When should we hire an IT?

denjen

Is there a rule of thumb for when it is cost effective to hire on our won IT person. We are a manufacturer (employ 80) and have 45 workstations. We have an outside source currently for trouble shooting, as well as 2 internal persons that simply do not want to take on the job any longer and have primary positions not involving IT. Will we have enough work to keep him busy? Or will he just keep himself busy enough with IT which leads to high overhead.

ritaanz

We just went the other way. In January we eliminated the IT Manager position and have an outside souce for our IT problems. Seems to be working well for us. Our IT person comes in Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Sooner if someone has a problem that cannot be fixed off site.

FunHRBanker

We are a bank with 75 employees and 5 are IT people. We just "hired" a network intern to handle our entire computer network. I can't imagine not having all of them on site!

GJohnson

We have had a full time IT department for 6 years. We hired an IT person when we had about 25 employees, we now have about 40 on staff. In addition we have a class room and computer lab to provide continuing education to our members. Our ID department includes a manager, software developer and administrator. In addition to maintaining our workstations, our ID department manages our data bases, on line member transactions, updates our website, electronic communications with our members and a lot of other things.

We brought in an IT person after our system had major issues due to viruses in our network. After those issues were resolved, the IT person stayed on to handle repairs and maintenance to our system. As you can see the department has expanded to include not only our network but our security systems, telecommunications, video conferencing and even management of our heating and cooling systems. They have incorporated our copiers/fax machines to be systems printers and we now utilize the copier scanners with the appropriate software to scan all of our documents. The department manages our data needs and trade shows and offsite events. They set up for training and video conferences. They write custom programs to assist our staff and members.

If our 40 employees do not have computer access when and where we need it, I have 40 employees not working. I can't imagine going back to on call help or muddling through with telephone support when our systems are down. I am guessing that a good IT person will not only address your immediate computer needs but also automate other areas of your business that you had not previously considered.

denjen

excellent. You have given a great start to a job description as well. Thank you. I'm sold. He starts next week.

ritaanz

Gloria, what kind of industry do you work in? Three IT people for a 40 employee company seems like a lot.

GJohnson

We are a real estate trade association. We have 40 paid employees and 15,000 members. Our IT needs are directed at providing services to our members. The majority of the services that we provide to them are "on line". We have automated most of our in house processes...............from the new member application on..................to "walk the walk" since we require our members to be on line to access most of our services.