Your successful business is dependent upon many people applying their specific skill sets, knowledge, and experience towards a result. Generally, you are aware of how each department functions and can oversee its critical activities, but IT can be the exception. Because of its very technical nature not specific to your business, IT staff or a 3rd party vendor can end up with a high level of autonomy and authority, as you, in common with many business decision-makers, find yourself short of time and/or energy to learn that field.
BE ATTUNED to these vulnerabilities associated with IT personnel:
- Over-dependence on an IT employee (i.e., no duplication or knowledge management)
- Lack of email and data privacy from IT
- No record or report generated when IT accesses sensitive information
- Internal IT may be self-serving, and has limited liability
- Non-responsiveness of a 3rd party IT vendor when support is needed
- No incentive for a vendor who makes money when IT ‘breaks’ to administer a customer’s network to run optimally
- Without single source accountability to fix problems, your company can get stuck between service vendors (computer/network/internet) who deny responsibility
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