Re: IT time forMaintenance

Hi Kerry
I am doing the research to the best of my ability. I have no experience in
making any type of time budgets for an IT department as I have never run into
this type of situation.
One of the reasons I posted here was from the information that I have read,
on various sites and publications it seems most IT departments are not
allocated enough funds or manpower. This seems to hold true especially in the
NON Profit sector. I wanted to see if other IT departments have solutions
that they have created, if so what they were and if I could modify those to
fit this situation.
I appreciate your time and information.
Thanks



"Kerry Brown" wrote:

> "Trish" <Trish@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:D29D3C72-8C38-41CB-862B-32EC6BC87BB3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >I ask only for some ideas and guidance in this as I have to start somewhere
> > and I have no idea where. The Executive Director has allotted 10 hours for
> > this work to be done by1 person and I have no way to argue that other than
> > by
> > information that I can get from other people that manage networks.
> > Yes I know that the management of those networks is a virtual nightmare
> > and
> > will probably fail. That is why I am asking for information to backup my
> > arguement.
> >
> > "Trish" wrote:
> >
> >> I have several questions pertaining to maintenance and programs on 2
> >> predominantly XP Home networks that exist in 2 physically separate
> >> buildings
> >> with no servers. As I know that XP Home cannot log in to a domain, the
> >> domain
> >> that we do have is not used. User groups are set up with no permissions
> >> set
> >> and all users have Admin accounts. This was not my choice, but came from
> >> the
> >> Executive Director who has no understanding nor does she want to
> >> understand
> >> the repercussions of such settings on the computers.
> >> 1. How much time should be allotted to do backups on each computer? There
> >> are a total of 65 between the 2 physically separate networks. Some
> >> computers
> >> have CD burning capabilities, some do not.
> >> 2. How much time should be allotted to install programs on these
> >> computers?
> >> 3. How much time should be allotted to provide instruction to employees,
> >> clients on the use of these programs i.e. Office and basic computer
> >> operation? Keeping in mind that 90% are not computer literate.
> >> 4. How much time and how often should be allowed for maintenance.
> >> 5. How often should it be preformed?
> >> 6. How much time should be allotted for repair and re-installations of
> >> programs?
> >>
> >> The reason that I ask is that I need to be able to document to some
> >> extent
> >> the time that is normally required for these task per some sort of
> >> industry
> >> standards.
> >> I understand that there are probably no hard answers for these questions
> >> but
> >> perhaps there is some type of guidance that can be provided.
> >>
>
> You'll have to do some research yourself. The links in my last post are a
> good starting point for making a case for some kind of network management.
> You can download case studies that have cost/benefit analyses.
>
> There are no standard times. Just take the backups for instance. What
> software? What speed CDRW drive? How much data needs to be backed up? What
> is the CPU? The list goes on and on.
>
> If you only have ten hours you may want to focus on only one part of the
> problem and make a business case for that part of the problem only. The
> biggest financial gains will probably be backup related. Some things to
> consider. How many man hours would be lost if some crucial data was lost or
> took a few days to restore? In your current situation it is very likely that
> data will be lost. You are relying on each individual to backup their own
> data. My experience is that less than 10% will backup their data
> consistently let alone make sure the backup actually worked. If each
> individual's data is not that crucial then look to a different part of the
> problem. Malware/spyware and users installing unauthorised software e.g. P2P
> or IM software would probably be next on the list. Both types of software
> waste employee time, company resources, and are a major vector for malware
> infection if not managed properly. If a network aware virus gets on your
> system you would have to shut the whole system down to fix it. How many lost
> man hours will this cost?
>
> Kerry
>
>
>
.

Relevant Pages

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