Dedicated IT or Internal IT
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It has occurred to me today that the very idea of the name MSP has caused some serious consternation in the IT field and I think that I have a better way to think about it. The idea of the MSP seems to have a bad reputation, especially when internal IT resources see MSPs as some sort of competitor. In turn, people working for MSPs are confused by this because the ire and concerns about MSPs is often based on non-MSP factors (like a dislike for VARs, which are not MSPs) or assumptions about MSPs that are simply untrue.
I think in a lot of these discussions, it would help both "sides" to communicate better if instead of thinking of it as "corporate IT" vs MSPs, that we actually think in terms of isolated IT departments and dedicated IT organizations. This is actually what people on the ITSP, MSP and IT outsourcing side are thinking about.
The two basically come down to .... is your IT part of an organization that specializes in something other than IT and reports to non-IT management, or is IT the operational core of your business and management is IT to the top?
As IT pros in dedicated environments, I think we are often shocked to find anyone working in IT that would want anything other than that. I think that IT staff in non-IT companies often see dedicated IT firms as competition of sorts, rather than part of their team. But dedicated IT organizations see all IT pros as part of their team (just not part of their team, currently.) The idea that the two are competition doesn't, in my experience, exist strongly on the one side, but seems to exist very strongly on the other.
Perhaps approaching the idea as IT companies and IT departments of non-IT companies would help in breaking down barriers to understanding.
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@scottalanmiller said in Dedicated IT or Internal IT:
The idea that the two are competition doesn't, in my experience, exist strongly on the one side, but seems to exist very strongly on the other.
I've never seen that. I have quite a few friends that have been moved over from internal IT to a separate IT company. Mostly friends who worked for British Telecom who moved their IT over to Hewlett-Packard, and a couple who worked for the government who moved to Siemens. I assume this is the kind of thing you're referring to? I don't think any of them really cared who was writing their pay cheques at the end of the day. It's never happened to me, but I can't say I'd care one way or the other, either.
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There are at least 9 threads about this topic, on which one shall we have this discussion?
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Why don't you start a new one?
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Meh. Why not. A new thread per each viewpoint.
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@Carnival-Boy said in Dedicated IT or Internal IT:
@scottalanmiller said in Dedicated IT or Internal IT:
The idea that the two are competition doesn't, in my experience, exist strongly on the one side, but seems to exist very strongly on the other.
I've never seen that. I have quite a few friends that have been moved over from internal IT to a separate IT company. Mostly friends who worked for British Telecom who moved their IT over to Hewlett-Packard, and a couple who worked for the government who moved to Siemens. I assume this is the kind of thing you're referring to? I don't think any of them really cared who was writing their pay cheques at the end of the day. It's never happened to me, but I can't say I'd care one way or the other, either.
That's the kind of thing, but those are enormous IT departments going to DITOs, not the SMB. A Fortune 1000's IT department is normally "full stack" and works just like a DITO. At some scale, like CitiGroup or JPMorgan, the internal IT organization is as large or larger than any DITO would be. There is a point of diminishing returns because the internal is truly full stack and covers essentially every possible base. So the idea is right, but at that scale it loses the benefits (it's fine, just not special any longer.) But if you did the same thing for the SMB market, then you'd see the differences.
If you look at SW threads the last two days, people are super offended by the MSP idea. Like MSPs are a different animal employing different people and that MSPs getting business means the laying off of IT people. It's like they don't realize that MSPs hire the same IT pros as internal departments.
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@Breffni-Potter said in Dedicated IT or Internal IT:
Meh. Why not. A new thread per each viewpoint.
That's generally the best idea
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@scottalanmiller said in Dedicated IT or Internal IT:
@Breffni-Potter said in Dedicated IT or Internal IT:
Meh. Why not. A new thread per each viewpoint.
That's generally the best idea
https://mangolassi.it/topic/11883/the-msp-model-fails-more-often-than-not
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I don't go on SW any more. But if you go on the ML threads a few people are super offended by the internal IT idea
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@Carnival-Boy said in Dedicated IT or Internal IT:
I don't go on SW any more. But if you go on the ML threads a few people are super offended by the internal IT idea
Not offended, it's just that it lacks IT pathing. The only way to effectively grow in a small IT shop is to move on. That's hurting the field. People in IT so often either get stuck and don't get to move up, or they have to give up their tenure with a company. IT as a field gets significantly held back across the board because of this. Few other fields have this problem in this way. It's something that we specifically have to tackle.
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I always saw NTG and JB's company as a helpful resource. A lot of SMB's need some larger projects done and I've almost always been alone. Sometimes when you're the only guy it really helps to be able to tap into a larger body of professionals/friends.
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@wirestyle22 said in Dedicated IT or Internal IT:
Sometimes when you're the only guy it really helps to be able to tap into a larger body of professionals/friends.
I've been in IT for 28 years (in two weeks) and I still need that corps of IT peers. I can't imagine doing IT without those resources, whether communities like ML, NTG peers, peers from other companies over the years or whatever.
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@scottalanmiller said in Dedicated IT or Internal IT:
@wirestyle22 said in Dedicated IT or Internal IT:
Sometimes when you're the only guy it really helps to be able to tap into a larger body of professionals/friends.
I've been in IT for 28 years (in two weeks) and I still need that corps of IT peers. I can't imagine doing IT without those resources, whether communities like ML, NTG peers, peers from other companies over the years or whatever.
That's been one of the reasons I direct all my IT geeky type friends over this way because of the huge brain trust here.
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@dafyre said in Dedicated IT or Internal IT:
@scottalanmiller said in Dedicated IT or Internal IT:
@wirestyle22 said in Dedicated IT or Internal IT:
Sometimes when you're the only guy it really helps to be able to tap into a larger body of professionals/friends.
I've been in IT for 28 years (in two weeks) and I still need that corps of IT peers. I can't imagine doing IT without those resources, whether communities like ML, NTG peers, peers from other companies over the years or whatever.
That's been one of the reasons I direct all my IT geeky type friends over this way because of the huge brain trust here.
It's amazing what a significant factor peer support is in a field like this.
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Yeah, I would totally hate my job without resources like SW and MangoLassi.
