Anyone who\u2019s ever seen an Eisenhower square knows how easy it is to do urgent-but-unimportant stuff today, and put off important-but-non-urgent stuff until tomorrow. We all do it. The danger with that approach is that projects that are actually vital are always on tomorrow\u2019s to-do list \u2013 never today\u2019s. Here are 5 IT projects it\u2019s time to shunt up the list to job #1.<\/p>\n
1: Software updates \u2013 especially in end devices<\/p>\n
Increasingly, inhouse IT departments are moving towards a \u2018push\u2019 model of updating software, one that distributes software updates to devices on the network from a central point. But that transition\u2019s far from over and in some IT departments it\u2019s still necessary to physically go out and update software. If the machines that need updating are in distant corners of the company buildings IT can end up supporting four different releases of the same software.<\/p>\n
2: Job descriptions<\/p>\n
Jobs exist now that didn\u2019t even two years ago. Go back six years and the landscape has changed unrecognizably. But when\u2019s the last time job descriptions in your department were updated? Go back over them and make sure they\u2019re up to date or you\u2019ll find that when you need to know who\u2019s in charge of cloud issues or social media outreach it turns out that officially, no-one is.
\n3: Spare parts and old equipment
\n Below the top layer, there\u2019s probably equipment in the back room for repairing external dial-up modems, spare 5\u00bd\u201d floppy disk drives and a couple telegraph keys near the back. It makes sense to keep this equipment to cannibalize it for spare parts or in case it\u2019s needed, but unless you\u2019re building a steampunk laptop in your spare time some of this stuff just needs to go. Getting round to this job isn\u2019t always easy, but managing it at least once a yea shouldn\u2019t be too hard.<\/p>\n
4: Asset inventorying<\/p>\n
Asset inventorying software has been on the market for a decade or more, but many IT pros still don\u2019t have a clear understanding of how many of their servers are idle or underutilized. An asset inventory can identify these and help you decide whether there\u2019s slack in the system or whether you\u2019re running servers that just can\u2019t cope with modern demands and need to be replaced.<\/p>\n
5: Vendor agreements<\/p>\n
IT departments are often missing something vital, despite all that spare equipment: contracts. Many are short as many as a third of all the contracts that cover their agreements with their vendors. If these are missing, ask vendors for copies and check what they cover. Your relationship with the vendor may have changed, or the type of provision on offer might have moved with the times. Make sure your contracts are complete and up-to-date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anyone who\u2019s ever seen an Eisenhower square knows how easy it is to do urgent-but-unimportant stuff today, and put off important-but-non-urgent stuff until tomorrow. We all do it. The danger…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-technology"],"yoast_head":"\n