• Managing NT is no harder that the alternative
• Vendors can provide short-term NT skills
• A harmonious workforce
• How to hang on to your NT staff:
• Keep the training going

According to some, using Microsoft software is easier than Unix or any of the other alternatives, so in theory the skills required for setting up and maintaining an NT-based environment will be easier, right? Wrong! We are not fooled by the promise of Zero Administration, and no-one realistically expects support staff to be cut because of a commitment to NT.

Managing NT is no harder that the alternative

The technical requirements to manage an NT site are no less demanding than Unix or Solaris or AS/400, but the training courses that are available are held in higher regard. An investment in training for your employees will immediately place them in high demand. Train an NT support person to gain MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) accreditation and you are likely to find that they will be head-hunted or demand far more money to stay - that’s the reality of running an NT site. Guy Warren, a consultant for Unisys, says that in many ways running an NT site is just like running any other operating system. It requires normal systems management disciplines: software distribution; alert and event management; backup and recovery; user and systems management; security; and asset inventory and control. He went on to say that the advantage of NT is that tools are available for each of these skill areas, making the load on support staff easier.

Some people believe that in the long term, running several hundred NT-based users is easier than running a site of Unix users, but only if proper training and education strategies have been used for both users and support staff. It may be that NT systems and applications installation is easier if the systems manager comes from a background that has Microsoft on the desktop. However, the consensus is that setting up an NT environment requires as much training, intelligence and expertise as a mainframe or AS/400 environment, and is certainly not a short-cut to running down the staffing levels in the IT department.

Vendors can provide short-term NT skills

However, running an NT site has one big advantage over sites based on other operating systems: the vendors providing the hardware and software are generally highly trained by Microsoft and more than happy to help with implementation and long term management. It is also possible to reduce your staffing costs by taking advantage of some of the support deals available from vendors and taking a strategic outsourcing approach to long-term NT systems management. Many sites look to their supplier for specific short-term NT skills, particularly at the implementation phase when it is not worth employing someone NT-skilled for a short period. Arriva Automotive Solutions recently became a full NT site with a system from Ultima Business Solutions. Nick Bennett, Technical Services Director, says that he relied on Ultima to deliver the skills he needed to get the system running. "We have over 20,000 employees and a turnover in excess of £1.4billion, and selected Ultima mainly because they could deliver the consultancy and hand-holding that we could see would be necessary throughout the installation phase. They provide user training, on-going on-site services and support our internal IT staff."

A harmonious workforce

Certainly, with the current shortage of IT staff, it is sensible to make alternative arrangements, such as ensuring that users are sufficiently well educated and at their support needs are minimised. It is also essential to have strategies for retaining staff. Some organisations do little to positively work at retaining their most valuable commodity - their staff. "There is no magic bullet in managing the staff to run an NT site, except to treat your people really well," says Unisys’ Warren. Some companies are reluctant to fully train their NT support people, keeping them at a level where they can be extremely useful to the organisation because of their informal expertise but limiting their options in the outside world because they don’t have the right formal qualifications. Yet, skills within the IT industry, actually have a very short shelf life. The best strategy is to train as many people as possible regardless, and then deal with any skill shortages as they arise.

The fact is that many NT professionals realise that their skills, although perhaps in high demand at present, do not promise long term career prospects and they may be better off staying with a company that treats them well. The worst thing an NT site manager can do is to recruit specific skills rather than investing in training in-house or retraining existing staff. The best approach is to retrain those who know the business, the hierarchy and the legacy system. Such an approach ensures loyalty and keeps morale high.

Keep the training going

One of the best ways of reducing the staff required on an NT site is to make sure that the training and education programme is effective and on-going, says Graham Scrivener, Sales and Marketing Director of InTuition Computer Training. "Unless you want your highly skilled NT staff being continually side-tracked to deal with minor issues and petty matters, you must train the users so that they understand the basics of the operating system and the application software. So, if a printer isn’t working, they have the confidence to fix it themselves before calling in the troops," he says. Scrivener says that the reason for investing in user training is that it reduces the overall cost of ownership of an IT system. He explains: "There is no doubt that by reducing the support costs by empowering users to take more control of their desktop, you reduce the cost of running the system. Any investment in user training is definitely repaid with interest over the years."

Scrivener believes that companies should establish certain processes and standards and users should be trained to stick to them. "For example, an organisation should insist that certain back up and other housekeeping routines are followed, and individuals should be trained to follow these procedures so that they become instinctive and automatic. As a result, the company will have to spend less on finding data and files that have been ‘lost’ and they will automatically use the best practice techniques." Such training can be invaluable when email is widely used throughout an organisation, when, without training, individuals can unknowingly create huge files and clog up the network. "If you teach users to have self-sufficiency, you relieve the support staff of an enormous amount of work, freeing them to do jobs which really stretch their NT skills and knowledge," says Scrivener.

Like all professionals, an NT expert is more likely to stick around if they feel appreciated and valued, and above all else, are motivated by a sense of their value to the organisation. If your NT expert proactively seeks out problems and solves them, ensure that users have the right training to lighten the support load. If he/she seeks to make IT deliver optimum competitive advantage, you have a gem that you must hang on to.