The JCI Way #3

The IT group at JCI has three kinds of work related to helping the business: projects, customer service requests (CSRs), and help desk issues.

Help desk issues are problems people have that can be handled relatively quickly -- usually in a few days. The issues are mainly how-to-use the system, bugs, data corruption, training, etc. JCI has a dedicated staff of people that handle these kinds of issues. If they can't fix the problem, they may get help from Business Analysts, Programmers or other experts.

CSRs are changes to a system that can be done in less then 20 hours. The IT department has a budget to perform CSR work. Once the budget is spent for the fiscal year, only emergency CSRs will be done. CSR requests are sent to IT by business customers. They fill out a form and send it in. All requests go to a steering committee made up of "subject matter experts" from the business and IT people. The steering committee reviews all requests, decides which ones are worthy of working on and then assigns a priority to each request. IT then works on CSRs in order of priority until the money runs out. The reality of the business is that we rarely finish all priority one requests. We keep priority two and below requests on the list but everyone knows they will probably never get done.

Projects are just what they sound like. Each year during budget planning, IT gets a list of projects from each area of the business. We write up mini statements of work that estimate what it will take to meet the business objectives, what it will cost, and what resources are required. All dollars and resource hours (by person) are put into a spreadsheet and organized. This lets us know how much money and people are needed to meet the business needs.

At that point, we start sorting projects by priority and negotiating with the business. The money to pay for each project has to come from somewhere. IT does have a budget for projects but each department in the business needs to get capital dollars for projects as well. The goal is to know what we will be working on next fiscal year and make sure that we have the resources lined up ahead of time. JCI will use consultants in the form of programmers, business analysts and project managers to complete entire projects if internal resources are unavailable. However, the requesting department has to come up with the money.

This appears to be a good way to help plan and to give IT the opportunity to have the resources needed to help the business. A company that never outsourced resources could still use this method to "budget" internal resources. It takes effort to plan on both the business and IT side. The good thing is that the business will see that IT does not have unlimited resources. Making a list of 20 projects and realizing that the business can only afford to do 5 can be an eye-opening experience.

The JCI Way #2

JCI has full wireless capabilities across our entire building. So, I can undock my laptop and take it anywhere in the building and still have connectivity. That is great when you want to have a meeting somewhere and still collaborate.

Not only that, but every JCI facility that I have been to so far is the same way. I can show up at the Arizona facility, plug my laptop in to the network there, login and have access to all my stuff just like I was at my desk. I could also use wireless there as well.

There is no on-site IT staff at any JCI plant at all. Everything is managed remotely and it just works. That really helps productivity to be able to go somewhere and not have to spend an hour or so trying to get connected.

That would be a good goal for any geographically diverse enterprise: fast, hassle-free access to the wireless or wired network at any company facility.

This is the second post in "The JCI Way" series.

The JCI Way #1

I recently started working at a company with the initials JCI. Its a nice company to work for and they have a lot of great ideas. I'd like to share some of these ideas mainly to keep track of them and possibly to help anyone who stumbles onto this blog.

Everyone in my department and many people in my building have to have cell phones. We may get work related calls at the office. So, its important that the cell phones get a good signal. My building has a cell phone signal booster on each corner of the three story building where I work. We get good reception everywhere. That's a good idea for any company that expects their people to use cell phones to communicate with each other.

"For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." – 2 Cor 12: 10