Survey Question: for a Windows network of 12 to 15 people, do they really need a full or part time IT administrator on staff?

[Happy Hopping]

I think someone is taking this co. for the ride. They sell fridge and washer, and there is only 12 to 15 people. In all the other places I went to, a sales co. that small shouldn't require any IT staff on standby. That they usually call someone to help if there is a real need. I thought it should be a mid size co. of say 60 to 70+ people in order to justify a IT part time / full time person on stand by.

Can I get a 2nd opinion on this?

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

A retail/wholesale op that probably only has a few PCs, POS systems, and a basic network and phones? Yeah, a full-time IT person seems like huge overkill. That's what IT service providers are for.

I could maybe see it if the IT person also performs some other task (e.g., office manager).

 

[Happy Hopping]

I'll find out more next Tues., but each sales person does have 1 PC, so about 10 sales person and 4 office staff.

 

[TheSlySyl]

Honestly it'll likely depend on the competency of the staff. If no-one there, especially management, understands how to fix even simple problems, deal with scams or updates/upgrades, etc. It might be needed at least for a few weeks to get network security and stuff up to date.

 

[SamirD]

Honestly, it's really about the cost or the workload, but the cost of when something goes wrong. If a company is going to be losing $10k/day if their systems don't work 100%, then throwing 10k/yr at the problem is logical--no matter how simple the work may be.

I saw this in the hospitality industry when the franchisors were moving to computer based systems that had no backup and not even a UPS. You literally couldn't rent rooms any more when that system was off, and you also didn't know who had a key and who didn't. Then add in the electronic locks and it was a double whammy where you couldn't even make or fix keys for rooms, didn't know who had a key and who didn't--it was a complete mess.

This was solved with some simple UPS units that would give us an hour or so of uptime (point of sale system was dos based using a program written in pascal. Key encoder was an embedded dos custom device with 640k of ram). We were one of the first properties in like 1500 nationwide that knew how to deal with the issue.

Fast forward to the 'modern' age of cloud connected point of sale systems shoved down the property's throat by the franchisor and no one has redundant Internet for when that single Internet connection goes down. And add in the complexity of some brands requiring an IPsec vpn tunnel back to home base and it started to escalate in complexity to make it bulletproof.

So the bottom line is really how much the bottom line can absorb losses when things do go wrong. I was 16 when I was implementing fail-safes at our hotels, so the solutions may be easy, but how much you can charge is based on how much you save from not having losses (think of it like insurance even though it isn't).

 

[Happy Hopping]

I agree. But during the time that I was there, things were running smoothly, noone has any questions. I was there 3 times

 

[LukeTbk]

Over the decade in many way stuff moved to the cloud, that company probably does not host its website (if they have one instead of just having a facebook-socialmedia-all in one service type), emails and so on, there a chance that the network is purely use has a way to share the Internet bandwidth-network printers access and nothing else.

Sometime more than size, what IT services are in house versus all pay for and easy to use, would make it using a part time external IT services if they need one more logical.

 

[cjcox]

Unless there is "someone" taking on at least "the role", your people aren't going to be happy. How long can your people/business be "unhappy"?

Problems don't exist until they do. And when they do, it can matter a lot if response time is very slow.

 

[Happy Hopping]

Over the decade in many way stuff moved to the cloud, that company probably does not host its website (if they have one instead of just having a facebook-socialmedia-all in one service type), emails and so on, there a chance that the network is purely use has a way to share the Internet bandwidth-network printers access and nothing else.

Sometime more than size, what IT services are in house versus all pay for and easy to use, would make it using a part time external IT services if they need one more logical.

that's 1 dinosaur move that they are still using: they are still using outlook 365 instead of moving to say gmail. And 1 of the client MS exchange server was down briefly. But that's at the MS email server side,there is nothing I can do.

 

[toast0]

Yeah, they should have someone part time. Come in once for maybe an hour a week, make sure the backups are running, change the toners, fill the printers. Do some more hours if things break, be on standby for calls. If they're handy, maybe poke at anything electronic that breaks before calling vendor services (or maybe they call vendor service, and can sometimes fix things while on the phone with the vendor)

Doesn't need to be an employee, a contractor or a service firm would work too. If you find a good firm, maybe they usually send the same one or two people, but have others that can fill in if needed.

 

[Happy Hopping]

they have 2 admin. staff that knows a small amt. of IT stuff, those 2 can do the above. And anything not able to do, they can call someone

 

[toast0]

Sounds like they have two part time IT on staff. Do they have a specific someone they'll call?
Might be nice to have that person/firm on retainer, with maybe a few hours here and there so the first interaction is 'oh yeah, you may as well file for bankruptcy now, but we would have gotten you prepared for this for $500 last week'

I'm not sure I understand what the original question was?

 

[SamirD]

they have 2 admin. staff that knows a small amt. of IT stuff, those 2 can do the above. And anything not able to do, they can call someone

Seems a bit much to me, but it depends on what these 'admins' know and how complicated the set up is as well as how bad stuff gets broken.

 

[Bowman15]

We (I) do IT work for a multitude of companies. All on PT contract time as needed. Works out well. That size should not need a real FT IT person.

 

[Happy Hopping]

Sounds like they have two part time IT on staff. Do they have a specific someone they'll call?
Might be nice to have that person/firm on retainer, with maybe a few hours here and there so the first interaction is 'oh yeah, you may as well file for bankruptcy now, but we would have gotten you prepared for this for $500 last week'

I'm not sure I understand what the original question was?

the origin is, it seems that IT guy is taking the owner for the ride, as the owner doesn't know anything about computer, so he thinks he needs a full time person

 

[SamirD]

the origin is, it seems that IT guy is taking the owner for the ride, as the owner doesn't know anything about computer, so he thinks he needs a full time person

Depends on what the losses would amount to. If they'd lose $1000 in a day (net profit, not gross sales), then it might be justified.

 

[dogDAbone]

A few years ago, I worked for a small business with 20 employees, including the 2 owners, 1 of which was somewhat tech-savvy + me with my skills.... so for most normal, everyday dumbo mistakes (deleted a email they should have kept etc), we handled those ourselves... but we still had an IT contractor on retainer for more serious stuff like networking/security, access/permissions etc. They would send someone over about once every 2 weeks to check on things, go thru the logs, delete crapstuff, update the OS's and business software if needed, and reboot the server sometimes, plus our agreement with them called for 2 hour response time in case of an emergency situation...

So that worked well for us at the time, but the business grew quickly to almost 100 people, so we hired 2 full time IT guys during that time....mostly for security & end-user support.

 

[philb2]

A few years ago, I worked for a small business with 20 employees, including the 2 owners, 1 of which was somewhat tech-savvy + me with my skills.... so for most normal, everyday dumbo mistakes (deleted a email they should have kept etc), we handled those ourselves... but we still had an IT contractor on retainer for more serious stuff like networking/security, access/permissions etc. They would send someone over about once every 2 weeks to check on things, go thru the logs, delete crapstuff, update the OS's and business software if needed, and reboot the server sometimes, plus our agreement with them called for 2 hour response time in case of an emergency situation...

So that worked well for us at the time, but the business grew quickly to almost 100 people, so we hired 2 full time IT guys during that time....mostly for security & end-user support.

Unlike some guys here I am most definitely not an IT person. I'm just a user with better than average IT-type skills. Once I had a boss who really, really didn't know how to use Outlook features, so every so often she would ask me to help out. But she was my boss and she was a nice lady, so I didn't mind at all.

I also worked for this company of about 200 people, which was owned by these two guys. One was kind of phoned in his management stuff, the other was a real sonofabitch. Did I also say he was a real cheapskate. He brought his son into headquarters from a field sales job. The son was like his father, only worse, but he was my VP. So one day he brings in his laptop and about 20 floppy drives. OS/2 IIRC. He says its my job to install the software on the laptop. I think the IT guys would have told him to go to hell. They had balls and they were probably overworked. But me, I had no choice, due to a family situation. so I couldn't just quit on the spot. So I spent a morning doing that install.

In the end, the company went out of business, and the former VP was back doing field sales.

 

[socK]

Voting yes - they should have something or someone. Use an MSP if needed - don't operate without some kind of tech experience.

Having no backups, no meaningful security, device protection or management, or possibly cyber insurance is a time bomb.

that's 1 dinosaur move that they are still using: they are still using outlook 365 instead of moving to say gmail. And 1 of the client MS exchange server was down briefly. But that's at the MS email server side,there is nothing I can do.

If they're on a business Microsoft 365 plan, it potentially covers a _ton_ of things - it's extremely popular. You have documentation collaboration, file storage, meetings, machines potentially joined to AzureAD and under management of Intune, computer provisioning, etc, etc. I don't really understand the point you're trying to make, as if 365 is outdated or old.