Table of Contents
IT management encompasses a broad variety of different tasks. Here is a quick guide to some of the most important areas within the field.
Planning for Capabilities
IT management professionals work with executives to plan for the IT capability upgrades that will enable the successful pursual of broad strategic aims. They assess the needs of a company before drawing up a plan.
Budgeting and Procurement
Working out how much money needs to be set aside for new acquisitions and then procuring hardware and software falls within IT management. Constant liaison with other areas of a company is necessary.
Monitoring
An IT management team will try and monitor the network that they look after constantly. This is not always possible 24 hours a day with a skeleton crew of IT support staff. Third-party IT management services are often employed to help get the best coverage of a system. Constant monitoring enables a team to foresee potential issues and notice anomalous data that could put systems at risk. Long-term monitoring also enables a company to collect data that can identify patterns of hardware or software failure.
Security and Compliance
Cybersecurity is an immensely important part of the IT management workload. Making sure that sensitive data is encrypted, that authorization systems are airtight, and that suspicious use of systems is flagged is essential. The recent scourge of ransomware attacks aimed at businesses is proof (if any were needed) that significant investment in digital security is non-negotiable for all but the very smallest businesses.
IT compliance differs slightly in aim from security. It involves the meeting of a company’s standards – both legal and strategic in motivation. Making sure that all company assurances about data security are met, for instance, can be considered part of a compliance plan.
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Help Desk Support
When an employee encounters a problem with their computer, their company software, or any kind of IT-related malady, they are directed to the IT help desk. Help desk support is crucial for the smooth running of a business. Help desk workers typically try and sort issues out remotely – only arriving in person if a particularly complex roadblock is encountered. IT teams regularly take control of computers remotely in order to swiftly and efficiently solve an issue. Many companies outsource their help desks in order to save money on the employment of staff members that only work when something goes wrong.
Training
Training is an often overlooked but extremely important part of IT management. Staff within a company need to be correctly and regularly trained on the systems that they are tasked with operating. As companies upgrade their hardware and software, new training regimes need to be set into motion. With the ongoing shift towards remote working systems triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, many IT management teams are working out ways of delivering training to employees who may never step foot into the office. The migration of computing and data storage services onto the cloud also requires a new kind of IT training.
