Re: [SAGE] Help! Multiple platforms in a Dell Shop

["Strata R. Chalup" <strata@virtual.net>]

Brad Knowles wrote:

 >     You're an admin.  You don't really have the right to enforce
 > anything, certainly not to the executives of the company.  ...

 >     As an admin, you have a great deal of responsibility, but very
 > little authority.  This is life.  You're going to have to learn to deal
 > with it, or seriously consider changing careers.
...

I don't think encouraging people to consider themselves a soulless cog in a 
machine is very appropriate or professional.  A large part of what is wrong with 
many corporations is that they discourage any initiative, individual 
responsibility, or questioning of dysfunctional idiocy.

Enforcing company policy, at the personal employee level, is a responsibility of 
every company or organization employee.  For an employee such as a sysadmin, the 
de-facto job description includes attempting to enforce compliance with 
technical policies set by the company.

It is definitely the case that where people are routinely violating a company 
policy, the policy needs to be revisited at a business planning level.  However 
ignoring it simply sets the stage for selective enforcement and is an example of 
uninspired 'coasting' on an employee's behalf.  I don't suggest that people 
ignore political reality in their company, but I also believe that playing 
doormat is not the right response either.

In the case of the corporate Dell policy, someone in Finance or Purchasing ought 
to have been failing to approve those purchase orders based on policy or on 
recommendations from the IS Dep't.  But you'd be shocked at how many companies 
essentially run amok when it comes to purchasing.

The advice given to document the increased costs is, imho, the soundest advice. 
  Some other creative solutions involve imposing a 'support tax' on purchases of 
non-policy-approved equipment or requiring the purchasers to also purchase 
extended vendor support.

Calculating the costs to the company is usually the best method to fight these 
things.  It's not just support-- look at buyback/upgrade policies, as well as 
stocking spares and the cost of spares.  Doesn't take too many spare laptop 
batteries or docking stations to add some significant numbers, especially when 
their column is marked 'additional costs solely due to non-standard hardware' 
and the like.

SRC



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Strata R Chalup [KF6NBZ]                         strata "@" virtual.net
Virtual.Net Inc                                  http://www.virtual.net/
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