IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done (72 page)

Use of Mobile Devices

Because mobile devices are mobile, and may be entirely out of the control and visibility of the organization, it's a good idea to set some guidelines about their use:

•
Report stolen or lost devices immediately

•
Refrain from downloading for-fee services—ring tones or applications, music, video streaming, etc.

•
Refrain from downloading large data files such as video

•
Stay within the allotted minutes and feature sets of the service plan

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Notify IT ahead of any departure for international travel so that international roaming capabilities are enabled for the applicable travel dates and countries

•
Limit use of directory assistance (411)

•
Adhere to the same security guidelines and principles for general computer use (e.g., don't open files or links from unknown sources)

•
Use a password

•
Don't leave the device unattended

Many of these policies are related to managing costs for company-owned devices, but in many cases employees are using their own devices under a BYO policy, which was discussed earlier in this chapter in the section
“The Blurry Line between Company-Owned and Personally-Owned Equipment (BYO Policies)”
on
page 288.
Mobile device management
(MDM) tools can also help with the security of mobile devices. Products from companies like Mobile Iron and Good Technology are popular in the MDM space and provide capabilities like device and app inventory, feature lockdown, device configuration, remote lock and wipe, encryption, and extensive logging.

11.3 How Does This Affect You as IT Manager?

Success with
Web 2.0
is coming at a cost. IT managers have to balance all the collaboration and innovation emanating from these tools against new security risks, as well as data access and management challenges. And they have to do it in many cases with products that lack security and data management features. This means that IT departments must find ways to get control over the use of these tools in the workplace.

www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=172026

The particular challenge with all these new social media and connectivity technologies (as with almost any new solution) is that it is a double-edged sword. While they can be strategic tools for business and improve employee productivity, they can also be factors contributing to employee distractions and performance problems.

Many companies are still trying to figure out how to best use these technologies, and the answers won't come from the IT department alone. As is always the case, many parts of the organization (such as Legal and HR) need to be involved.

Lead, Encourage, and Experiment

It may be appropriate to just let various groups experiment with these tools to see how well they work and what results they yield. Since the use of many of these tools is essentially viral, exercising too much control or trying too hard to influence its use and direction may simply lead to failure. Some companies have loved the idea of social networking, but instead of just making use of the tools that are already available, they have tried to build their own internal social networking sites. In many cases, their efforts have not been successful simply because the audience is too small to generate the necessary viral growth, companies are unable to build/buy something as functional as what already exists, or employees really don't have too much interest in maintaining their listing on a “company” site.

A compromise solution may be to make use of social media tools that are virtually private. For example, Yammer.com is very similar to Twitter.com, but is set up so that information is only shared among people of the same organization. Similarly, Google, which owns YouTube, has a video-sharing function for organizations through its Google Video for Business offering. This offering is completely hosted by Google, is similar to YouTube, but allows you to maintain strict control and ensures that videos are not available to the public at large. In the arena of crowdsourcing and collaboration, solutions such as Kluster.com allow you to harness the intelligence of your internal team (or any individuals that you designate).

For your organization's use, recruit people who are passionate about certain things and encourage their use of new solutions. If someone is passionate about all the different ways that your company's products can be used, encourage them to start a company-sponsored blog or Facebook page. If someone is very focused on what your company is doing to be green and save the environment, let them share those activities via Twitter.com. Work with the public relations team to create groups and networks on social networking sites to share announcements. Consider integrating some of these technologies into your corporate web site. Some ideas will flourish, whereas others may flounder; that's okay, it's an iterative process and there's minimal cost in seeing what happens. With social media and connectivity tools, speed and convenience are often the priorities over the quality of the specific tool, which may be antithetical to how IT and your company have traditionally operated—see the next section
“It's Not the Tools, But How They Are Used”
on
page 299.

Social media and collaboration tools, whether used internally for employees, or externally for customer and partners, should not be considered an IT initiative. Like any other application or tool, they should be implemented for the benefit of the business, or the request of the business. Of course, IT should be involved in the selection and implementation of the tools, helping to monitor its usage, etc. But, this involvement needs to be with other business and department heads who are taking the lead on choosing to go down these paths. Working with these teams, you can help to move forward by discussing:

•
What are we trying to accomplish?

•
Who are the teams/employees that we think will be the most open to this, and get the most value from it?

•
How do we evaluate progress and success?

•
How do people communicate today? And with whom?

•
What are the most effective communication paths and mechanisms currently in place and can those be leveraged to enhance further collaboration?

•
How much control do we exert and how much monitoring do we do?

•
Is it possible to effectively measure collaboration, teamwork, productivity, and effectiveness of communications? If so, have they been measured already, and how much improvement is necessary to say a change was justified and successful?

It's Not the Tools, But How They Are Used

Many organizations spend a great deal of time focusing on which tools to implement for their social networking and social media initiatives. However, as a general rule in life (and IT), it's not the tools, but how they are implemented and used.

•
Make sure that whatever you do with social media that it fits your company's organization, values, and culture.

•
Ideally the use of social media tools should not be separated from regular work-flow and processes; the more integrated the better.

•
By definition, social media and collaboration tools are for two-way communications. If your organization only sees it for ‘talking’ (to employees and/or customers) and not for ‘listening,’ you're limiting the chances for success.

•
Don't try to impose too much control on its use. Let the users play and experiment, find its best uses, and then encourage that sort of organic growth.

•
Don't expect instant enterprise-wide adoption and success. Consider starting small, perhaps with one department, or one work-group that seems particularly well suited to collaborative and social media tools, perhaps because of the work they do, or how they work together already. Initially start with those who are more inclined to work collaboratively, without having to impose it on them. You're unlikely to ever get 100% participation, but that's fine.

•
Different employees will use the tools in different way, and to different degrees. That's expected and normal. You may find the greatest differences among the various generations of employees. This topic is discussed more in the section
“Generational Issues at Work”
in
Chapter 2, Managing Your IT Team
on
page 57.

•
Don't be afraid of failure. If something isn't working, figure out why, and try something else. Similarly, if the tools are being used differently than originally expected, resist the urge to change those behaviors without first looking at the value and benefit in how employees are choosing to use it.

•
Recognize failure. If you find that you have to develop marketing campaigns, remind employees to use the tools, or are forcing everyone to create their profiles, it's highly likely that your current plan isn't working.

•
Be flexible, and reduce some of the traditional rigors associated with work in a large organization. Let employees choose their own profile photos, as opposed to having to use the formal (usually out of date) one on their company ID. Allow ground-rules and guidelines for use to evolve from the community itself, as opposed to having them defined by others. (See the next section on
page 300
for a discussion of some guidelines that shouldn't be ignored.)

•
Consider implementing tools that monitor social media websites so that your company can actively know what's being said about your organization. There are many free tools you can use (like Google Alerts, Web search tools, and Social Mention) as well as a number of paid tools that are ideal for the enterprise like Attensity and Radian6.

As you can see, working on a social media or collaboration tool project is very different from traditional IT systems projects. These projects will require greater flexibility and adaptability, and less focus on rigorous project management techniques. The project may prove to have a learning curve for you as well as the users and the organization.

Set Guidelines

It may be effective and worthwhile to set some guidelines for the use of social media technologies, just as you have policies for the use of e-mail. For example:

•
No posting of confidential or sensitive company information.

•
Employees are responsible for the information they publish.

•
Using their company e-mail addresses when posting information about themselves and their life outside of the office is not allowed.

•
Reminding everyone that postings on the Web are available “for the world” to see and very often can't be removed.

•
Reminding people of the importance of respecting intellectual property (the reason behind many lawsuits).

You don't want to define use so tightly that people feel constrained, just help them understand the boundaries. With all new tools and capabilities, some guidance and direction will help people get off to the right start and will help ensure that they don't make any severe mistakes. The media is full of stories of employees who have been disciplined or terminated because of what they posted on the Web.

Think of the Possibilities!

All the growth, enthusiasm, and excitement associated with these new tools and capabilities present wonderful opportunities for today's IT manager. They represent a whole new way of how people and companies will live and work. You have the opportunity to influence and guide your company's use of them. The last thing you want to do is be a naysayer and dismiss them, especially when your bosses are reading how other companies are using them. Be careful not to discourage use, or to exert too much control. Tech-savvy workers will find ways around whichever policies you implement. Also, your efforts at controlling too much may come back to haunt you via employee morale.

Some of this new behavior may be a break with how your company normally operates, but remember that connectivity has radically changed the way people live and work. If companies can't show the same sort of adaptability (not only to the technologies, but to their own personnel) they will be left behind by their competition.

Remember Your Goals

In
Chapter 1, The Role of an IT Manager,
there is a section called
“Develop an IT Strategy”
on
page 10.
That section discusses topics such as “What are your assets?” and “How do you plan to satisfy your customers' needs?” Overall, your goals are to leverage information technologies for the benefit of your organization. You and your department are enablers. It may be simpler and easier to just deny access to things, but it is important to remember that IT is not there to make things simpler and easier for itself—it's supposed to be doing that for the business and the users.

In the past, IT departments were slow to react to new trends, which pretty much left users to “forget about IT” and move ahead on their own. This happened in the 1980s when personal PCs first appeared and traditional mainframe-based IT dismissed them as toys. Similarly, IT was late to accept the Internet. In both cases, IT eventually woke up and embraced these technologies. But there is an important lesson here: Don't ignore your users, they might just be telling you about the next new thing.