How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs
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I'd turn a request into an investigation instead.
Investigate how they work and with what kind of files. Look at what they are doing today. Speak with the people doing the actual work, not managers. Look at servers to see how much storage they use today and what they think they want to do. Maybe they need to edit video in other formats in the near future that are much more demanding. Not only storage but also bandwidth requirements. Calculate yourself what is needed and formulate a road map.
They are not experts at what you do, they are only experts at what they do. They don't know what they need.
If it's not worth the time to investigate, then it's not worth to know at all.
So to answer your question:
"How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs?"
You don't, because they can't. You have to help them. -
In a similar vein as what @Pete-S is saying, they need to have IT's involvement in their needs analysis. Often times people throw out numbers that appear unreasonable to us because they are just guessing. They don't actually know, but they do know that they don't want to run out. So, they create a best estimate based on the limits of their knowledge which results in a guess. The three approaches are deny, approve, and engage.
This is where business analysis comes into play. Unfortunately this is a skill set that most SMBs are unwilling to pay for.
I don't know where your team is at in terms of capacity and skill set, so that will determine which of the three options that you select (with shading between the options of course).
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@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
So this has been a bit of an on-going conversation where I'm at. We have a few departments that say they need storage in an not unrealistic amount. Several dozen Terabytes usable. (72-80TB).
This isn't an issue in any sense though. What is an issue is that there is no justification for this need, people just throwing a number at the wall to see if it'll stick.
This department does work on raw video files, so I understand the resource request, but I can't imagine anyone would have zero way of justifying the need. Especially if the track record for the department is to just hoard files forever, never clean up for themselves and generally just laze about when it comes to what they've had in the past.
Looking for some general advice on how you might address this so you can formulate a real business plan.
One thing you could agree upon is a data lifecycle. Archive and compress the data automatically after 90 days.
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@IRJ said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Archive and compress the data automatically after 90 days.
Can't compress video.
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@Pete-S said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@IRJ said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Archive and compress the data automatically after 90 days.
Can't compress video.
Particularly when you need the RAW video files, each of which may be 40GB's per video.
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@Kelly I have the skill set to do this, but don't and can't get the insight into the department (because of the politics at play). @Pete-S you said to look at how they use the existing resource and it's just a dumping ground.
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@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@Pete-S said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@IRJ said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Archive and compress the data automatically after 90 days.
Can't compress video.
Particularly when you need the RAW video files, each of which may be 40GB's per video.
Well you can delete it. You said they dont clean up after themselves
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@IRJ said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@Pete-S said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@IRJ said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Archive and compress the data automatically after 90 days.
Can't compress video.
Particularly when you need the RAW video files, each of which may be 40GB's per video.
Well you can delete it. You said they dont clean up after themselves
I've said as much. . . but keep getting a solid NO from the PTB.
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@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Looking for some general advice on how you might address this so you can formulate a real business plan
Bill backs.... if a department pays for what they request, you don't care if they use it or not.
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@scottalanmiller said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Looking for some general advice on how you might address this so you can formulate a real business plan
Bill backs.... if a department pays for what they request, you don't care if they use it or not.
How do you bill back a department who doesn't have a budget? (honestly asking)
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@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@scottalanmiller said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Looking for some general advice on how you might address this so you can formulate a real business plan
Bill backs.... if a department pays for what they request, you don't care if they use it or not.
How do you bill back a department who doesn't have a budget? (honestly asking)
By not billing based on projects, base on orders.
Example:
Dept A demands 100TB of storage. IT has a TB cost for storage (maybe by performance tier.) Let's say 1TB of storage costs $1/mo. So if a department orders 100TB of storage, they have to pay $100/mo whether they use it or not.
THis is a standard model that pushes real costs to departments, and puts the onus on the departments to justify their expenditures. It also provides the CFO a look into profits and losses that they lack otherwise.
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@scottalanmiller said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Dept A demands 100TB of storage. IT has a TB cost for storage (maybe by performance tier.) Let's say 1TB of storage costs $1/mo. So if a department orders 100TB of storage, they have to pay $100/mo whether they use it or not.
That is down right mean, but i like it. Rather than me having to ask "do you really need 100TB" it's here's 100TB at $1/TB/M.
That could work. . . now to find out if the CFO would go for that. .
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@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@scottalanmiller said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Dept A demands 100TB of storage. IT has a TB cost for storage (maybe by performance tier.) Let's say 1TB of storage costs $1/mo. So if a department orders 100TB of storage, they have to pay $100/mo whether they use it or not.
That is down right mean, but i like it. Rather than me having to ask "do you really need 100TB" it's here's 100TB at $1/TB/M.
That could work. . . now to find out if the CFO would go for that. .
Not mean.... lol. It's how every service provider handles it, because it's the only way that makes sense. And normally it is CFOs demanding it, because it controls cost, and lets the CFO figure out what is going on. It keeps departments from working against each other and the company. If you need the resources, then great. If you don't, you better not order them.
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1 on 1 , never put them with there teamlead as group
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@scottalanmiller said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Looking for some general advice on how you might address this so you can formulate a real business plan
Bill backs.... if a department pays for what they request, you don't care if they use it or not.
How is this not done on the norm anyway to verify that departments are in fact getting value for their purchases?
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@Dashrender said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@scottalanmiller said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Looking for some general advice on how you might address this so you can formulate a real business plan
Bill backs.... if a department pays for what they request, you don't care if they use it or not.
How is this not done on the norm anyway to verify that departments are in fact getting value for their purchases?
Because of dysfunction? I'm not the CFO and thus can't possibly answer that.
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@Dashrender said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@scottalanmiller said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Looking for some general advice on how you might address this so you can formulate a real business plan
Bill backs.... if a department pays for what they request, you don't care if they use it or not.
How is this not done on the norm anyway to verify that departments are in fact getting value for their purchases?
In larger firms, it is the norm
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@scottalanmiller said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@scottalanmiller said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Looking for some general advice on how you might address this so you can formulate a real business plan
Bill backs.... if a department pays for what they request, you don't care if they use it or not.
How do you bill back a department who doesn't have a budget? (honestly asking)
By not billing based on projects, base on orders.
Example:
Dept A demands 100TB of storage. IT has a TB cost for storage (maybe by performance tier.) Let's say 1TB of storage costs $1/mo. So if a department orders 100TB of storage, they have to pay $100/mo whether they use it or not.
THis is a standard model that pushes real costs to departments, and puts the onus on the departments to justify their expenditures. It also provides the CFO a look into profits and losses that they lack otherwise.
How does this work with the ultra conservative managers? I'd imagine it would translate into overhead for IT. Reverse the scenario.
Say in a 3 year period you calculate the need for 750 TB worth of expansion. The manger is unwilling to purchase 750 TB and instead purchases 250 TB because they don't want to pay the full amount until they will use it. Now you have three installs instead of one. I'd imagine this would be a problem with bigger companies.
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@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@Dashrender said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@scottalanmiller said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Looking for some general advice on how you might address this so you can formulate a real business plan
Bill backs.... if a department pays for what they request, you don't care if they use it or not.
How is this not done on the norm anyway to verify that departments are in fact getting value for their purchases?
Because of dysfunction? I'm not the CFO and thus can't possibly answer that.
The question was for Scott - not you.. and well - it is in use according to his recent post...
If you do this for every department, it makes all your buying decisions so much less about IT, and so much more about the departments truly being involved in the financial levels of the company... which should make the better - hell, if the department shows it's really producing.. they might find that they can get even more things/stuff/money., etc.
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@wirestyle22 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@scottalanmiller said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@scottalanmiller said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
@DustinB3403 said in How do you get your departments to quantify what they actually need for their jobs:
Looking for some general advice on how you might address this so you can formulate a real business plan
Bill backs.... if a department pays for what they request, you don't care if they use it or not.
How do you bill back a department who doesn't have a budget? (honestly asking)
By not billing based on projects, base on orders.
Example:
Dept A demands 100TB of storage. IT has a TB cost for storage (maybe by performance tier.) Let's say 1TB of storage costs $1/mo. So if a department orders 100TB of storage, they have to pay $100/mo whether they use it or not.
THis is a standard model that pushes real costs to departments, and puts the onus on the departments to justify their expenditures. It also provides the CFO a look into profits and losses that they lack otherwise.
How does this work with the ultra conservative managers? I'd imagine it would translate into overhead for IT. Reverse the scenario.
Say in a 3 year period you calculate the need for 750 TB worth of expansion. The manger is unwilling to purchase 750 TB and instead purchases 250 TB because they don't want to pay the full amount until they will use it. Now you have three installs instead of one. I'd imagine this would be a problem with bigger companies.
I'm pretty sure Scott is going to tell you that you don't buy for the future, because you really don't know what tomorrow brings. So likely you're going to do just that - buy 250 TB as needed, you might need if faster, you might need it slower. Sure it's possibly more work for IT, three installs - but theses are storage growths, you shouldn't require nearly as much work as the initial setup - design the system for growth, so IT has less using performing that growth.
