When duty calls: IT pros do more with less

Industry analysis by Beth Schultz, plus the latest news headlines.

The economic turmoil tormenting Wall Streeters is also trickling down to IT departments.

The recent deluge of financial failures is causing enterprise IT executives to reconsider spending on new investments and avoid hiring additional staff in the coming months. For instance, a CIO Executive Board survey of 50 IT leaders in September revealed that 61% are re-evaluating 2009 budget plans, 59% are putting nonessential IT projects on hold, 54% are re-evaluating IT project plans to conserve cash and 24% have introduced a hiring freeze in IT. (Listen to a podcast on how IT pros can better deal with the economic crisis here.) 

While CIOs brace themselves for an inevitable downturn, IT managers are being asked to fill the void that anemic IT budgets cannot. 

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The economic turmoil tormenting Wall Streeters is also trickling down to IT departments.

The recent deluge of financial failures is causing enterprise IT executives to reconsider spending on new investments and avoid hiring additional staff in the coming months. For instance, a CIO Executive Board survey of 50 IT leaders in September revealed that 61% are re-evaluating 2009 budget plans, 59% are putting nonessential IT projects on hold, 54% are re-evaluating IT project plans to conserve cash and 24% have introduced a hiring freeze in IT. (Listen to a podcast on how IT pros can better deal with the economic crisis here.) 

While CIOs brace themselves for an inevitable downturn, IT managers are being asked to fill the void that anemic IT budgets cannot. 

"As the economy squeezes, IT professionals are forced to wear more hats than they normally would. Systems administrators are also e-mail admins and virtualization experts while they dabble in PeopleSoft systems," says John Turner, director of networks and systems, Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. "There are benefits to IT staff in that they learn a diverse set of skills, but the downside is that you can sometimes lose the luxury of planning because you have to focus on the task at hand."

The trend toward IT pros taking on more responsibilities started before the economy took a turn for the worst, according to some, and for many augmenting their job duties with additional tasks helps them go further in their careers.

Arun DeSouza, a director of strategic planning and security at Inergy Automotive Systems in Troy, Mich., says he has had the opportunity to fill dual, or hybrid, roles throughout the course of his career. He says he believes the evolution of his role in IT reflects the direction in which the entire industry is moving.

"As IT evolves to support customer focused services, it must respond effectively to the business demands of today," DeSouza says. "This has created a need for a cadre of IT managers and leaders who need to balance classical IT skills with broader based executive management skills."

For Craig Bush, network administrator at Exactech in Gainesville, Fla., filling multiple roles within IT over the years has enabled him to ascertain many skills and advance his career from a help desk support person to a full network administrator over the years.

"I have a well-rounded base of experience now. I got a good mix of experience across a wide swath of IT," Bush explains. "I see PBX, networking, servers, vendor management, telecom, wiring, physical plant, end-user support and Web site work."

Yet Bush says biting off so much might not be feasible as his company continues to grow. For now, the small staff all pitch in, but going forward relying on too few IT personnel could cause performance problems.

"I think as we grow not starting to specialize our roles more will eventually be unproductive. There will be more need for help desk tasks and duties, and I may not always be able to service customers in that manner as I may be working on a big planning project or site implementation," Bush says.

Schultz is a longtime IT journalist. You can email her or find her here.