I killed an IT department

It wasn’t just a glitch or a bug, or a wicked hack. It is gone – there is no IT department anymore … Staffing and services will be transferred to the communications & knowledge department, but the hardcore business of developing IT solutions is closing. From now on we primarily use customization and configuration of standard tools: Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, Podio and email (sigh – still).

Yet IT is everything and everything is IT

• The sales group need their company database and customer contact status
• The administration needs their email, their Podio webform, their spreadsheets and online banking
• The communications needs their Facebook page, WordPress website, LinkedIn site, …
• The management group needs their mailbox and Skype calls
• The events group their mailbox and document rooster
• The coaching group their document sharing
• The members their Facebook sharing, LinkedIn group activities,

What company? – it’s a non-profit non-governmental non-affiliated job seekers network: PowerJobMidt. We meet to help each other find jobs, cold-canvas companies for open positions, sharing hints and reviewing CV’s and applications. Our biggest problem is that we work to close the network – we want people to get jobs – high attrition is healthy. Sharing, communicating and handing over internal information is the corner stone of every meeting. IMO

So as the IT lead – I’m closing the IT department.  No more custom coding or processes that takes days to hand over…

Hand-over of the IT relay baton