By Will Sturgeon, 12 November 2003 14:45
NEWS Companies are dogged by a 'fix it when broken' attitude towards their IT infrastructure which is costing them millions of pounds each year.
Staff are left waiting for their machines to be fixed as IT support are constantly fire-fighting - rather than companies scheduling routine maintenance which could greatly increase productivity, according to collaborations solutions provider Intentia, which conducted the research.
Chris Cooper, director of plant maintenance global operations at Intentia, said: Almost 90 per cent of organisations agree that preventive maintenance increases productivity and return on assets, yet only around a third currently spend more than half of their maintenance budget on preventive strategies.
Part of the problem is that companies still view maintenance as a cost rather than being able to think about it as in investment.
Less than half the respondents to the survey view maintenance was an investment - despite the obvious long-term savings.
Cooper said: This relatively low figure indicates a lack of awareness of the potential return on investment from enterprise asset management and the need for maintenance generally.
By timetabling regular maintenance work during times of expected staff downtime - such as evenings and weekends, for example - companies could guarantee greater productivity during the week. This would provide a particular boost for organisations that "are under increased pressure to deliver more for less," added Cooper.
Though such a suggestion may not prove popular with the techies ultimately charged with working even more unsociable hours than many already do.
But one IT director who silicon.com spoke to said it's far more important that companies get the most out of their systems; whatever it takes.
Asking to remain anonymous, he said: "Businesses need to start treating systems the same way they would their cars. You wouldnt keep your car running until it broke down, that would be stupid. They always go wrong when under the most stress which is when you need them most.
"Finance Directors will happily pay dealer servicing costs for their company Jaguar yet let their huge investment in systems go un-maintained until they crash. In addition, everyone accepts that they get a new company car every three years yet keep their PCs for five years. By this time they are so slow the staff cant use them and they continually break down."
"Its madness," he added.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. John Drummond
Treat maintenance as an investment?
Was that not the slippery slope that WorldCom faltered on?
2. Eric Stainsby
I think preventive maintenance is a good idea, (we provide it for our compressors and turbines) but I don't know what preventive maintenance activities can be done on PCs and servers. If Silicon or its readers have any ideas I'd be pleased to hear them.
3. James Button
As a site support technician (in a large government site), my performance objectives included how many problems I fixed in 1, 4, and 8 hours. No mention was made of setting up systems so there were no faults.
That meant that setting up robust systems caused me to get bad performance appraisals, until the robust systems had been cycled out of use !
4. Faris Sipi
I agree that UK business attitude towards IT pre-epmtive maintenance is shameful. Everbody wants their computer to be up and running, but when systems are down IT people are blamed rather than the financial directors and accountants who regard anything else but themselves and their huge pays deals, as a cost centre. Accountants and financial directors are directly responsible for the backwards looking attitude to systems maintenance. All I can say is that if these businesses who put their trust in accountants are actually loosing money with their close minded attitudes then SERVES THEM RIGHT!
5. Faris Sipi
Some of the comments mad by certain contributors on this topic prove their lack of real understanding of cost and benefit and return on investment issues. Again short term is the order of the day in UK PLC. No wonder jobs are being exported abroad to India. However, it will all backfire in the medium to long term. The result will be the domination of UK businesses by American and European companies.
6. Nick Bailey
Preventive maintenance on a PC???
The only thing I could think of would be to vacuum the dust out now and again. Presumably it's something similar to preventative maintenance for your tele. Sounds like a good con. (Con?? short for contract)
7. anonymous
As a reseller and consultant of IT system and services I often run into the brick wall which is placed in front of me the minute I talk about support and maintenance. The cruel irony that often accompanies this head in sand approach appears when serious downtime occurs due to system failure. The blase and neglectful attitude soon changes to urgent forcefull pleading requiring a herculean effort from my engineering team with often hefty labour costs to cover out of hours working. My 10 years of experience in this industry has revealed that IT directors and managers are simply denied the level of financial and decision making clout of their colleague directors and managers who see IT as a necessary evil and still do not really understand the importance of a planned, managed IT strategy. Still, a Satellite Navigation system in the Jag is worth three servers in the bush.