How Do You Balance Innovation With Maintaining Day-to-Day IT Operations?
In the dynamic world of technology, balancing cutting-edge innovation with the essentials of day-to-day operations is a challenge for IT professionals. We've gathered insights from Presidents to Senior Directors, focusing on strategies like analyzing core functions of new tools and benchmarking trends for relevant innovation. Here are the top five approaches these experts recommend for harmonizing innovation with ongoing IT demands.
- Analyze Core Functions of New Tools
- Creativity Mornings, Reactivity Afternoons
- Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement
- Empower Teams for Symbiotic Efficiency
- Benchmark Trends for Relevant Innovation
Analyze Core Functions of New Tools
It's certainly an exciting time to be working in IT, as the promises of AI bring so many new tools to the market. Still, to borrow a cliché, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.' That outlook encourages us to look at the potential benefits of any innovation in comparison to our current needs. We could assign techs to work full-time just testing new tools, but are the promises actually something we need, or are we just looking at a shiny new toy? I tend to skip past the marketing hype and analyze the tool's core functions. If it looks promising, I will send some emails to colleagues for feedback.
Creativity Mornings, Reactivity Afternoons
For decades now, I have used the simple rule of "creativity in the morning, reactivity in the afternoon." This ensures my best productivity occurs when energy and attention are optimal in the morning. It therefore allocates a 50-50 split between innovation and normal operations.
Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement
One approach I’ve taken to balance innovation with maintaining day-to-day IT operations is building a culture of continuous improvement. I focus on fostering an environment where both innovation and operational excellence are valued equally. By encouraging small, incremental changes rather than large, disruptive ones, I ensure that new technologies and processes are introduced smoothly, minimizing any impact on daily operations.
I actively seek feedback from team members and other departments to identify areas where we can make improvements that align with our operational needs. This helps us refine our processes in real time and adapt to any challenges that arise. Additionally, I prioritize ongoing training and development to ensure everyone is up-to-date with the latest skills and technologies. This not only prepares our team for future innovations but also strengthens our ability to maintain operational stability.
By recognizing and rewarding contributions to continuous improvement, I motivate the team to embrace change while keeping our core operations running smoothly. This approach allows us to innovate effectively without compromising the quality and reliability of our day-to-day work.
Empower Teams for Symbiotic Efficiency
Building a high-performing team of Desktop Support Engineers and Systems Administrators has helped us strike this balance. In general, the DSEs are the first line of defense and field all tickets from our users. If those tickets require additional assistance (based on our data, approximately 5% do), then our DSE team escalates to our Systems Administrators who are responsible not only for solving escalated tickets but also for looking for ways to automate manual tasks that would otherwise fall to the DSE team.
This creates a symbiotic cycle that encourages our DSE team to keep our end users happy and our Sys Admins to keep our DSE team happy. This is reflected in our IT team having the highest eNPS score in the entire company, and the IT team is seen as the gold standard in ticket resolution with a majority of all tickets being resolved in less than one hour and urgent tickets being resolved in less than ten minutes.
Benchmark Trends for Relevant Innovation
Today's innovation is tomorrow's value proposition, and as technologists, we must encourage innovation while maintaining efficient IT operations. It's not a one-or-the-other proposal; we have to do both at the same time. One approach that I've used successfully is to benchmark trends against our existing processes and emerging needs to make sure that we're focused on relevant innovation, and not just innovation for technology's sake. The innovation that matters the most is the solution that can help us be more efficient and can bring value to the business from the IT organization. Those are the game-changers.
