7. 10 things you should know about launching an IT consultancy

#1: You need to incorporate

You don’t want to lose your house if a client’s data is lost. If you try hanging out a shingle as an independent lone ranger, your personal assets could be at risk. (Note that I’m not dispensing legal nor accounting advice. Consult your attorney for legal matters and a qualified accountant regarding tax issues.)

Ultimately, life is easier when your business operates as a business and not as a side project you maintain when you feel like it. Clients appreciate the assurance of working with a dedicated business. I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve obtained whose last IT guy “did it on the side” and has now taken a corporate job and doesn’t have time to help the client whose business has come to a standstill because of computer problems. Clients want to know you’re serious about providing service and that they’re not entering a new relationship in which they’re just going to get burned again in a few months time.

Incorporate. Form an LLC. Have questions about whether an S-Corp is right for you? Talk to an accountant. Then hit LegalZoom.com. The site will walk you through a questionnaire (you’ll need to have the advice of your accountant at the ready to answer the queries), and then it’ll file the appropriate paperwork for a fraction of the cost an attorney would charge.

#2: You need to register for a federal tax ID number

Next, you need to register for a federal tax ID number. Hardly anyone (vendors, banks, and even some clients) will talk to you if you don’t.

Wait a second. Didn’t you just complete a mountain of paperwork to form your business (either as a corporation or LLC)? Yes, you did. But attorneys and online services charge incredible rates to obtain a federal tax ID for you.

Here’s a secret: It’s easy. Just go to the IRS Web site, complete and submit form SS-4 online, and voila. You’ll be the proud new owner of a federal tax ID.

#3: You need to register for a state sales tax exemption

You need a state sales tax exemption, too (most likely). If you’re in a state that collects sales tax, you’re responsible for ensuring sales tax gets paid on any item you sell a client. In such states, whether you buy a PC for a customer or purchase antivirus licenses, taxes need to be paid.

Check your state’s Web site. Look for information on the state’s department of revenue. You’ll probably have to complete a form, possibly even have it notarized, and return it to the state’s revenue cabinet. Within a few weeks, you’ll receive an account number. You’ll use that account number when you purchase products from vendors. You can opt NOT to pay sales tax when you purchase the item, instead choosing to pay the sales tax when you sell the item to the client.

Why do it this way? Because many (most) consultants charge clients far more for a purchase than the consultant paid. Some call it markup; accountants prefer to view it as profit. But you certainly don’t want to have to try to determine what taxes still need to be paid if some tax was paid earlier. Thus, charge tax at the point of sale to the customer, not when you purchase the item.

#4: You need to register with local authorities

Local government wants its money, too. Depending on where your business is located and services customers, you’ll likely need to register for a business license. As with the state sales tax exemption, contact your local government’s revenue cabinet or revenue commission for more information on registering your business. Expect to pay a fee for the privilege.

#5: QuickBooks is your friend

Once your paperwork’s complete, it’s time for more paperwork. In fact, you’d better learn to love paperwork, as a business owner. There’s lots of it, whether it’s preparing quarterly tax filings, generating monthly invoicing, writing collection letters, or simply returning monthly sales reports to state and local revenue cabinets.

QuickBooks can simplify the process. From helping keep your service rates consistent (you’ll likely want one level for benchwork, another for residential or home office service, and yet a third for commercial accounts) to professionally invoicing customers, QuickBooks can manage much of your finances.

I recommend purchasing the latest Pro version, along with the corresponding Missing Manual book for the version you’ve bought. Plan on spending a couple of weekends, BEFORE you’ve launched your business, doing nothing but studying the financial software. Better yet, obtain assistance from an accountant or certified QuickBooks professional to set up your initial Chart of Accounts. A little extra time taken on the front end to ensure the software’s configured properly for your business will save you tons of time on the backend. I promise.

#6: Backend systems will make or break you

Speaking of backend, backend systems are a pain in the you-know-what. And by backend, I mean all your back office chores, from marketing services to billing to vendor management and fulfillment. Add call management to the list, too.

Just as when you’re stuck in traffic driving between service calls, you don’t make any money when you’re up to your elbows in paper or processing tasks. It’s frustrating. Clients want you to order a new server box, two desktops, and a new laptop. They don’t want to pay a markup, either. But they’re happy to pay you for your time to install the new equipment.

Sound good? It’s not.

Consider the facts. You have to form a relationship with the vendor. It will need your bank account information, maybe proof of insurance (expect to carry one million dollars of general liability), your state sales tax exemption ID, your federal employer ID, a list of references, and a host of other information that takes a day to collect. Granted, you have to do that only once (with each vendor, and you’ll need about 10), but then you still have to wade through their catalogs, select the models you need, and configure them with the appropriate tape arrays, software packages, etc. That takes an hour alone. And again, you’re typically not getting paid for this research. Even if you mark hardware sales up 15 percent, don’t plan on any Hawaiian vacation as a result.

Add in similar trials and tribulations with your marketing efforts, billing systems, vendor maintenance, channel resellers, management issues, etc., and you can see why many consultants keep a full-time office manager on staff. It’s no great revelation of my business strategy to say that’s why I went with a franchise group. I have a world of backend support ready and waiting when I need it. I can’t imagine negotiating favorable or competitive pricing with computer manufacturers, antivirus vendors, or Microsoft if I operated on my own.

Before you open your doors, make sure that you know how you’ll tackle these wide-ranging back office chores. You’ll be challenged with completing them on an almost daily basis.

#7: Vendor relationships will determine your success

This is one of those business facets I didn’t fully appreciate until I was operating on my own. Everyone wants you to sell their stuff, right? How hard can it be for the two of you to hook up?

Well, it’s hard, as it turns out, to obtain products configured exactly as your client needs quickly and at a competitive price if you don’t have strong vendor relationships. That means you’ll need to spend time at trade shows and on the telephone developing business relationships with everyone from software manufacturers and hardware distributors to local computer store owners who keep life-saving SATA disks and patch 5 cables in stock when you can’t wait five days for them to show up via UPS.

Different vendors have their own processes, so be prepared to learn myriad ways of signing up and jumping through hoops. Some have online registrations; others prefer faxes and notarized affidavits. Either way, they all take time to launch, so plan on beginning vendor discussions, and establishing your channel relationships, months in advance of opening your consultancy.

#8: You must know what you do (and explain it in 10 seconds or less)

All the start-your-own-business books emphasize writing your 50-page business plan. Yes, I did that. And do you know how many times I’ve referred to it since I opened my business? Right; not once.

The written business plan is essential. Don’t get me wrong. It’s important because it gets you thinking about all those topics (target markets, capitalization, sales and marketing, cash flow requirements, etc.) you must master to be successful.

But here’s what you really need to include in your business plan: a succinct and articulate explanation of what your business does, how the services you provide help other businesses succeed, and how you’re different. Oh, and you need to be able to explain all that in 10 seconds or less.

Really. I’m not kidding.

Business Network International (plan on joining the chapter in your area) is on to something when it allots members just 30 seconds or so to explain what they do and the nature of their competitive advantage. Many times I’ve been approached in elevators, at stoplights (with the windows down), and just entering my car in a parking lot by prospective customers. Sometimes they have a quick question, other times they need IT help right now. Here’s the best part; they don’t always know it.

The ability to quickly communicate the value of the services you provide is paramount to success. Ensure that you can rattle off a sincere description of what you do and how you do it in 10 seconds and without having to think about it. It must be a natural reaction you develop to specific stimuli. You’ll cash more checks if you do.

#9: It’s all about the branding

Why have I been approached by customers at stoplights, in parking lots, and in elevators? I believe in branding. And unlike many pop business books that broach the subject of branding but don’t leave you with any specifics, here’s what I mean by that.

People know what I do. Give me 10 seconds and I can fill in any knowledge gaps quickly. My “brand” does much of the ice breaking for me. I travel virtually nowhere without it. My company’s logo and telephone number are on shirts. Long sleeve, short sleeve, polos, and dress shirts; they all feature my logo. Both my cars are emblazoned with logos, telephone numbers, and simple marketing messages (which I keep consistent with my Yellow Pages and other advertising).

I have baseball hats for casual trips to Home Depot. My attaché features my company logo. My wife wears shirts displaying the company logo when grocery shopping. After I visit clients, even their PC bears a shiny silver sticker with my logo and telephone number.

Does it work? You better believe it. Hang out a shingle and a few people will call. Plaster a consistent but tasteful logo and simple message on your cars, clothing, ads, Web site, etc., and the calls begin stacking up.

Do you have to live, eat, and breathe the brand? No. But it helps. And let’s face it. After polishing off a burrito and a beer, I don’t mind someone asking if they can give me their laptop to repair when I approach my car in a parking lot. Just in case they have questions, I keep brochures, business cards and notepads (again, all featuring my logo and telephone number) in my glove box. You’d be surprised how quickly I go through them. I am.

#10: A niche is essential

The business plan books touch on this, but they rarely focus on technology consultants directly. You need to know your market niche. I’m talking about your target market here.

Will you service only small businesses? If so, you better familiarize yourself with the software they use. Or are you targeting physicians? In that case, you better know all things HIPAA, Intergy, and Medisoft (among others).

Know up front that you’re not going to be able to master everything. I choose to manage most Windows server, desktop, and network issues. When I encounter issues with specific medical software, dental systems, or client relationship software platforms, I call in an expert trained on those platforms. We work alongside to iron out the issue together.

Over time, that strategy provides me with greater penetration into more markets than if I concentrated solely on mastering medical systems, for example. Plus, clients respect you when you tell them you’re outside your area of expertise. It builds trust, believe it or not.

Whatever you choose to focus on, ensure that you know your niche. Do all you can to research your target market thoroughly and understand the challenges such clients battle daily. Otherwise, you’ll go crazy trying to develop expertise with Medisoft databases at the same time Intel’s rolling out new dual-core chips and Microsoft’s releasing a drastically new version of Office.

6. 10 fundamental differences between Linux and Windows

#1: Full access vs. no access

Having access to the source code is probably the single most significant difference between Linux and Windows. The fact that Linux belongs to the GNU Public License ensures that users (of all sorts) can access (and alter) the code to the very kernel that serves as the foundation of the Linux operating system. You want to peer at the Windows code? Good luck. Unless you are a member of a very select (and elite, to many) group, you will never lay eyes on code making up the Windows operating system.

You can look at this from both sides of the fence. Some say giving the public access to the code opens the operating system (and the software that runs on top of it) to malicious developers who will take advantage of any weakness they find. Others say that having full access to the code helps bring about faster improvements and bug fixes to keep those malicious developers from being able to bring the system down. I have, on occasion, dipped into the code of one Linux application or another, and when all was said and done, was happy with the results. Could I have done that with a closed-source Windows application? No.

#2: Licensing freedom vs. licensing restrictions

Along with access comes the difference between the licenses. I’m sure that every IT professional could go on and on about licensing of PC software. But let’s just look at the key aspect of the licenses (without getting into legalese). With a Linux GPL-licensed operating system, you are free to modify that software and use and even republish or sell it (so long as you make the code available). Also, with the GPL, you can download a single copy of a Linux distribution (or application) and install it on as many machines as you like. With the Microsoft license, you can do none of the above. You are bound to the number of licenses you purchase, so if you purchase 10 licenses, you can legally install that operating system (or application) on only 10 machines.

#3: Online peer support vs. paid help-desk support

This is one issue where most companies turn their backs on Linux. But it’s really not necessary. With Linux, you have the support of a huge community via forums, online search, and plenty of dedicated Web sites. And of course, if you feel the need, you can purchase support contracts from some of the bigger Linux companies (Red Hat and Novell for instance).

However, when you use the peer support inherent in Linux, you do fall prey to time. You could have an issue with something, send out e-mail to a mailing list or post on a forum, and within 10 minutes be flooded with suggestions. Or these suggestions could take hours of days to come in. It seems all up to chance sometimes. Still, generally speaking, most problems with Linux have been encountered and documented. So chances are good you’ll find your solution fairly quickly.

On the other side of the coin is support for Windows. Yes, you can go the same route with Microsoft and depend upon your peers for solutions. There are just as many help sites/lists/forums for Windows as there are for Linux. And you can purchase support from Microsoft itself. Most corporate higher-ups easily fall victim to the safety net that having a support contract brings. But most higher-ups haven’t had to depend up on said support contract. Of the various people I know who have used either a Linux paid support contract or a Microsoft paid support contract, I can’t say one was more pleased than the other. This of course begs the question “Why do so many say that Microsoft support is superior to Linux paid support?”

#4: Full vs. partial hardware support

One issue that is slowly becoming nonexistent is hardware support. Years ago, if you wanted to install Linux on a machine you had to make sure you hand-picked each piece of hardware or your installation would not work 100 percent. I can remember, back in 1997-ish, trying to figure out why I couldn’t get Caldera Linux or Red Hat Linux to see my modem. After much looking around, I found I was the proud owner of a Winmodem. So I had to go out and purchase a US Robotics external modem because that was the one modem I knew would work. This is not so much the case now. You can grab a PC (or laptop) and most likely get one or more Linux distributions to install and work nearly 100 percent. But there are still some exceptions. For instance, hibernate/suspend remains a problem with many laptops, although it has come a long way.

With Windows, you know that most every piece of hardware will work with the operating system. Of course, there are times (and I have experienced this over and over) when you will wind up spending much of the day searching for the correct drivers for that piece of hardware you no longer have the install disk for. But you can go out and buy that 10-cent Ethernet card and know it’ll work on your machine (so long as you have, or can find, the drivers). You also can rest assured that when you purchase that insanely powerful graphics card, you will probably be able to take full advantage of its power.

#5: Command line vs. no command line

No matter how far the Linux operating system has come and how amazing the desktop environment becomes, the command line will always be an invaluable tool for administration purposes. Nothing will ever replace my favorite text-based editor, ssh, and any given command-line tool. I can’t imagine administering a Linux machine without the command line. But for the end user — not so much. You could use a Linux machine for years and never touch the command line. Same with Windows. You can still use the command line with Windows, but not nearly to the extent as with Linux. And Microsoft tends to obfuscate the command prompt from users. Without going to Run and entering cmd (or command, or whichever it is these days), the user won’t even know the command-line tool exists. And if a user does get the Windows command line up and running, how useful is it really?

#6: Centralized vs. noncentralized application installation

The heading for this point might have thrown you for a loop. But let’s think about this for a second. With Linux you have (with nearly every distribution) a centralized location where you can search for, add, or remove software. I’m talking about package management systems, such as Synaptic. With Synaptic, you can open up one tool, search for an application (or group of applications), and install that application without having to do any Web searching (or purchasing).

Windows has nothing like this. With Windows, you must know where to find the software you want to install, download the software (or put the CD into your machine), and run setup.exe or install.exe with a simple double-click. For many years, it was thought that installing applications on Windows was far easier than on Linux. And for many years, that thought was right on target. Not so much now. Installation under Linux is simple, painless, and centralized.

#7: Flexibility vs. rigidity

I always compare Linux (especially the desktop) and Windows to a room where the floor and ceiling are either movable or not. With Linux, you have a room where the floor and ceiling can be raised or lowered, at will, as high or low as you want to make them. With Windows, that floor and ceiling are immovable. You can’t go further than Microsoft has deemed it necessary to go.

Take, for instance, the desktop. Unless you are willing to pay for and install a third-party application that can alter the desktop appearance, with Windows you are stuck with what Microsoft has declared is the ideal desktop for you. With Linux, you can pretty much make your desktop look and feel exactly how you want/need. You can have as much or as little on your desktop as you want. From simple flat Fluxbox to a full-blown 3D Compiz experience, the Linux desktop is as flexible an environment as there is on a computer.

#8: Fanboys vs. corporate types

I wanted to add this because even though Linux has reached well beyond its school-project roots, Linux users tend to be soapbox-dwelling fanatics who are quick to spout off about why you should be choosing Linux over Windows. I am guilty of this on a daily basis (I try hard to recruit new fanboys/girls), and it’s a badge I wear proudly. Of course, this is seen as less than professional by some. After all, why would something worthy of a corporate environment have or need cheerleaders? Shouldn’t the software sell itself? Because of the open source nature of Linux, it has to make do without the help of the marketing budgets and deep pockets of Microsoft. With that comes the need for fans to help spread the word. And word of mouth is the best friend of Linux.

Some see the fanaticism as the same college-level hoorah that keeps Linux in the basements for LUG meetings and science projects. But I beg to differ. Another company, thanks to the phenomenon of a simple music player and phone, has fallen into the same fanboy fanaticism, and yet that company’s image has not been besmirched because of that fanaticism. Windows does not have these same fans. Instead, Windows has a league of paper-certified administrators who believe the hype when they hear the misrepresented market share numbers reassuring them they will be employable until the end of time.

#9: Automated vs. nonautomated removable media

I remember the days of old when you had to mount your floppy to use it and unmount it to remove it. Well, those times are drawing to a close — but not completely. One issue that plagues new Linux users is how removable media is used. The idea of having to manually “mount” a CD drive to access the contents of a CD is completely foreign to new users. There is a reason this is the way it is. Because Linux has always been a multiuser platform, it was thought that forcing a user to mount a media to use it would keep the user’s files from being overwritten by another user. Think about it: On a multiuser system, if everyone had instant access to a disk that had been inserted, what would stop them from deleting or overwriting a file you had just added to the media? Things have now evolved to the point where Linux subsystems are set up so that you can use a removable device in the same way you use them in Windows. But it’s not the norm. And besides, who doesn’t want to manually edit the/etc/fstab fle?

#10: Multilayered run levels vs. a single-layered run level

I couldn’t figure out how best to title this point, so I went with a description. What I’m talking about is Linux’ inherent ability to stop at different run levels. With this, you can work from either the command line (run level 3) or the GUI (run level 5). This can really save your socks when X Windows is fubared and you need to figure out the problem. You can do this by booting into run level 3, logging in as root, and finding/fixing the problem.

With Windows, you’re lucky to get to a command line via safe mode — and then you may or may not have the tools you need to fix the problem. In Linux, even in run level 3, you can still get and install a tool to help you out (hello apt-get install APPLICATION via the command line). Having different run levels is helpful in another way. Say the machine in question is a Web or mail server. You want to give it all the memory you have, so you don’t want the machine to boot into run level 5. However, there are times when you do want the GUI for administrative purposes (even though you can fully administer a Linux server from the command line). Because you can run the startxcommand from the command line at run level 3, you can still start up X Windows and have your GUI as well. With Windows, you are stuck at the Graphical run level unless you hit a serious problem.

5. The five best new browser features in Google Chrome

echRepublic has started kicking the tires on Google Chrome, the search giant’s entrance into the Web browser market. See our gallery of screen shots and our list of the five best new features that Chrome offers.

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Google launched the first beta version of its Chrome Web browser on Tuesday after two years of development. Only the Microsoft Windows version has been released, but Google promised Mac and Linux versions would soon follow. TechRepublic immediately started kicking the tires and has put together a photo gallery and a quick list of the five best new features you’ll find in Google Chrome.

See TechRepublic’s full gallery First look: Google Chrome

When I heard that Google was officially going to launch its own Web browser my first thought was, “Great, that’s just what we need, another Web browser.” After seeing Google’s press conference and getting a first look at Chrome, I’m starting to warm up to the idea. I will at least give Google credit for not doing a “me too” release. They have legitimately tried to innovate and bring some new features to the Web browser — and they’ve open sourced the whole thing.

Whether or not these new features will entice Internet users to give up Internet Explorer or Firefox is still up in the air, but here are the five best new features that I see in Chrome:

1. Task manager

Chrome has its own Task Manager that shows you how much memory and CPU usage each tab and plug-in is using. You can open it by clicking Shift-Esc from within Chrome. You can get more details by clicking the “Stats for nerds” link on the Task Manager and it will open a page with a full breakdown of memory and CPU usage for each process within the browser.

I also like that Chrome makes each tab a separate process in Windows, so you can also go into the Windows Task Manager and shut down one of them if it’s locked up. It also means that a bad process in one tab won’t kill your whole browser session.

2. One box for search, address, and history

Instead of having separate input boxes for the search bar and the address bar, Google has united the two in Chrome. Google also added history to the equation. So you can type something like “techrepublic” in the box and it will suggest the techrepublic.com home page as well as other recently visited TechRepublic pages. This is similar to the new “Awesome bar” in Firefox 3 but Google’s “One box” includes search as well. If you type “techrepublic” in the box and hit return then it will simply open it in Google.com (or your default search engine).

3. Upgraded tabs

The Chrome development team views tabs as one of the best new innovations to Web browsing in recent years and so they wanted to expand the functionality of tabs since users . In Chrome you can drag a tab into its own window, and drag it back to the main window. This is called “Dynamic Tabs.” Also, by default, the “New Tab” page in Chrome features a page that shows thumbnails of your most visited Web sites, a list of your recent bookmarks, and a search box that allows you to search your history.

4. New support for Web applications

Naturally, Google believes in Web-based applications and is invested in a future that includes applications running from the cloud and running in a Web browser. Current Web applications include Google Docs, Salesforce.com, and Outlook Web Access. Chrome makes it easier to make those applications feel more like desktop apps.

From the start page of your Web application you simply click the Chrome controls icon and then click “Create applications shortcuts” and you can create Desktop, Start Menu, and/or Quick Launch icons. Then when you launch those apps they open in a streamlined window without the address bar and separate from the Chrome Web browser window. If the apps integrate with Google Gears then you can even open them when you’re offline.

5. Incognito browsing

Chrome includes an Incognito mode in which users can go to sites but nothing from that session — history, form fields, or cookies — will be saved in Chrome. This can be useful on shared computers and when viewing sensitive data through the Web browser. The beta version of Internet Explorer 8 includes a similar feature.

Other notes

So far, I’ve also been impressed with the speed of Chrome. Google stated that performance was a big consideration when building the browser, which is why they chose Webkit (the same open source engine that powers Safari) as the engine for Chrome. Chrome’s downloads bar and downloads tracking window makes it much easier to gauge and monitor downloads, too.

I also liked the fact that you can mouse over a link and see the URL in a translucent status bar in the lower left-hand corner (which fades out once you move the mouse away from a link). I tend to turn on the status bar in IE and Firefox because I like to view URLs before I click them, but this takes up real estate at the bottom of the screen when I’m not previewing URLs. Chrome solves that problem by making it appear and disappear automatically. Combined with the lack of a menu bar at the top of the screen this can give Chrome more vertical space for viewing Web pages on the screen.

4. Sanity check: Five things that make it great to work in IT

It’s easy to dwell on the things that make it tough to work in IT. However, we also shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that technology continues to revolutionize the world and IT departments have a valuable part to play in the transformation.

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Last week I highlighted some of the worst aspects of working in the information technology business in Five things that suck about working in IT. This week it’s time to turn the tables and look at five things that make it great to work in IT.

5. You’re the hero when you solve problems

When an employee is desperately trying to get a critical project plan finished under deadline but accidentally deletes the latest version of the file and then calls IT in a panic, an IT professional can swoop in and recover the file. Pow! Instant hero status. Some grateful employees will even bake you cookies, invite you to the finance department’s annual barbecue, or tell everyone in the company who will listen what a miracle worker you are. Those are the days when this job will make you feel like a king.

4. You get to play with cool stuff

Although most IT pros spend more time babysitting older technologies than they do implementing new ones — as I first noted in 10 dirty little secrets you should know about working in IT — you’ll still get to play with plenty of new stuff, too. Whether it’s deploying cool new laptops and smartphones for executives and senior managers or implementing the latest server and networking gear in the data center, it’s always fun to get new gear in the IT office, pop it out of the box and see what it can do. For the IT pros that really love tech, this part of the job is like being a kid that gets paid to play with the world’s newest toys.

3. You help make people more efficient

When you break it down, the IT department’s job is ultimately to maintain the highly-complex tools that help modern workers do their jobs — and to implement new tools that can make those jobs even more efficient. It’s all about streamlining business processes. There’s a tremendous satisfaction in helping workers take a process that used to take 2 hours and through a bit of software and automation magic turn it into a 15-minute task.

2. Your job is rarely dull or stagnant

There are some jobs in IT that can be dull and monotonous, such as running backups or low-level programming where you spend most of your time fixing bugs. But, those are definitely the exception and not the rule. For most of the jobs in IT, the products and the conventional wisdom it takes to manage them are changing so fast that IT pros have to constantly educate and re-educate themselves just to keep up — and keep their jobs. IT pros sometimes complain about having to do this continual self-education (often on their own time), but this is also part of what makes it great to work in IT. There is a natural excitement and energy in IT because the field is evolving so rapidly and there’s always something new to learn.

1. You get to be a revolutionary

From the continuing leaps in microprocessors to the arrival of Web-based applications to the coming spread of wireless broadband, technology remains a revolutionary force in business and in the lives of average citizens. IT professionals have the privilege of being able to serve as catalysts in the revolution, if they focus their efforts on using technology to improve the organization and the lives of its workers every day.

3. Sanity check: Five MORE things that suck about working in IT

 recently gave my list of the unique challenges that come with working in IT. TechRepublic members responded with a few items that should be added to the list. So, by popular demand, here are five more.

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When I wrote Five things that suck about working in IT a couple weeks ago, members of the TechRepublic audience were kind enough to point out that I missed a few items that should definitely be on the list. As a result, I decided to take the best responses from the community and use them to beef up the list with five more things.

5. There’s often a bad inheritance

This item comes courtesy of TechRepublic member ken.mccrohan of Virginia. He described it as “Previous CIO/Net Admin/Developer chose a vendor [or] spec’d a system [or] wrote some code, then leaves, and you are tasked with fixing their mess or worse, explaining their choices.” This is so common it’s practically a cliche.

I know lots of IT pros who have been faced with cleaning up a bad situation left by a predecessor. Sometimes it’s just a matter of the new techie having a different approach than the old new. Other times it can be a situation where the previous techie was disgruntled or disengaged and didn’t perform very well in the final months before leaving the company. And sometimes, there’s a reason why the previous IT manager is no longer with the company, and cleanup is simply part of your mandate.

4.You have to repeatedly prove yourself

You can say this about a lot of jobs, but the situation is especially acute in IT because IT usually involves keeping systems up and running 24/7/365 as well as a lot of project work. Member Locrian_Lyric stated, “You are only as good as your last project. As soon as that’s done, you have to prove your worth all over again, if not constantly.” He also added, “Your value lasts only as long as the current management. If there is a new CIO, CTO, or other higher up with a ‘new vision’ update your resume, you are going to need it.”

3. You can work yourself out of a job

Since IT is primarily about streamlining business processes, if you do it well enough by implementing and developing the right technologies then you can eventually decrease the headcount of the IT department — and sometimes even make your own job obsolete. The problem is that some IT managers realize this and so they make decisions based on their own self-preservation rather than what’s good for the business. However, the best IT managers will always do what’s best for the business, even if it makes their own job obsolete. They know that producing great results will help redefine their role in the company or provide a strong resume-booster to land another job, if needed.

Another similar challenge is when the IT department is so good and so well organized that the company’s IT infrastructure runs smoothly and people in the company start to wonder if it could run itself and they question whether they really need so many IT pros to run it.

Along those lines, member langbobr wrote, “It has always seemed to me that if you (as an IT professional) are doing the job right… nobody even knows what you do. If everything [in] IT is working, people wonder why you’re there.”

Member talawrence added, “I’ve worked for places that think you don’t do anything because nothing ever breaks. They do not understand all the good work being done to prevent meltdowns. I get frustrated when people also refer to the Y2K problem as over hyped. I know I worked many 18 hour days leading up to Y2K.”

2. It’s tough to find good help

If you’re a CIO or an IT leader, the most challenging part of running an IT department is finding good people to hire. Some IT folks scoff at this idea because there have been plenty of IT pros laid off since 2001 and so there are still unemployed IT workers looking for new jobs. Nevertheless, we repeatedly hear from IT leaders and their recruiters that they have a very difficult time finding IT workers to meet their requirements.

TechRepublic member Michelle wrote: “It’s been a challenge to find great IT people who are easy to work with, don’t have an ego the size of our mother earth, can read & follow instructions, & can communicate well via e-mail & IM.”

One CTO in the San Francisco Bay Area recently told me that he can easily find mediocre developers but it’s tough to find really good ones. And, he noted, “One good developer is worth as much as three mediocre developers.” That’s because the good ones know how to get things done while the mediocre ones require a lot of management, hand-holding, and code-fixing.

1. Users confuse IT with magic

TechRepublic member Eric from Colorado pointed to the problem of “Wildly unreasonable expectations, i.e. IT=magic.” He wrote, “Non-technical end users think you are a graduate of Hogwarts instead of some place in the real world. Typical end-user expectation: ‘I would like access to the last 10 years of my email, with all attachments, instantly searchable and with no performance lag - and I expect you to make this happen on my Pentium II… Anything less means you’re an utter incompetent.’”

Member msims added, “Users tend to … see the department as just one big computer system and forget that there are human beings who work there day and night weekends and on call who only have one head, two hands and two legs who can only do as much as they can.”

Flip side

Member MavMin2 advised IT professionals not to get too caught up in the things that make it tough to work in IT. He said, “When all else fails, say [to yourself], ‘It beats unemployment and soup lines.’” He also added, “In the military we had a saying that a griping soldier was a happy soldier and there are a lot of happy soldiers on [TechRepublic].”

2. Congress questions high cost of texting

The price of text messaging has doubled industry-wide in the last three years, and Congress wants to know why.

Sen Herb Kohl, chair of the Antitrust Subcommittee in the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter Tuesday to the four major wireless carriers--AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile--asking them to explain the dramatic price increases for text messaging services.

"Some industry experts contend that these increased rates do not appear to be justified by any increases in the costs associated with text messaging services, but may instead be a reflection of a decrease in competition, and an increase in market power, among your four companies," Kohl said in the letter.

The cost of text messaging since 2005 has increased 100 percent from 10 cents to 20 cents for all four providers. Mobile operators have reaped huge profits from the increased prices, CNET reported in July.

Also, the number of major carriers in the United States has shrunk from six to four in recent years, while the remaining carriers continue to acquire their regionally based competitors, Kohl said in the letter. He noted that the four carriers combined currently serve more than 90 percent of wireless subscribers in the U.S.

"I am concerned with whether this market consolidation, and increased market power by the major carriers, has contributed to this doubling of text messaging rates over the last three years," Kohl said.

The senator from Wisconsin asked the companies to provide evidence of how their respective text messaging pricing structures differs from those of their competitors, along with evidence of what factors led to price increases. He also asked the wireless carriers to provide data on the utilization of text messaging from 2005 to 2008 and a price comparison of text messaging services to other services such as Internet access over wireless devices. Kohl asked for a response by October 6.

The similar price increases, coming at similar times, Kohl said, "is hardly consistent with the vigorous price competition we hope to see in a competitive marketplace."

1. Was 1980s music that bad?

A couple days ago, NPR's All Songs Considered asked listeners to vote on which year had the best music. (The poll is here--you have to answer it to see overall results.) Unsurprisingly given NPR's demographic, the 1960s scored high, with top year 1969 figuring in 9 percent of all responses. More surprisingly, the 1990s also did quite well, with 1991 (grunge) and 1994 (alternative) both scoring 4 percent. There was also a little uptick in 1977--the year punk broke for the first time scored 4 percent. But the 1980s were a bleak wasteland, however, with all years scoring 1 percent or less except for 1987, which scored 2 percent. The ASC folks tried to convince listeners thatthe '80s had some bright spots, highlighting bands like The Replacements, Talking Heads, Minor Threat, and, um, Escape Club.

The number of albums in my record collection by year.

I had a hard time answering the question. Certain albums stick out--I know that the Beatles' White Album came out 1968, Who's Next was 1971, and Modest Mouse's The Moon and Antarctica was 2000. But a best year? Impossible to say.

So I decided to look at the empirical data. Because I'm a music nerd, I keep a running spreadsheet of every album I own (vinyl and CD), including the year they were originally released. (You fellow music nerds know exactly what I'm talking about--don't pretend otherwise.) First I scrubbed the data, making sure that things like greatest hits albums and movie soundtracks, where the release date was years or decades away from the actual recording dates, were not counted.

Then with Excel's useful COUNTIF function, I discovered that 1970 is my personal winner, with 30 albums. By decade, the '70s were tops with 216 albums, followed very closely by--gasp--the '80s with 195 albums. Next up were the '90s (156), the '00s (112 with only seven years and eight months gone), the '60s (94), the '50s (9), and the '40s (1--can you guess which album it was?).

So no, the '80s didn't suck. You just have to dig a little deeper.