Who do you call for IT assistance
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@jt1001001 said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@dashrender Ive answered similar question from a previous manager (wo had no I-T background) by stating the vendor of the software/hardware we are having an issue with is the ultimate "authority", and proceeded to explain hardware and software support contracts and the importance of said contracts. In addition I listed other paid resources available (Experts Exchange subscription at the time).
THey are just sales people. They aren't even in the IT field. The vendor has no knowledge, skills, or obligation to do what IT does. It's like asking your chauffeur who is ultimately responsible for getting you to dinner on time and them answering "Chevy". If you call Chevy and tell them that they need to get you to dinner, they will laugh at you.
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@jaredbusch said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@dashrender said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
she was more interested to know if there was an entity who was the authority on things IT
The answer is that there is not any such entity. End of discussion.
Exactly, because IT is a business entity, not a government certified quasi-union script implementer. This only works for things like nurses because the skills, knowledge and rules are universal and to be followed. Nothing in IT works that way, as does nothing in business in general.
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@jaredbusch said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@irj said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@dashrender said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@irj said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@dashrender said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
Question: is there a certifying authority you can get certified in that you can also reach out to to get help with problems you can't solve?
HITRUST in your field.
Nice - while not really an IT cert... it is something specifically on her radar. Thanks!
They certify your organization.
https://blog.rsisecurity.com/what-are-the-3-hitrust-implementation-levels/
That has nothing to do with the question. That is a certification similar to ISO.
It is, but it's specific to medical industry and it satisfies this question.
@dashrender said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
Question: is there a certifying authority you can get certified in that you can also reach out to to get help with problems you can't solve?
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@irj said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
It is, but it's specific to medical industry and it satisfies this question.
It can't, IT isn't a certifiable process. Anything that is certified can't be competitive in IT and as IT is a performance field, that makes it an antithesis of IT.
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@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
It can't, IT isn't a certifiable process.
ITIL certification?
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@pete-s said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
It can't, IT isn't a certifiable process.
ITIL certification?
IT certifies processes, but not IT. There are tons of certs for "tasks done by IT", but that's very different from certifying IT itself.
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@pete-s said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
It can't, IT isn't a certifiable process.
ITIL certification?
ITIL is a management cert, as well, not an IT one. It's specific to the management of IT, but at its core it's not even for IT people, just people who manage IT people.
Like being a certification for a coach, rather than a certification for a baseball player. It's related, but coaching baseball isn't baseball. It's an important ancillary. Just as is lawn mowing, security, and sports investment. BUt they are all ancillary.
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@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@pete-s said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
It can't, IT isn't a certifiable process.
ITIL certification?
ITIL is a management cert, as well, not an IT one. It's specific to the management of IT, but at its core it's not even for IT people, just people who manage IT people.
Like being a certification for a coach, rather than a certification for a baseball player. It's related, but coaching baseball isn't baseball. It's an important ancillary. Just as is lawn mowing, security, and sports investment. BUt they are all ancillary.
I think there are certifications for both management and practitioners. But sure, it's the process of how to manage IT and the people doing it and not IT itself.
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@pete-s said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@pete-s said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
It can't, IT isn't a certifiable process.
ITIL certification?
ITIL is a management cert, as well, not an IT one. It's specific to the management of IT, but at its core it's not even for IT people, just people who manage IT people.
Like being a certification for a coach, rather than a certification for a baseball player. It's related, but coaching baseball isn't baseball. It's an important ancillary. Just as is lawn mowing, security, and sports investment. BUt they are all ancillary.
I think there are certifications for both management and practitioners. But sure, it's the process of how to "IT" and not IT itself.
Yeah, so valuable, for sure. I don't have a problem with ITIL or similar certs. You want to know that people understand processes, common standards, etc. But actually making IT decisions, trouble shooting, interfacing with business, and all the complex, creative things that make IT more than just bench work... that stuff is ephemeral and like being a CEO or racecar driver, you just can't make it a repeatable process.
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@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
It can't, IT isn't a certifiable process. Anything that is certified can't be competitive in IT and as IT is a performance field, that makes it an antithesis of IT.
Have you heard of Microsoft 365, AWS, or Azure before. They go through certification processes like HITRUST. I'd say they are a tiny bit profitable.
Excluding the tech giants, HITRUST is worth a ton of money. If you're selling software or housing data it boosts your credibility and limits the risk factor since your internal infrastructure is audited. Not only is HITRUST profitable for businesses that sell software or services, it's actually pretty damn good. You should look into the requirements for the 3 levels. They are pretty stringent and overall good security practices.
Without some external auditing of your IT infrastructure, you'll lose alot of potential big customers and small ones with money.
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@irj said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
It can't, IT isn't a certifiable process. Anything that is certified can't be competitive in IT and as IT is a performance field, that makes it an antithesis of IT.
Have you heard of Microsoft 365, AWS, or Azure before. They go through certification processes like HITRUST. I'd say they are a tiny bit profitable.
Excluding the tech giants, HITRUST is worth a ton of money. If you're selling software or housing data it boosts your credibility and limits the risk factor since your internal infrastructure is audited. Not only is HITRUST profitable for businesses that sell software or services, it's actually pretty damn good. You should look into the requirements for the 3 levels. They are pretty stringent and overall good security practices.
Without some external auditing of your IT infrastructure, you'll lose alot of potential big customers and small ones with money.
What does any of those statements have to do with what I said, though?
Sure, winning the lottery is profitable. But that doesn't make it a certification process for the work of doing IT.
Also, getting paid to do a job and doing a job isn't the same thing. You are looking at it from "how do we make money" from the vendor angle, not addressing at all how "do we get actual IT support" from the customer angle. No matter how rich person X is, doesn't imply that person Y does job Z.
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Also, getting paid to do a job and doing a job isn't the same thing. You are looking at it from "how do we make money" from the vendor angle, not addressing at all how "do we get actual IT support" from the customer angle. No matter how rich person X is, doesn't imply that person Y does job Z.
You better believe the how we can make money side is important. How can you pay talent and expand your company without making money? That one just seems so obvious.
The idea on the customer side is they will need less support with these processes in place. Externally proving you can do Backups and DR is pretty vital to the customer. Saying we do it well or we've been in IT 30 years isn't enough to convince companies that a valid process is in place. When you work with sensitive data and/or are making money using the tool you need security. Without audits and certification in place how can you guarantee your vendor has your PHI or financial data safeguarded? Also can they backup and restore data and their infrastructure within very little downtime. SLA don't mean shit when it cost your reputation and income.
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@irj said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
Also, getting paid to do a job and doing a job isn't the same thing. You are looking at it from "how do we make money" from the vendor angle, not addressing at all how "do we get actual IT support" from the customer angle. No matter how rich person X is, doesn't imply that person Y does job Z.
You better believe the how we can make money side is important. How can you pay talent and expand your company without making money? That one just seems so obvious.
The idea on the customer side is they will need less support with these processes in place. Externally proving you can do Backups and DR is pretty vital to the customer. Saying we do it well or we've been in IT 30 years isn't enough to convince companies that a valid process is in place. When you work with sensitive data and/or are making money using the tool you need security. Without audits and certification in place how can you guarantee your vendor has your PHI or financial data safeguarded? Also can they backup and restore data and their infrastructure within very little downtime. SLA don't mean shit when it cost your reputation and income.
I'm lost. The question that Dash had is about how can he get someone who can step in and does what he does. But this answer is about how someone doing something different can make money. I'm not arguing that making money is good, only that this doesn't relate to what he's looking for.
MS365 is a great example. If Dash has to advise his firm on user workflow optimizations for their medical records system, and you think that you can just call MS support for MS365 and say they need to send someone in to advise how to best use their hardware and software... that conversation will just end in confusion. They won't even know what you mean. A vendor selling one tiny service does not replace an IT oversight process. Even loads of vendors each doing many slices aggregated do not, they still require IT to put it all together. That's the piece that this kind of vendor, and any certification, do nothing for.
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@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
I'm lost. The question that Dash had is about how can he get someone who can step in and does what he does. But this answer is about how someone doing something different can make money. I'm not arguing that making money is good, only that this doesn't relate to what he's looking for.
HITRUST does provide support in the way of improving your IT. It wouldn't be specific for your day to day, but with your road map. Dash and other generalists generally don't have to the time to road map and even implement moving towards IT maturity.
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@dashrender said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
I'm not looking for a direct answer to the topic title.
I just had my first review with my new boss.
She asked me a question that seemed odd, but after more information was less odd due to her position.
Question: is there a certifying authority you can get certified in that you can also reach out to to get help with problems you can't solve?
Her example was SUNA - Society of Urologic Nurses and Associates. They certify nurses and have personal you can contact to get help with your questions.
IT is very broad. But to answer your question, if there is an IT issue you can't solve, you go to the product or technology's support method. If a MS issue MS support, Dell issue, then Dell support, etc...
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@obsolesce said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@dashrender said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
I'm not looking for a direct answer to the topic title.
I just had my first review with my new boss.
She asked me a question that seemed odd, but after more information was less odd due to her position.
Question: is there a certifying authority you can get certified in that you can also reach out to to get help with problems you can't solve?
Her example was SUNA - Society of Urologic Nurses and Associates. They certify nurses and have personal you can contact to get help with your questions.
IT is very broad. But to answer your question, if there is an IT issue you can't solve, you go to the product or technology's support method. If a MS issue MS support, Dell issue, then Dell support, etc...
Which is a more detailed version of my "no" answer.
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@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@dashrender said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
When talking about this question in my review - she said that she knew I reached out to you lot - my IT peers to get help with problems I didn't have the answers to, but she was more interested to know if there was an entity who was the authority on things IT that could answer these questions - and if so, it might be worth paying their membership fees to gain access to it. That's what nurses apparently do with SUNA
Also, ask this in reverse. IT is a business function. As how managers or the CEO handle this same thing, because you are like them, not like a nurse. You are a creative business infrastructure advisor, not an operational cog.
Their question is good, but the answer is complex. Ask them how they would answer this for themselves. If they don't know, ask them why they are asking a question they don't understand and what kind of answer they are expecting when they don't know a good answer themselves.
I did just that - and she's the one who gave me the SUNA answer. What I failed to realize she didn't answer the question correctly - she switched to something she did previously that had an answer.
Thanks, I'll try to keep this in mind for future conversations.
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@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@dashrender said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@jt1001001 said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@dashrender Ive answered similar question from a previous manager (wo had no I-T background) by stating the vendor of the software/hardware we are having an issue with is the ultimate "authority", and proceeded to explain hardware and software support contracts and the importance of said contracts. In addition I listed other paid resources available (Experts Exchange subscription at the time).
Great point - I'll mention that in the future.
As a point of common misunderstanding because nothing is farther from being correct. It's the exact opposite. The role of internal IT (or hired IT) is to ensure you have support even fi the vendor fails.
Just went through this exact conversation for a bank. "Vendor support" as the highest level is a bizarre thing that I'd never even encountered until working in the Spiceworks community. In every company I've ever been in from tiny to Fortune 10, including at many of the big vendors that people are relying on, it is their IT departments themselves that are the ultimate support, not even their own vendor teams.
LOL - I considered mentioning that you - Scott - would say something exactly like this. I recall you for years saying - if IT has to reach out to vendor to get a solution - they potentially have already failed - or at least that's the way it felt at the time.
I don't agree with the failure point here because it should not be expected that a person supporting a product is better at support than the vendor who makes the product... Sure, there are times when we've all seen this happen - the vendor can't solve a problem and IT finds a way, but I feel that most of these situations are ones that involve things that aren't directly related to the product. -
@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@pete-s said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
@scottalanmiller said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
It can't, IT isn't a certifiable process.
ITIL certification?
IT certifies processes, but not IT. There are tons of certs for "tasks done by IT", but that's very different from certifying IT itself.
I am thinking that something more akin to a critical thinking certificate would be an IT itself cert more than anything else.
One thing I continue to learn is I don't think critically enough. it's not truly something that's tough in school.
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@irj said in Who do you call for IT assistance:
ce companies that a valid process is in place. When you work with sensitive data and/or are making money using the tool
This is so far outside the scope of my conversation.
HITRUST might be the bee's knees in certification of the platform, but it's not a certification applied to a person showing that person knows anything about IT - and that's the goal of this thread.
So far the best thing I've gleaned from this conversation is - Where's the CEO's certificate that they are a good CEO? or know CEO things? There isn't one, and IT is more akin to a CEO than it is a structured worker like a nurse or a doctor (doctor likely get a bit more leeway, but probably less than most would think).
