Are internal IT teams too big or just right?

One of our most recent recruits just made a really good observation.
Kate joined us from a local company who had one IT system and an internal IT team of about 30 people representing 15% of the workforce.
She pointed out that at Andisa we look after far more customers’ employees and many more networks with only a quarter that size of IT team.

My questions are how big an IT team do you have and is it effective? The answers can be affected by several of factors:

• Is your IT team focused on break fix support or do they also have other projects to run?
  If they are focussed on break fix and don’t understand projects then probably it is a very large department and could be more effective.
• Do you have a rolling replacement scheme and a strategy for keeping tech in front of the game?
  YES – then your equipment is probably quite reliable and the team can focus on extra ways to reduce overheads, keep the team size down or help with important business improvement projects.
• Does the IT team also create business progress reports for the rest of the team?
  This can be a double edged sword. Typically if they are involved at this level the the answer to the second question is YES and you have a great team that is cost effective because they are acting strategically and driving the business forward.
  Sometimes it means that a small team is pulled in two directions and drop repairs or delay proactive work that would normally end up reducing the workload. That leads to bottlenecks.

If you have a IT team that is routinely performing planned upgrades that happen smoothly, and are routinely producing reports not only showing their own effectiveness but that help other departments grown and improve and also have the time to look at automation then you are in a health state.

If your team struggles with any sides of that triangle then perhaps you should consider partnering with a 3rd party to get help with that leg?

For instance, using 3rd party support will drive accountability and fixed cost whilst using your own team for automation of development projects will reduce cost and speed up the process.

Andisa have experience both in the support arena and also in business development. – message us if you are concerned about any of the areas above and we will buy you a coffee during our first meeting.