Cracking the it O & M cost dilemma, and the professional division of labor is a wonderful solution

With the continuous development of IT construction, it O & M has become a necessity for enterprise operation. Although the IT budget of many enterprises has greatly improved compared with last year, it is still very tight in general. Last week, I attended a CIO salon seminar. On-site surveys asked CIOs what are the most important issues in it O & M. Most CIOs said they are most concerned about the high O & M costs. This requires CIOs not only to exhaust all conventional methods to reduce costs, but also to have targeted innovation methods to meet the challenges.

The survey shows that in the past five years, the O & M cost has also increased as the IT system becomes more and more complex, especially the labor cost. Specifically, the maintenance cost of hardware and software and network equipment accounts for 30%, the daily maintenance service cost accounts for 30%, and the O & M labor cost accounts for 40%. Labor costs include on-site maintenance, training and education, staff turnover, and recruitment costs. Therefore, the most popular topic of this CIO salon is how to crack the it O & M labor cost dilemma.

I. Common Causes of it O & M labor cost dilemmas

Speaking of it cost management, most CIOs are most concerned with it O & M costs. It O & M refers to the activities taken to ensure the normal, secure and effective operation of IT systems and services, including IT operation and IT maintenance. According to the definition of it O & M scope, it can be summarized into seven aspects: desktop System maintenance, network system maintenance, network security system maintenance, server maintenance, software and hardware system maintenance, IDC environment maintenance, it fixed asset management services. The costs incurred by these activities are collectively referred to as it O & M costs.

The on-site investigation found that it O & M personnel costs about 40%. The reason is that the seven major areas of it o & M involve one thing in common, that is, they all need personnel to perform and operate. Therefore, many CIOs on site agree that labor costs are the most important factor affecting O & M costs. However, unfortunately, the waste of it O & M manpower costs is everywhere and is often ignored by most CIOs. The following are some common causes of high it O & M labor costs:

(1) Unclear it O & M responsibilities, resulting in a serious waste of labor costs

It provides high-quality it O & M services at an economical and low cost as possible, which is the most basic requirement of the management for it O & M management efficiency. However, as a technical support department, the IT Department's operational efficiency is often astonishing. The most important reason is the lack of meticulous management of O & M services. According to this survey, about 30% of the company's daily IT operations are a waste of IT staff's effort and shirking responsibilities during it O & M, in addition, these wasted hidden labor costs are often the most overlooked part of it costs.

For example, in the O & M process, poor execution leads to low work efficiency or repeated operations, which is directly reflected by the O & M personnel "no effort, no trouble ". For example, when the cooperation between several departments is involved, the responsibility will be shirked and ambiguous. If a problem occurs, department a asks department B for feedback, and department B says that Department C is required to handle the problem, which leads to a very simple problem that cannot be handled in a timely and effective manner. On the surface, we can attribute the waste of it O & M manpower costs to the ineffective implementation of the it o & M process. However, in essence, the lack of standardized management of duties, permissions, and benefits of O & M personnel by CIOs is inevitable behind it. This is the deep-seated reason for the high it O & M labor cost.

(2) The O & M process lacks hierarchical management, leading to hidden waste of labor costs

In the it O & M process, many enterprises do not have clear O & M event upgrade standards, that is, after what conditions are met, O & M events must be transferred from the first-line to the second-line support engineers, and then to senior engineers for handling; or there is no limit on the level of O & M events set. All O & M personnel are combined into a group. If there is no time for anyone to handle the chaos, it will lead to a hidden waste of labor costs. Simply put, there is no human priority standard, which cannot guarantee the effective use of it o & M human resources, or there is no clear and unique owner after an O & M event occurs, therefore, there is a lack of event monitoring and tracking mechanisms. These make O & M events and O & M service request processing not form a strict Closed Loop management, nor establish a clear major or emergency handling process, resulting in a hidden waste of labor costs.

(3) lack of quantitative performance management, making it difficult to maximize the potential of personnel

The labor cost of it o & M personnel is too high. On the surface, the personnel efficiency is too low, but the underlying reason is the lack of performance assessment for it O & M personnel. Performance appraisal is a kind of Personnel Incentive management means, and it is not a management goal. The essential significance is to combine employee recruitment, job upgrading and downgrading, training development, and labor compensation through performance appraisal, so that enterprise incentive mechanisms can be fully utilized, which is conducive to the healthy development of enterprises, at the same time, it is easy for employees to establish a psychological model of continuous self-motivation. When it O & M personnel are not assessed for performance, it O & M personnel are not supervised to solve the fault handling efficiency and quality. Therefore, it O & M personnel may encounter problems such as lack of collaboration, unclear responsibilities, and frequent complaints. Simply put, the lack of performance management is the root cause of Labor waste for O & M personnel.

Ii. What is it O & M professional division of labor

(1) What is a professional division of labor?

In general, there are three ways to reduce labor costs: one is to reduce the number of labor, the other is to reduce the labor operation costs in the service process, and the third is to improve the efficiency of human units. The division of labor is a common method to improve personnel efficiency and reduce operation costs. The Initial Research of the division of labor in the field of classical economics was mainly focused. In his masterpiece "guo fu theory", the economist Adam Smith believed that increasing labor productivity is the most effective way to save labor costs, the way to maximize labor productivity is through a professional division of labor. He believes that the division of labor can maximize the improvement of human efficiency and improve personnel proficiency, skills and judgment.

Adam Smith explained the reasons: First, the skill of personnel is more skillful due to the specialization. Under the condition of division of labor, each person can become a "local expert" by only performing one operation ", it not only improves performance, but also reduces the learning time of skills. Second, the professional division of labor can save labor time, because the division of labor enables personnel to engage in certain fixed operations, which will help the accumulation of operational experience and the improvement of operational methods and efficiency. Third, the most important part of the division of labor is to clear the responsibilities, rights and obligations clearly, breaking the egalitarianism that is not conducive to individual performance appraisal.

In fact, with the complexity and difficulty of it O & M management, it is no longer feasible to pack the world by just a few "O & M heroes" or "Technical Experts. The professional division of labor is to combine the features of it O & M activities and the features of it O & M personnel, arrange each person in the appropriate field to accumulate knowledge and skills to continuously improve work efficiency. Therefore, in a sense, professional labor division is not only a skilled O & M personnel, but also a problem of the it o & M team's HR structure optimization and O & M efficiency improvement.

(2) Classification and form of specialized division of labor for it O & M

In general, there are two types of specialized labor: Skill specialization and object specialization. Specialized skill division refers to the establishment of an O & M Service Team based on the principles of it O & M service skills or IT system equipment, that is, the establishment of different teams based on different O & M Service Skill Characteristics. It is characterized by "three identical ". "Three identical" refers to the same type of IT hardware and software equipment, the same type of skilled personnel, and the same O & M method of applications; "one nose" refers to different service objects. Specialized division of labor of objects refers to the principle of dividing O & M teams based on the same service object, that is, building different service teams based on different service objects. Features: "three different ". "Three nos" refer to different types of IT system hardware and software equipment, skilled personnel of different types of work, and different O & M methods. "together" refers to serving only one of the same service objects.

Simply put, the professional division of skills can form a high-quality expert group with the same skills. In the same sense, the professional division of labor can form a high-quality team group with different skills. Therefore, the highly specialized division of labor and high-quality human resources are mutually causal and Mutually Explanatory. As Peter Drucker, a famous Management Master, said: "Only specialized knowledge can produce high-quality expert teams and higher efficiency ."

3. How to establish an efficient and professional O & M system

Solving the labor cost dilemma of it O & M as soon as possible is an urgent issue for many CIOs. However, the primary concern is how to establish a specialized it o & M system. Here are some of my experiences:

(1) determine the division of labor based on the enterprise's development strategy

Enterprise development strategy is the basis for determining the enterprise operation model and a factor that has a significant impact on the it o & M human management model. Currently, there are two labor division modes for it O & M: one is skill specialization and the other is object specialization. Generally, different development strategies and core capabilities lead to different O & M labor division models. Different division of labor is an important factor that leads to different O & M labor cost structures. Therefore, first of all, we need to start from the company's strategy and select the optimal it O & M Human professional labor division model.

(2) Optimize the professional division of labor and strive to improve O & M Efficiency

O & M Personnel Division management includes personnel, positions, roles, and other information. If such information is not planned in a unified manner, it cannot be configured in a unified manner. Professional division of labor refers to dividing it O & M tasks (including personnel, resources, and emergencies) into different levels and different O & M operations to effectively configure O & M Human Resources. Therefore, for enterprises, the professional division of labor for it O & M is essentially the optimization of it O & M human resource allocation. For example, the classification process of O & M events should be clarified, and the duties, permissions, obligations, and performance evaluation criteria of O & M personnel should be clarified. In fact, many practices have proved that defining the division of labor for each O & M event can greatly reduce the randomness and Chaos of it O & M operations and greatly improve the efficiency of human resources in O & M.

(3) set up an it o & M service desk to avoid waste of manpower costs

The it o & M service desk is set up to determine the O & M level and introduce priority handling principles. The IT service desk is mainly responsible for the following tasks: Operation Duty, Fault Monitoring, request acceptance, ticket distribution, and monitoring during problem resolution. The service center is like a dispatcher in a traditional industrial production workshop. It constantly matches the division of labor and schedules based on the level of events. For example, in the event of any unexpected O & M event, the service center checks and performs classified transfer processing. O & M personnel can be divided into first-line general maintenance, second-line technical experts and third-line manufacturer experts. As the first-level problem handling personnel, front-line personnel mainly solve routine O & M problems. If front-line personnel cannot solve the problem, the second-level technical experts will be quickly involved in the problem solving process; third-line technical experts come from product suppliers. The second-line technical experts apply for third-line technical experts to intervene, which greatly shortens the problem solving time.

(4) set up a professional self-help knowledge base to minimize labor costs

Self-help knowledge base refers to the self-help handling process for typical fault events and FAQs in it O & M. When a fault occurs, the user first finds a solution in the self-help knowledge base. If the problem is not resolved, the user applies for maintenance by themselves, and the user application will be handed over to the service desk for Management. The service desk will first establish service archives and monitor the problems in real time until the problem is solved successfully. Therefore, the self-help knowledge base can help O & M personnel save a lot of time, thus saving labor costs.

In general, it O & M human management is not only the most complicated part of IT construction, but also the most important element of it O & M costs. It is a long-term task to improve the utilization efficiency of the IT team's human resources through a professional division of labor, and many specific implementation work will be required in the future. However, the most critical step is to put the O & M team into a professional division of labor based on the actual situation of the enterprise and the needs of the enterprise's IT construction stages. (Post)

Cracking the it O & M cost dilemma, and the professional division of labor is a wonderful solution