Things You Should Review as an IT Manager Every Year

The job of an IT manager is tough, especially in this increasingly digitalized world. The entire responsibility of Information Services deployed in a company lies entirely with in the IT department and its manager(s). IT Managers have to take adaptive measures according to the new and emerging technologies, replace or upgrade the existing EOL software without disrupting the available budget, and not to mention hire and retain IT talent. This means, IT managers may face a fair share of challenges.

Maintaining a Strong Staff

Acquiring and retaining top-performing employees is a major problem today, and going forward, it wouldn’t seem to be offering any respite either. To ensure that the best talents stay within the company, and the ones who are performing poorly are let go sooner than later, managers need to buckle up and take control before it’s too late.
Various studies have shown that there has been a shift in the motivational factors that matter to the employees. Monetary perks, such as raise in salary or bonuses, etc. are no longer as efficient as they used to be. Instead, what matters more to the employees is the job comfort and a sense of purpose.
Many times talented employees want to switch jobs, but when no promotion or growing is not an option or they can’t get what they are seeking within their current companies, they leave and join another company. As an IT manager, you can prevent this from happening by reducing the communication gap between you and your employees. Do talk to all employees under your team on a one-to-one basis, whenever you get a chance. Get to know them better, and pay attention to their problems on an individual basis. It has been proven that when employees get personal attention and appreciation their direct managers and their executives, it can work as a powerful incentive.

SaaS Vs. Licensing

The SaaS model is growing at a rate of 15% to 20% every year, and it can easily take over more than 25% of the entire software market within the next 5 years. In fact, big companies such as Adobe have already embraced the SaaS model a full 100%. Thus, it makes sense to see how SaaS stacks up against the Licensing model for your business.

Advantages of SaaS:

• No large upfront investments;
• All data backed up to the cloud;
• Best-in-class data security measures;
• You always get to use the latest software versions;
• Most software can be customized easily and quickly;
• Software and data is accessible from anywhere securely;
• Software regularly audited to meet compliance guidelines.

Transitioning from licensing to SaaS model has been difficult due to:

• Reluctance to put company sensitive data on the web citing security;
• You may not feel the need for transition when the exiting licensing model seems to work fine;
• It is difficult to find a reliable MSP or other cloud service provider that can provide a high level of virtualization and data protection measures.

Conclusion

If your business goals are changing every year then consider this as a good sign. As new technologies are emerging, you need to stay sharp and adapt with time. That being said, conducting a yearly roundup is indeed a good way to go about it.