It’s true. I’m just done. Allow me to elaborate.

IT is a group activity in the enterprise space. Even the small enterprise space. It takes lots of eyes to watch over workings of a WAN. Security. VPN access. Firewalls. Hardware. Seriously, I could go on for about fifteen and a half hours. And, as you can imagine, all of these specialty areas require specialty knowledge.

What is the result of all these specialized areas of technology? Do you suppose that any IT manager gets to hire IT staff, one for each area? Pft, as if. The result is that you have fewer and few staff members doing more and more on a regular basis.

Supplement the Body Count

So, what the hell is a manager supposed to do about this problem? Well there are a few options, some of which involve … let’s call them acrimonious exchanges between IT and senior management. Meanwhile, there is the route that I have chosen. That is to supplement my small staff with outside partners.

Please notice, I didn’t say “vendors.” I don’t need vendors. I need partners.

Know the Difference

Now, let’s take a moment to pretend that I am psychic. You are probably thinking “well my vendors are pretty good partners.” But are they? Are they really?

To categorize a person or a company as a “vendor” is not a bad thing. A “vendor” is a business acquaintance that (hopefully) delivers quality merchandise or services at a reasonable price on a timely basis. How could that be a bad thing? You need a box. You call a box vendor. You get a box.

While that may be a suitable situation for plenty of firms, it doesn’t fill my needs. What I need is are commercial entities that are partners.

“Partners,” to me, are vendors that go beyond the above description. They are companies with a deep well of knowledge in their given space. They have more than inventory to offer, they also have a range of embedded service partners that offer supplemental services and expertise. You begin to think of them as your “go-to” people when a new project or topic comes up that falls into their area of expertise.

What’s the Point?

We all know there are only so many hours in the day. And, contrary to what some managers will tell you, no one can expect their team to work day and night. It might work for a little while, but all it does in the end is drive good people away. But the work still needs to get done. That firmware won’t update itself.

That is where the partners come in. I leverage my partners to help take a great deal of items off the my desk, and the desks of our IT team.

Our partners not only deliver the products and services we need to keep our network running. They bring new ideas to the table. They connect us with specialists who have knowledge that is both specialized and extremely deep. That sort of assistance can prove invaluable when it comes to specification for untried technology and (especially) license audit control. I’m looking at you Microsoft.

The Few and the Many

All of this becomes a force multiplier. Suddenly a small team seems to have endless hours in the day.

One partner monitors multi-function printers and plotters throughout the company, across numerous offices. One partner takes care of all our mobile data support issues. Another partner takes care of all our hardware orders, centralizing not only billing but also support (while providing volume discounting).

All of these comes together for create new team. One that still has the same, limited number of on staff IT specialists. But, off in the wings, are a dozens of people helping to keep things running. They are a call away, ready with remote assistance. Or they may even be the one that calls, letting you know of new developments and resolutions.

It’s a team effort. And one that benefits everyone involved and even those people who are not …