IT is very important - but why do companies keep cutting back?

in , ,

Ask any business executive how important IT has been to their business over the past 5 years and chances are they will agree that not only is it crucial, but it's becoming more important than ever.

But if you talk to accounting and get an idea of the company's IT budget, you will see a completely different story.  It seems that businesses are cutting back on IT expenditures, and overall money spent on IT innovation has been steadily dropping.  From the years 2005-2009, IT innovation has dropped from 20% to the 14% of the typical IT budget expenditure according to a study done by A.T. Kearney It Innovation and Effectiveness.  

What is astounding to me is that there is the attitude that while the technology portion of their business is important, the IT department isn't.  It's now only there to merely keep things running.  This past year we have seen cuts of over 25% across the board and more businesses that are just asking for contract IT to come in to repair, not even perform preventative maintenance - much less innovate or upgrade IT infrastructure.  And if anything with the way the economy has been going I've been seeing IT cut-backs so that even maintaining company IT infrastructure is a challenge.

These same companies are leaving IT out of the loop.  They are taking a do-it-yourself attitude and trying to take IT innovation in their own hands.  This ranges from buying their staff a complete new set of android based smart-phones, to new computers, all the way to complete new servers without consulting IT.  Naturally when compatibility issues come up, and things don't work (as wass as the advertising campaign where the business owner is standing next to a simple server box with a smug look on his face) - they blame IT for their downtime.

Business executives, please let us do our job.  Dell computers does not know your business like we do.  Best Buy is not selling you computers that will work in your corporate environment.  Consult with us.  Listen to what we have to tell you.  Don't cut back on your IT budgets because in the long run, your business will suffer.

Green Mountain Coffee Hazelnut for Keurig = weak and flavorless

in

Thank goodness for sampler packs.  I'm practically struggling to get through this small batch of the Green Mountain Coffee Hazelnut.  It has a wonderful aroma, (I will give it that) but even on small cup size it taste like someone took yesterday's used coffee grounds and put a drop of hazelnut essence, re-brewed, and then watered it down.  Well you get the gist of it.  I'm thinking of just tossing the remaining cups.

I see now on Amazon that they have a Green Mountain Hazelnut Dark Roast Extra Bold which I will try after getting through the sampler pack.

Coffee Shops taking out WiFi

in

This comes as no big surprise to us WiFi users when we visit our regular coffee shops.  LA times reports that many coffee shops are taking free Wi-Fi off the menu to stimulate their sales.  

Sadly where I'm at there is a major lack in coffee shops that aren't Starbucks.  The good ones I knew of were in the SF bay area where they served good coffee and really good food in many cases.  

Speaking of Starbucks, since they've opened up free WiFi for everyone I've noticed a considerable decrease in the amount of bandwidth available to us regulars that used to enjoy decent T1 speeds.  So... I no longer go there and rely on their bandwidth - I actually use AT&T's 3G network a lot lately.

I see where the coffee shops are coming from, but those are definitely the ones that are losing my type of business.  

We'll see how this all plays out in the end.  It may be that some enterprising individual will have to create a nice chain of cybercafes that serve good finger foods.

12 hour blackout in Los Angeles area - cause? Trees.

in , ,

Yes you read that right.  Our power grid was brought down by trees.  The trees came in contact with the power lines and somehow shorted the system.  I knew this was coming when a few days ago I posted about how power outages are going to occur more frequently and to protect your equipment!

Well, my equipment was protected - it wasn't until the beeping started from my UPS systems that I realized there was an outage.  I would have kept some of my systems running the entire duration of the blackout (phone and internet service) except for the fact that I can't stand the annoying beep!

Next goal is to find a UPS system that's affordable with a beep that can be disabled with a switch or software configured.