The Packet Scoop

I admit to being a Maryland Terrapin fan. I didn’t go to school there, but I did grow up in a family of rabid Maryland fans and alumni. This year the Slowski’s didn’t make the Big Dance, but some Chesapeake region teams that you haven’t heard of did. That would include UMBC and Coppin State, who barely got by Morgan St. to be the first team to “Dance” with 20 losses. And of course, what basketball fan will ever forget the run of Chesapeake region sentimental favorite, George Mason University, the first mid-major to make the Final Four in almost 30 years.

Thus, this is the time of year for the underdog…to show some respect for those that lift themselves up from the mat to stand tall. To demonstrate to all that the work they put in has an immediate and lasting effect on those around them. To set the record straight that without their work, the people around them wouldn’t be able to work. To demonstrate that although they are overlooked time and time again, their work is what keeps the organization going. After all, every team needs a battery. The Los Angeles Lakers had Kurt Rambus, the Indianapolis Colts have Jeff Saturday, the Bulls had Steve Kerr, and on and on. The undervalued, never noticed factor that performs every day without deviating from its focus. In business, we call that underdog…..IT

Why is it that the sales department (I know I know, they make rain), the engineering department (I know I know, they make products that customers buy), the customer service group (I know I know, they make customers happy), and the marketing group (I know I know, they make memorable ads) get all the credit? They get the big budgets, the accolades, and the corporate awards, while the IT department gets stuck with 10 year old computers, servers running NT, and an endless search for free tools. We all know that the line “functions” don’t stay in business without IT, but for some reason at Annual Operating Plan (AOP) time it seems the IT department is usually the last to make the budget presentation. By then, 98.5 of budget is allocated, thus providing IT the usual less than 2%.

If you can convince the executive staff via some impressive array of ROI algorithms then perhaps you would have gotten a larger budget to begin with. But, if you’re like the rest of us, you’re probably being asked to do more with less this year, and that IT is the last department, if any, to get a budget increase.

But remember George Mason. Because one of these days a mid-major will break through and actually win the whole darn thing. Maybe then IT will get the respect it deserves.

Steve