IT Department Overhaul
Overview
Title: IT Director
Area of Specialization: Technology
Location: Ohio
Term: 6 Months
Background
A major distribution company in Ohio had recently went through an acquisition process. With the acquisition there was a major effort toward reshaping the business. Considerable effort was placed on modernizing the business and upgrading the staff, overall.
Project Plan
- Evaluate Hardware (Servers, Workstations, Phones, Printers, Copiers, Fax Machines, AV Equipment, Time Clocks, Security System, Wiring, etc.)
- Evaluate Software (ERP, Office 365, Cyber Security, Commercial Applications, Custom Applications, etc.)
- Evaluate Websites
- Evaluate Corporate Communication Lines
- Evaluate Phone and Fax Systems
- Evaluate Cyber Security Practices
- Evaluate IT Staff
- Evaluate IT Vendors
- Build Project List Based on Findings of Evaluations
- Standardize and Consolidate Vendors
- Introduction of MSP (Managed Services Provider) Vendor
- Introduction of MSSP (Managed Security Services Provider) Vendor
- Implement IT Help Desk
- Implement IT Alert Management Solution
- Upgrade to Cyber Security Protection
- Implement Advanced Security Solution
- Standardize and Upgrade Network (Routers/Firewalls/Switches/Access Points)
- Consolidate Servers
- Standardize and Upgrade End User Hardware
- Move to Terminal Services (in lieu of individually installed applications on all workstations)
- Upgrade Phone System
- Upgrade Communication Lines
- Standardize and Upgrade Copiers and Printers
- Eliminate Unsupported Operating Systems
- Upgrade Software
- Data Consolidation and Cleanup
- Office 365 Cleanup
- Active Directory Cleanup
- Consolidate IT Inventory
- Expand Physical Servers
- Upgrade and Expand Coverage of Physical Security System
- Expand Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Capabilities
- Implement Standardized Data Analytics Platform
- Implementation of IT Policies and Procedures
- Hire Internal IT Staff
- Hire Permanent Chief Information Officer (CIO) / IT Director
Length of Engagement
The original term of this engagement was scheduled to be 24 - 36 months. A major overturn in staff and many unknowns when it came to the corporate technology platform necessitated the lengthy engagement. In the end we made significant progress in a short period and was able to limit the engagement to approximately 6 months.
Outcome
Initial efforts at this organization saw extended downtime on a daily basis due, in large part, to hardware issues. Previously staffing IT with inexperienced and misrepresented staff largely complicated long term efforts. In lieu of fixing existing solutions the approach was to implement new solutions. Within 6 months we completed approximately 80% of the tasks identified. The decision was made to have a long term CIO / IT Director complete the remaining 20%. Although we finished significantly ahead of schedule we left the organization in a position to complete an entire Technology Overhaul in less than 12 months. Rare for an understaffed organization who ignored technology for almost 20 years.