.

These small communications break down cost our company close to $2000 in fees and late charges and about 4 days of lost work, which could have been easily avoided.

Break in Communications cannot be totally eliminated but it can be greatly reduced.
In my company, I made it a priority for everyone (employees and clients) to communicate via e-mails and not to rely on verbal communications.

This policy doesn’t always work and some communications take place over the phone, it’s the responsibility of all parties involved that the message was understood. Think of the communications that take place between pilots and air traffic controller; both parties have to read back to each other to make sure the message was delivered.

The lack of Females IT workers

Why IT is one of those industries with limited number of female workers? Are female, naturally, are not technically oriented or do most females chose a career away from IT to avoid a male dominated industry?

Public perception of female IT workers is poor, the public in general don’t trust a female IT professional to handle their technical problems. Back when I used to work in a call center, most callers would feel uncomfortable talking to a female technician.

In my years in collage majoring in Management Information Systems, I observed that most female students would not excel in programming and networking classes.

Are females inherently inclined to deal with human and not machine, or is it the society who is assigning roles and responsibilities based on gender?

Management Information Systems, Skills needed by IT Managers

What is the difference between Management Information Systems (MIS) and Computer Information Systems (CIS)? MIS is a business major based on IT curriculum deigned to equip students with the latest skills in programming and networking coupled with business skills to manage modern work place.

CIS is 100% technical; it’s designed to give students the necessary programming, networking, hardware designing and troubleshooting skills.

Most CIS graduates spend their careers working on technical fields and never advanced to management positions, while most MIS graduates move quickly to management positions.

In general, MIS majors start with a higher salary than CIS majors and that because of the lack of management training for CIS majors.

In today’s corporate environment, IT managers must have the necessary management skills to run their department; MIS is the way to go for those who want to make it to the leadership positions in IT industry.

Basic IT solutions are still needed in many places

I am a subscriber to many IT and business newsletters, most of these letters focus on the latest advancement in technology and business solutions, which is great, but they don’t address a large population that still lack the basic IT services such as (access to high-speed internet or access to professional online services.)

Working in US and in other parts of the world, I saw first hand that not everyone is familiar with the latest IT technology or even heard about it, many people, including businesses, are still ignorant of what IT solutions are available for them.

I have visited many businesses, including some IT related businesses, who still don’t have a business website or have a professional business e-mail or have simple backup solution or have adequate hardware and software.

Web 2.0, Could Computing, Social websites, mobile internet is the road ahead, but millions of people are still in need for the basic IT services.

US maintains its leading role in IT Industry, Sept 2009

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual study, sponsored by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), reveals that countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe are taking deliberate steps to improve their technology environments, although the U.S. remains the
Leader in providing the most competitive conditions for the information
technology (IT) industry.

Some interesting finding of the study:

Despite economic slow down, the IT industry remains strong in the US and around the world and broadband networks availability is a critical part of IT industry success. (I have always believed that having high-speed internet access is a necessity rather than added advantage in today’s work environment.)

India, China and Brazil are still far behind in broadband penetration and the growth rate still not adequate to support IT growth (this is disappointing finding considering the ambitious IT industries these countries have.)

The ever persisting problem of labor movement, especially to the US, IT is a global industry and growth could be hindered by restrictions on labor movements. (the US has lost thousands of IT workers on the last few years due to limitations on Visas or due to the difficulty faced by foreign IT workers to remain in the country permanently.)

Will access to the internet will become “a Human right” issue”

I was reading an interesting article, you can find it here: http://www.texasprogress.com/blog/is-internet-access-a-human-right about internet access becoming a human right issue. A court in France ruled that denying internet access to a person is a violation of his/her human rights.

Do you think we will reach a time when a person could sue to get his internet access rights restored? Is internet access “a privilege or a right”? Internet pirates were denied access to the internet which basically would stop them from accessing other services offered by the internet like “e-mails, live chat, online search, online banking, remote work, online studying, paying bills, using e-government and list could go on and on”.

I think denying internet access for online pirates is a simple solution for a very complicated social issue, what do you think?

Management with cultural barriers

Working with a group of people with diverse cultural backgrounds is both exiting and challenging. In my job as manager with international company, I interact and manage people from different parts of the world and each group of people from specific geographical region has their own unique characters that a manger must be aware of.

There are People who are reluctant to accept leadership positions, they brought up in societies where they always told what to do and not use their own judgments, with this group, I have to always monitor them closely and give them clear guidance on what is expected of them. The good thing about this group is that they listen and follow instructions.

There are People who seek leadership positions and willing to make judgments and take risks, with this group a manager has to be a bit careful, since he may end up with people in leadership positions without adequate experience, this group of people can be trained gradually to assume higher positions plus the manager can use them as to fill in on his absence since they require little supervision. These groups of people come from societies where men usually have to assume leadership positions and it expected of them to rise quickly in the corporate ladder.

The last group is of people is those who want to only excel in what they do, they are experts in their professions and willing to learn and advance as long as they remain focused on what they can do best. These groups of people come from societies where “excellent work and professionalism” is expected from every member of the society, they trained to excel in certain fields and remain focused on what they do best.

Of course this is my personal experience and it applies to this part of the world, the Arab world.