“Our own IT person is causing problems.”
You cannot tell whether your IT is under control.
This is the hardest one to act on, because it usually involves an employee, and because you have no independent way to verify what you are being told.
A manufacturer we work with reached this point before we met them. Their internal IT staff were creating more problems than they solved, and leadership had no way to evaluate the situation. Every explanation was technical, and the only person who could interpret it was the person being asked about.
That is the real issue. Not competence, necessarily. The absence of any way to check.
Right now
What is probably true today.
Based on what we find in businesses that arrive this way. Not all of it will apply. Enough of it usually does.
-
Changes are made without a record. When something breaks, nobody can say what changed.
-
You are hearing explanations you cannot evaluate, and asking follow-up questions feels like an accusation.
-
Work queues have no visible ageing. You have no idea whether four days is normal.
-
Security decisions are being made by whoever is most convenient to ask, without anyone weighing the risk.
-
One person holds all the credentials, and asking for a copy would be an uncomfortable conversation.
Regardless of who you hire
What to do this week.
None of this requires us. Do it yourself, or hand it to whoever helps you with technology.
-
1
Ask for a written inventory
Every server, every cloud service, every admin account, every vendor with access. A capable person will produce it in a day or two. Difficulty producing it is itself the finding.
-
2
Ask when a restore was last tested and what the result was
A specific question with a specific answer. "It runs nightly" is not an answer to it.
-
3
Get an outside opinion before you conclude anything
You may have a good person in a role that has outgrown them, which is a fixable situation and a different problem from a bad hire. An assessment tells you which, in writing, without anyone having to take a position first.
If you would rather not work through it alone
Fifteen minutes, and we will tell you what we would do.
No pitch on the first call. Tell us what happened and we will tell you honestly how serious it is, what we would tackle first, and whether you need an assessment at all.
No pitch on the first call. If we are not a fit, we will say so and point you somewhere better.