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| IT staff wasting ‘Olympian effort’ It may well come around every four years, prove controversial, throw up international incidents and cost a fortune but the similarities between an IT upgrade and the Olympic Games don't end there for IT staff. Research from Nasstar has found put-upon techies in large organisations for example doing the 10,000m, simply getting around to all desktop computers – but they're far from breaking any record times! On average, Nasstar found desktop PCs in large companies are five metres apart across the whole estate. This means in a company of 2,000 staff, spread over several floors or separate office locations, IT staff are covering at least 10,000m simply walking from machine to machine. And often it can take weeks to do so. Other events in the Olympian effort of IT workers include: The relay: Nasstar's Charles Black said one of the major problems of long, drawn out IT upgrades is the time taken to complete them – often weeks or months. As such responsibilities and workflow are often handed over several times to different staff, increasing the management overhead and the likelihood of key tasks being missed. And then of course there are all the false starts as IT departments finalise budgets, sign-off and process for a new software rollout. Wrestling: Wrestling with budgets and logistics. Simply finding a time when staff are free to step away from their machines in order for work to be done is problematic. Not to mention prioritising which departments or parts of the business need to be done first. Boxing: The cardboard and packaging wastage of IT hardware and software upgrades is not just environmentally unfriendly but managing the delivery and storage of boxes also represents a logistical nightmare, said Black. Three day eventing: Moving in to new offices should be a simple case of switching on PCs or thin client devices and no matter what machine staff are on they can access all software and data they need, quickly and securely. As it is people have to put stickers on machines in order to ensure they get the right PC on their desk and often staff are working around the clock from Friday to Sunday to make the move happen. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Computing News :: home page |