In general, are IT departments of

Ameesh

Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
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out of the 5 or 6 big companies i have worked at, only Microsoft had a really impressive IT department.
 

KingNothing

Diamond Member
Apr 6, 2002
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From what I've observed, yes. The essential problem in most cases is that IT departments aren't viewed as "revenue generating" and thus are underfunded/manned. A continual lack of respect has an effect on the quality of work, not to mention that computer tech support is already one of the most annoying jobs there is.
 

Babbles

Diamond Member
Jan 4, 2001
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I work in a smaller publically traded company and our IT people are 100% worthless.
 

islandtechengineers

Senior member
Feb 3, 2004
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well not really, it depends on the individuals within the company and their values, goals ... way of life blah blah blah.

I started off at the bottm line, asst network admin. within 6 months became upper level managemnet and straightened the place out, fired and higher the right hard working of those who trutly love to do it, not just a job to them. in that sense they knew their $hit to an extent and it wasnt relly hard work to all of us.

so my answer is === IT depends!?!
 

Pandamonium

Golden Member
Aug 19, 2001
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Last summer I interned at a GE office in Stamford CT.

There was one guy doing IT on location. (Keep in mind that Corporate HQ is based in Stamford) The help desk was clearly outsourced to India, which was a major PITA.

On the other hand, the GE IT interns I knew were great- and they actually learned a lot in their internships... so it's really a toss up. I guess my particular office complex just wasn't staffed very well.

I spent half of this summer helping out the IT "department" for a sizeable hospital corporation. The IT department itself is outsourced to an IT firm, which deployed one employee at each hospital. Basically, each tech was responsible for every issue that popped up at each hospital. There are roughly 400 computers at each of the hospitals in the corporation. That's understaffed.

In general though, KinNothing has it right.
 

Yossarian

Lifer
Dec 26, 2000
18,010
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put it this way, we had brand new computers sit in storage for a year because IT didn't have the manpower to get them distributed to users and setup.
 

T2T III

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: amdfanboy
major companys (non tech) poorly run ?

Very much so. I spent 17 years for one very large corporation. Towards the end of my time there, the politics watered down any good project that was being worked out. Way too many cooks stirring the pot.
 

johnjbruin

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2001
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most of them are pretty poorly run. seems like its not becuase of lack of funding - but rather not having the correct management running the IT division.
 

phonemonkey

Senior member
Feb 2, 2003
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Our company has a very poorly run IT dept. We've got several sub IT depts (field service, phone monkeys, programmers that have been outsourced, etc) that constantly fight among each other for funding and to assign the blame (normally, everyone just blames the phone monkeys).

Our problem resides in management dragging their feet on everything that we do. Operating systems? We're just starting to pilot windows 2000. Amazingly, we purchased 1,000 computers with XP Pro licenses, and tossed them out (literally) just to put NT 4.0 on the machines. Our mail client is 8 years old, and is starting to show signs of it's age.

Our latest management blunder is to rush callers through, but to try to solve all the problems at once (our callers are grocery workers - generally not known for being computer literate) and make the caller feel good. As as added bonus, they cut the staffing and add more calls.

I love my job...
 

m2kewl

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2001
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our IT budget is always on the chopping block :|

the only good thing is i support upper mgmt - so i mostly get whatever i want :D
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,765
615
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I think the higher ups in general just don't really understand exactly what it is that IT does, and thats where things get messy.
 

Linflas

Lifer
Jan 30, 2001
15,395
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The Fortune 500 company I used to work for had the crappiest IT department I have seen. It was all the more embarrasing because they were in the business of selling all sorts of IT services.
 

300MDemon

Senior member
Jun 10, 2004
348
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Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech
Originally posted by: amdfanboy
major companys (non tech) poorly run ?

Very much so. I spent 17 years for one very large corporation. Towards the end of my time there, the politics watered down any good project that was being worked out. Way too many cooks stirring the pot.

Exactly...just like the company I work for - too many chiefs and not enough indians.
 

Jack Ryan

Golden Member
Jun 11, 2004
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just so you business jokers know, real IT != HELPDESK.

Helpdesk is a joke, IT provides a valuable resource that business people don't know how to utilize.
 

Rogue

Banned
Jan 28, 2000
5,774
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In my experience someone needs to prove to management the value of IT. I constantly searched for things that could be implemented for that "cool factor" to keep management happy. Simple things like how to share calendars in Outlook, etc. That helps to bridge the gap and get them on your side. You've gotta find some simple, stupid things to intrigue them, then they start to see you with value.
 

eLiu

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2001
6,407
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My mom works for the NC State Dept of Transportation...tech support in her office *blows* She booted up her machine one day and got an error message from NTDETECT, and the tech guy wanted to reformat her computer because the HD was "un-recoverable." :( She asked him what NTDETECT actually is, and he had no clue. :( (This is on NT 4.0.)
 

Linflas

Lifer
Jan 30, 2001
15,395
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91
Originally posted by: KMDupont64
just so you business jokers know, real IT != HELPDESK.

Helpdesk is a joke, IT provides a valuable resource that business don't know how to utilize.

I wasn't talking helpdesk. IMO if a Fortune 500 company has to shut down its web presence because so many of their servers became infected with the latest script kiddie virus then their IT department is a joke. Any system admin worth his/her salt is constantly monitoring the security boards so this kind of stuff can be caught before it escalates to that level.
 

Jack Ryan

Golden Member
Jun 11, 2004
1,353
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Originally posted by: Linflas
Originally posted by: KMDupont64
just so you business jokers know, real IT != HELPDESK.

Helpdesk is a joke, IT provides a valuable resource that business don't know how to utilize.

I wasn't talking helpdesk. IMO if a Fortune 500 company has to shut down its web presence because so many of their servers became infected with the latest script kiddie virus then their IT department is a joke. Any system admin worth his/her salt is constantly monitoring the security boards so this kind of stuff can be caught before it escalates to that level.



Oh sorry your company sucks, guess the Fortune 500 company I work for rules then. We don't have those problems.
 

skace

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
14,488
7
81
Originally posted by: eLiu
My mom works for the NC State Dept of Transportation...tech support in her office *blows* She booted up her machine one day and got an error message from NTDETECT, and the tech guy wanted to reformat her computer because the HD was "un-recoverable." :( She asked him what NTDETECT actually is, and he had no clue. :( (This is on NT 4.0.)

It is very common in an IT setup to have a standard build process that takes about 45 minutes or less to bring the client back to full functionality. When a bootup problem occurs, techs will usually go directly to a rebuild process and save the client the time it may take to troubleshoot the problem (note that I said may). So yes, not all techs know every error message...
 

rh71

No Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
52,844
1,049
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ya gotta wonder why non tech companies would spend a lot of money on IT ... it's not like it's a profit-maker and big companies are all about the bottom-dollar.
 

Pex

Banned
Aug 21, 2003
1,161
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Originally posted by: skace
Originally posted by: eLiu
My mom works for the NC State Dept of Transportation...tech support in her office *blows* She booted up her machine one day and got an error message from NTDETECT, and the tech guy wanted to reformat her computer because the HD was "un-recoverable." :( She asked him what NTDETECT actually is, and he had no clue. :( (This is on NT 4.0.)

It is very common in an IT setup to have a standard build process that takes about 45 minutes or less to bring the client back to full functionality. When a bootup problem occurs, techs will usually go directly to a rebuild process and save the client the time it may take to troubleshoot the problem (note that I said may). So yes, not all techs know every error message...




My school used to ghost at the slightest problem.
 

Jzero

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
18,834
1
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I've only worked for one "large" company, but the IT department there was pretty awesome.
 

rh71

No Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
52,844
1,049
126
Originally posted by: Pex
My school used to ghost at the slightest problem.
Haha sounds like my mentality. I like to blow it all away if a reboot doesn't fix it. Over the years, I've grown tired of troubleshooting past the basics. I ain't got time for that Mickey Mouse bulllllllllllshiet. Ghost takes 10 minutes.
 

LordThing

Golden Member
Jun 8, 2001
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Originally posted by: skace
Originally posted by: eLiu
My mom works for the NC State Dept of Transportation...tech support in her office *blows* She booted up her machine one day and got an error message from NTDETECT, and the tech guy wanted to reformat her computer because the HD was "un-recoverable." :( She asked him what NTDETECT actually is, and he had no clue. :( (This is on NT 4.0.)

It is very common in an IT setup to have a standard build process that takes about 45 minutes or less to bring the client back to full functionality. When a bootup problem occurs, techs will usually go directly to a rebuild process and save the client the time it may take to troubleshoot the problem (note that I said may). So yes, not all techs know every error message...

Besides, what's wrong with whiping the computer if you encounter a boot issue like that? Only problem I can see if she has data on there she wants off. Then I would spend time retrieving the data and then whiping it. Who's to say that corruptions in ntdetect.com isn't signs of more corruptions or hardware failures.

When you have 2-3 people doing tech support for hundreds/thousands of machines, time is luxury