How to deal with IT?

Ok, as you may know I'm a consultant. It's a common joke from the clients that the their IT departments will eventually be telling them when to go on holiday. Now my company is headed the same way.

Heres the situations:
We had win98 installed on all computers (laptops) and Novell for network protection (Although they didn't have it setup right. I could walk in with my laptop, plug it in, and see everything.) We had full rights on our computer... which we need. We have software we need to install/update to get logs off of systems, connect to clients printers/networks/etc, download images from whatever kind of diital camera the contractor has, test software... you get the point. About 1/3 of us are in the field every day. 2 or 3 times a year about 1/2 of us go to either Europe or Japan. Calling the IT department for computer help is pointless when in the field because they
1) are probably asleep due to the time difference
2) tell us they will install in when we are back in the office
Needless to say, this would be embarrasing infront of clients... and would diminish our capabilities.

Now, they've decided to upgrade to win2000. We only have basic user access. I was at a meeting, went to use my USB floppy for the first time, and it wouldn't let me activate the drivers. I call IT, and they told me to use someone else's computer.

So I'm left with some options:
1) accept it and make a bad impression on clients
2) continue try to explain the need to IT (I had a 6 hour IT council meeting today, and they continue to say no)
3) cheat. Reset the admin password on my department's computers using a linux floppy or some other method, and give everybody access.
4) cut departmental ties to the IT department

Right now I'm doing number 3 on an as needed basis... but when IT figures that out, I will catch a large amount of flak. Talking with some others, we realized that IT has never actually fixed any of our problems, and are simply responsible for deciding what machines we get. We have enough overhead budget to deal with all IT concerns internally.

My question is:
What do you think is the correct course of action? I know we have some IT types, and expect you to have a different point of view then me. Is there some reasoning behind this that they do not care to share with us? Does IT realize that they're only job is to support the means of income (namely, everyone besides them).

 

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Question: When you couldn't use your floppy drive, was it your own personal one? or was it a company owned drive? What about the laptop?

If both of them are company owned your IT department needs some major fixing. They should have all of the drivers required for people to do their work installed prior to the time they are needed. If however, your floppy drive was your own, it's your own damn fault. Talk to them prior to going out in the field. Did they say they wouldn't install the drivers? or did they say that they just wouldn't let you have admin access?

They do the same thing in my school, I wasn't able to run my USB thumb drive because I can't install the USB drivers without Admin access. I accepted it and took back the drive. There is no reason that you should have admin access to the whole network. That is just terrible security. Even write access to the drivers directory (ies) is bad security. I am pretty sure your IT department is aware of this.

Those are the problems that you are aware of. I bet you aren't aware of 90% of the problems that arise in a department that you're not part of.

 

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Unacceptable

Have your manager talk to their manager and make them see you really need that drive.

I don't know why they don't want you having a floppy drive, but if they have a valid reason I think cheating is not the way to go

No idea what you mean by that

On a sidenote: If you or your collegues travel to Europe or Asia alot I think you will need a more flexible helpdesk (shift teams or so)
edit: added tags

 

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this is all done in the name of security and, they're too lazy to give each individual access to the network for install/upgrade so they just block everyone - its make their job a lot easier. basically their saying ''zero tolerance'' and won't budge. at work i use dos since no one in the it dept can remember or how to use that.

andy

 

Both company owned. But regardless, I OFTEN have to hook up to equipment that is not mine or the companies. It's a part of my job and a part of visiting clients. They
won't even let us install a damn printer. I do not know what I need installed until AFTER I am in the field most times. I depends on what the clients have.

How is my having write access, to a driver in MY computer bad security? Lock down the network... fine (although they did it wrong). Long down email.. fine. But my computer? Why? I have yet to hear anyone provide a good reason. Anybody smart enough to hack the drivers is smart enough to realize they can do anything they want using a dos or linux disk.

I deal with ALL IT issues in my group. They come to me because they can get an immediate answer instead of waiting 2 hours for IT to get around to their ticket. I call for 2 things, email and network access. Things that have a reason to be locked down and institutionalized. The local profile of an employee on his/her computer is NOT something that should be locked down.

Bachus:
In not just a single drive we need though. Whatever our client has, we need to connect to. We can not do this when we are completely locked down. We also can't install software that is needed. As for cutting ties with IT, basically pay them by the hour. We realize that things like email which are company wide issues need to be handled centrally, but refuse to keep throwing our overhead at them, when they make it more difficult for us to do our job.

They fail to realize that we make the money for the company, and their ONLY job is to support us.

 

I hear this ignorant statement too often. What you fail to realize is without your IT department, your business doesn't function at all.

 

Well, an update. We now 'outsource' part of our IT department... but don't actually. The IT department is still responsible for providing email/internet access, but the rest is handled by individuals within our office. The money we are no longer giving to IT is now just being added to our overhead budget, which is being used to buy software that the IT department refused to buy before.

Funny enough, people in other offices have been telling us that IT is being much more receptive lately.

 

Heee ehheheheh. "CompiledMonkey" . . . what a great name! Love it.

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hehe....
Well lets see sounds like you have an ignorant IT department, but then again, it sounds like you are ignorant toward your IT department, my guess is there are company wide policies, maybe an AUP that you signed when u accepted the job, about things that can and can not be done to a company computer. You might not like the tight security that is placed on you computers, but without that tight security you would be falling to every little script kiddy in North America. Code to destroy a computer is simple, It is simple for you to "take control" of your computer by loading a different boot disk.... but what they are trying to prevent is the mass distribution of the malicious code. I'm pretty sure that anyone could write 10 lines of script in a batch file that would wipe a computer, hide it as a text file, and make it look like something fun to click. The only way you can control worms and malicious code is by stopping it from being transferred from box to box. Maybe you shouldnt be connecting to all your clients boxes and networks, get your own printer to take with you on the road, sounds like your department has the budget for that, make sure your shit works before you leave and dont go crying to the IT department when you get overseas and it doesn't.

 

Get your own laptop, transfer the files you need to an online storage site, and tell IT to stuff it. What's more important - the IT department or your clients? Send a note explaining why you are going this route to the CEO.