I.T. Management Question(s) 2

[LadySlinger]

I have been with my current employer for one full year now. The company had laid off their previous IT Administrator a few years ago, spread his job around and decided last year to hire a new IT Admin (Me).

Since I've reach my one year anni, a few things are starting to bother me. Maybe this is just me being a slight control freak, but:

1) Would web site management (edits, updates, etc) fall under the IT dept? or have you seen at your place of employment where the Marketing dept is in charge of it?
Every place I've worked at had the IT dept in control of web site maintenance, so seeing the marketing dept take charge of it throws me a bit.

2) Have you entered a place and begin to limit access to certain areas, particularly the server room? One person that did a portion of my job still has a key to the server rack and has on occassion gone in there to restart the internet router without informing me.

3) Also, how do you beat it into the users heads that the people that took care of their computer issues are no longer the point of contact?

4) How do I do all of this among a business that is family-owned and operated by family, neighbors and good friends? (i.e. the person with the key to the rack is also the neighbor and good friend of my boss). PS, I didn't know anyone before coming to work here.

I only ask this as the last couple of places i worked at anything technical centered around the IT dept or myself and we/I had to work with other departments for projects and such.

 

[Trevoke]

Be very, very polite and very, very tactful.
Explain that you need to be in charge of these things in order to do your job optimally.
Explain that the server room needs to have restricted access for security reasons (the key could get lost or stolen, or who knows) as well as for safety reasons, and for good company policy.


That kind of stuff.

"That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX."
"Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"

 

[jhill7000]

AT my last two jobs the website was viewed as a marketing tool and therefore fell under their relm. Webmasters, graphic artist, and all fell under Marketing . . . Server upkeep fell under IT.

As far as the other issues are concerned, I agree with Trevoke. You have to be very very very sensitive when critizing the incumbents. You're the outsider. It's going to be a very very tough long hill to climb.

 

[LadySlinger]

Thanks guys! Both of you get stars!!

Part of the issue stem from them being without an IT person for so long (and from their stories of the previous IT person it sounds like longer). With everyone else being related to each other in some way its hard for them to understand the sense of security.
I've been slowly sliding in IT security for the part year (you should've heard the uproar on the first set of security standards).

Now that I have a door on the server room, with a lock and key, my plan is to keep it locked and only 2 people have the key: Myself and the "keymaster" of the company. From there I can keep people out of the rack, etc. So that'll solve that issue.

Hmm...now that thing about being tact...that's a skill I know I really need to brush up on.

Thanks!

 

[MasterRacker]

Family businesses and entrepreneurial startups always go through a big adjustment when formalizing and maturing their procedures. It's tough to explain to someone why they should stop doing something they've been doing for years without coming off looking bad. (I know, I've suffered from that situation.)

Go slowly and justify everything with research. Do a risk analysis to show why each process needs to be tightened up. The Internet is you friend here. Make them understand industry best practices so they know it's not just you being a control freak.

_____
Jeff
[small][purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me[/small]

 

[edfair]

I can see someone needing to reboot the router. And I can see that need happening while you are unavailable.
Perhaps you could request that you be the one to reboot it if you are at work and be informed if somebody else needed to do it.
If you are not aware of the apparent frequent need for rebooting how would you be aware that it is becoming unservicable?
I understand the need for security but that need can get in the way of people being able to do their job. Perhaps some more liberal sharing of the magic key to people with specific needs for access to the server room with documentation about what that access permits and corrective steps to be taken under specific circumstances.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[needcoffee]

I have to second Ed's reply. You need to create policies and procedures for your duties so you can train people in the company to help or cover for you when you are out. Clear PNP should include how escalation of issues takes place, when backup people are allowed to act, and how you are notified of their actions. Failing to do this will have you on call 24 x 365.

As far as the website goes, leave the design and content management alone. Make a case for you taking the server management over and testing the site for security risks. There are plenty of utilites out there to test sites for badly crafted code. If you want to stay up on your content skills, create some intranet sites to fiddle with that have some business value.

Good Luck,

needcoffee