When too many people are allocated to the same project or function, confusion may ensue, and the division of duties can get muddled.
Help Desk Consolidation seeks to alleviate situations like the one described above. In her recent Government CIO article, Stacey Keener, IT Manager for the Human Health and Performance Directorate Office at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, describes her personal “too many cooks” experience. As a result, she evaluates the situation and imparts the following lessons learned:
- Non-IT organizations should not be in the IT business. It is acceptable to have some IT representatives in the business units to provide a link between IT and the organizations, but the IT department should be more efficient in running IT than the business units are.
- Contracts can be adjusted so that consolidation can happen. You may have to work with Procurement, but it is worth doing if cost savings can be realized. Do not be afraid of contract changes if they are warranted.
- Moving tasks to contracts outside of your organization or department does not necessarily mean that you lose control. You can still control contracts that belong to outside groups by serving as subtask managers. This will give you the opportunity to give feedback on the contractors running the help desk to keep them accountable to your needs and not just the needs of the outside organization.
- Make sure agreements between contracts are in place before the go-live date. The contractors involved in the help desk consolidation need to make sure they know their boundaries before the help desk is ready for to support users.
- Give the users a heads up that this is happening. Make it a big deal so that they know it is important. A communication plan for the users is very important to make sure that they know whom to call.
For more information on Stacey’s help desk consolidation experience, read the full Government CIO article.
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