More on that last post

Shannon made an interesting point in the comments on that last post about IT outsourcing:

“What gets me more is that you have to have patience with your co-workers as they repeat the same mistakes again and again (like trying to send an email with a 15mb attachment). When you outsource this kinda stuff, people tend to think twice before trying something as it could be weeks before the contract IT guy can come by and fix it.”

Now my experience in dealing with outside IT support is limited, so I don’t know how accurate this is. I know where my wife works, they have no IT person, Angela actually became the default IT person, and no one has any fear about doing anything that might create problems. I tend to think that’s because there’s no threat of an outside IT support person coming in and yelling at them. Some other very small businesses that I’ve had dealings with do the opposite. They know that if they screw something up they’re going to have to pay for someone to come out and fix it, so they tend to think twice, or a third time, before doing anything out of the ordinary.

Where I work, it’s hit and miss. I’m low enough on the management totem pole that I know there are some people who feel no need to listen to me at all. On the other hand the one time we did bring in some contract help, to work with me on overhauling the entire network, cabling and all, those same people suddenly listened to everything those guys said, even when it was the same exact things I had been saying for years! Most of the people here do listen, so I can live with, and work around the handful who don’t most of the time but they still cause me grief every now and then, and let’s face it, they are high enough up on that totem pole that they create quite a bit of red tape for me to cut through to get any project off the ground!

How about your experience? Do your people take outside IT people more seriously than their own internal IT department?

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