Information resources in IT-management
The set of information resources of almost any company includes:

• technical infrastructure – servers, network equipment, telecommunications networks and other physical devices;
• technology – software, database management system, artificial intelligence, machine learning;
• information stored in the company (including Big Data);
• personnel – these are engineers, technical support workers, sysadmins, consultants.

Today, every business is closely tied to information technology. Even small companies use them in their activities, which means that any organization must either have the appropriate professionals on staff or work with reliable contractors.

What functions an IT manager performs
IT management is the job of employees who manage information resources in businesses. They know how to plan and execute long-term strategies related to organizations’ IT services, processes and infrastructure. Their goal is to ensure business continuity by applying new advances in information technology.

An IT manager is an employee who performs tasks overlapping with a project manager, but only he is responsible for a whole pool of services, not for a specific project for a limited period of time. His tasks are processing a large amount of information and distributing it among several departments of the enterprise, controlling that it is reliable, as well as protecting data from unauthorized access, applying new approaches to management.

What is included in the functions of the IT manager:

• Managing the IT staff in the company;
• calculation and allocation of finances for infrastructure development;
• analyzing the satisfaction of the organization’s customers;
• negotiating with suppliers of computers, networking and other equipment;
• developing and implementing new IT services;
• using various technologies to drive business growth;
• creating a strategy and determining the speed of work on projects;
• planning for the near and distant future;
• organizing productive cooperation between the information department and the rest of the organization.

The main purpose of IT management is to grow the business with the help of information technology. The employee in this position needs to combine business strategies and technology, and the entire team needs to work as a cohesive, creative, unified group, rather than using only a mechanical approach.

IT management and outsourcing
IT management in entrepreneurship encompasses much more than just the effective management of information resources. The ability to delegate them is also important. This is where another concept – IT outsourcing – comes in. When the manager of an organization realizes that his own information resources alone are not enough to solve a particular problem, it is possible to turn to outsourcing services.

What services can be obtained from a contractor:

• Rent computing power, including cloud data centers;
• involve employees in the development of the necessary software, the creation of distributed local area networks (LAN);
• delegate maintenance responsibilities for physical equipment, including advice to users on how to use the devices.

For each individual task, the IT manager decides if internal resources are sufficient or if outsourcing is required.

Benefits of IT management
IT services allow:

• improve performance, prevent problems with it by identifying its thresholds;
• reduce risks through collaborative work of specialists;
• identify the consequences of deviations from regulatory standards during audits;
• detect problems that relate to the integration of the solution before it is implemented in the work environment;
• to adapt the work to new business needs.

The existence and development of any enterprise is impossible without an IT structure. The manager must know what the company needs an IT manager for, what functions he performs. The ways of work he uses help the company to develop, modernize infrastructure, optimize and automate processes.

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What is the methodology
There is a traditional approach to organization of IT structures, a resource-based one. In this scheme the main elements are networks, servers and other hardware and technologies. With such a focus “overboard” are the needs of internal and external customers.

ITSM is a conductor of service strategy and prioritizes the needs of users. According to major companies that use this approach (e.g., IBM), it provides an opportunity to reduce operating costs and improve the quality of IT services.

In the ITSM scheme, the IT department acts as a full-fledged service provider for the other structures of the company and its tasks become broader than simple maintenance of the IT infrastructure in the form of specific network nodes.

Why do you need to implement ITSM?
If you implement the ITSM approach intelligently, it can significantly improve efficiency and save resources.

• You’ll outline the exact cost of creating an optimal IT infrastructure.
• Employees will be quicker to make decisions and fix problems.
• Problems will be solved in a systematic way, with analysis and elimination of causes.
• All work processes will be labeled according to their value to the company. This will allow building work more efficiently.
• From the customer’s point of view, the level of services will become higher.
• An efficient IT infrastructure will become the basis for all business processes of the company. It will become more stable and recover from failures more quickly.

How to start working with ITSM
To begin with the company should transfer its relationship with the IT-department on a “customer-supplier” model and formulate what specific services it wants to obtain. After that, the company will demand the same things from the services as the users. As a result, the IT department, by meeting these demands, will begin to work much more efficiently.

The next important step in implementing ITSM is to divide the company’s structure into teams that solve specific business tasks automatically. And to effectively manage them, you need special software platforms.

5 tools to automate ITSM
ServiceNow
One of the most popular ITSM solutions, created by the American company of the same name. Since 2014, the consulting company Gartner every year consistently recognizes the service as the leader of the “Magic Quadrant” among vendors of ITSM products.

One of the main advantages is that it is possible to manage all IT processes through a single interface. Reporting processes, event logging, SLA non-compliance notifications, and much more are all available.

The tool was created to automate the Helpdesk service in IT, but then there are more use cases. The system can be used to manage marketing, finance, HR and other departments. At the same time, all functionality is already included in the solution, you do not need to buy anything extra.

SimpleOne
Universal solution for any company department. It is based on ITIL best practices.

Despite the fact that SimpleOne is an ESM-platform, it works well as an ITSM-solution. Best practices for delivering and managing services for service departments of organizations (ITIL®, VeriSM) were used in its creation. SimpleOne end-to-end automation enables unified services and a single orchestration tool.

The solution is well suited to large businesses and government agencies that are planning to digitize their daily work. IBS, Devoteam Russia, Croc, IT Guild, ITGLOBAL.COM and others have already chosen SimpleOne. Other advantages are the efficient architecture and user-friendly interface. The solution has been created with a view to the global market from the very beginning.

Naumen Service Desk
The system existing since 2001 is intended for automation of corporate processes in companies of any size. The developers especially emphasize that the solution is suitable for the IT department and technical support. The product was chosen by more than 300 companies in telecommunications, retail, public services and others. The list of clients includes Azbuka Vkusa, Rostec Corporation, Russian Post and others. According to the IT Service Management 2019 study, the product was among the five best ITSM solutions.

Of the disadvantages: you may have to buy the modules you need to get the necessary functionality and not quite a friendly and thoughtful interface.

Service Creatio
Good for a single customer service center and for work of company departments on the basis of ITSM and ITIL methods.

With the system, you can work effectively with problems, requests and incidents, automate business processes, manage releases, internal documentation and configurations. There are two versions, Service Enterprise (for companies) and Customer Center (for customer service).

The system’s disadvantages are that it focuses more on organization of sales than on ITSM methods. It is used by Tele2, OTP Bank, URALSIB Bank, Severstal, ZYXEL, and others.

Itilium
It’s a Russian system, based on 1C and ITIL v2 and ITIL v3 standards. It is suitable for technical support services in IT. If necessary, a license for integration with 1C:Enterprise can be purchased.

The GAZ Group, Rive Gauche, the RF Ministry of Natural Resources and others work with this solution. Of the disadvantages, one can note not quite modern and user-friendly interface, which takes some getting used to. Also, for some companies, the cost of technical support by phone may seem high.

Conclusion
The right ITSM platform will provide your company with a basis for the well-organized work of the IT department, which will systematically improve the state of your business. Choosing a solution, carefully examine its features, how well it fits your company’s objectives and whether it will help you to develop.

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So, what should the present or future IT manager study, where to study and how much it costs.

1. English.

This is the first thing you should learn and maintain. I’ll leave beyond the scope of this discussion its necessity for comrades who decide to “get a tractor” and focus on other aspects. The English-language pool of documentation, frameworks, communities, experts and books is MUCH greater than other languages. You cannot normally develop as an IT manager (or as an IT specialist in general), without knowledge of English, at least at the level of reading documentation without a dictionary – if you are just an IT specialist and knowledge of Intermediate or higher level – if you aimed at the proud title of IT management pro. Where: it depends on your capabilities. Ideally, it is great to spend a couple of months in a country of native speakers, but this option will suit the 5% of those who want to improve their language skills. As an accompanying recommendation, it is useful to watch every day for 30 minutes before going to bed, some English-language channel, and at the weekend an English-language movie.

2. ITIL.

A modern IT manager can’t live without it. The base of the most systems is based on the service approach and ITIL glossary (tickets, incidents, problems, SLA, CMDB, reaction time, resolution time, escalation, change, maintenance requests etc.).

It is desirable to take an ITIL Foundation course and pass the exam (ITIL F course – 229 $). Work in helpdesk systems that support ITSM approach (ServiceNow, HP OpenView, ManageEngine ServiceDesk, etc.). With a sufficient level of English, you can start with the books themselves later in the original. If your English is not very good, it will be useful to read this book – Free ITIL (although it probably should be read even by those who have good English).

3. Project methodologies (ANSI PMBOK, PRINCE2)

IT manager is constantly faced with these or those projects, so he must be able to manage them competently. Here we have no options. This is the basics. Choose what you like and study (PMI PMBOK, PRINCE2). The price of the question is in the range of $ 1000, depending on the level of certification. Which methodology is better – a matter of personal preference and place of work (for example in Europe Prince2 is more popular). However, I strongly advise you to choose one as your primary methodology and to become acquainted with the basics of the second methodology.

4. Agile

This trendy word conceals a whole layer, called Agile approach to development (Scrum, FDD, XP and others). Where to read: you can actually read in many places. Only lazy man hasn’t written about Agile. Something to note – flexible methodologies are not a panacea! In some places, they are even harmful. They have disadvantages that are not immediately obvious. But, in general, they are what the doctor ordered for the needs of most development teams. The disadvantages of the agile approach can be mitigated by delving deeper into the subject.

5. DevOps

In a nutshell – it’s like Agile, but for sysadmins. This is very imprecise, but captures the essence. When developers switched to agile methodologies, IT operations became a lagging block, which slowed down, giving out “up to the hilt”, every two weeks, developers. DevOps is eliminating this problem (or trying to). Where to read: you can buy or find on the web a PDF version of the DevOps Cookbook and read it.

6. Vendor-dependent certification.

I should point out right away that vendor-independent certifications are little more than useless (with very few exceptions) and I won’t dwell on them. What vendor certification to get – I can’t tell you, it depends on the path you’ve chosen. For many the path looks like this: when I was young, Microsoft, then “oops, no way in serious companies without Linux”, then “oops, I need to understand SAP, it pays the most” (just kidding). What is useful is what is used in large companies. You have chosen these companies as your place of work, haven’t you? Then you need certification from Microsoft, Cisco, RedHat, SAP, IBM, HP. If you set a path to managers, you do not need to delve too deeply into the technical certification, you can stop at the basic levels. Examples: MCSA for Microsoft, CCNA for Cisco and RHCSA for RedHat.

7. MBA

Many heated battles have been devoted to the question, is it necessary to spend time and effort on an MBA? My opinion – if you can, it’s worth it. How: choose a school that suits you in terms of price/quality/availability/rating, pay attention to the accreditation (AMBA, EFMD, AACSB), check the accreditation and look for information.

8. Finance

An IT manager, in any hypostasis, has to deal with finances. Understanding such things as budgeting, types of costs, depreciation, payback and return on investment and many others is vital in day-to-day operations. Ideally, it’s not a bad idea to get a second college degree related to finance and economics. Pay close attention to the finance management process in the ITIL library and the “Project Cost Management” knowledge area in the PMBOK. If you have your sights set on a career as an IT manager in banking/insurance, consider taking the CFA exam.

9. Security

Keeping information systems secure is one of the key aspects of an IT manager’s job. At a minimum, it is necessary to know the basics and know the software for security: antivirus, IDS/IPS/DLP systems, protocol analyzers, cryptographic software, firewalls, means and software for authentication, means and software for video surveillance. It is very useful to get acquainted with ISO 27001 (standard). It is a good experience to be involved in any level of PCI DSS compliance certification. The PCI DSS standard contains a list of fairly specific technical and organizational requirements for information security. Even for those who don’t work with cards, it is also very useful to just read the SAQ questionnaire (SAQ D questionnaire).

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Well, a project manager is a conductor of an IT project. Such a specialist is in contact with the client and his team, he actually does nothing, he just communicates. Is it so? Certainly not! Despite the relative ease of mastering this specialty, the work of a PM requires maximum dedication and extensive knowledge.

Just like a conductor – from the outside he is just waving a baton, but in fact he knows the part of each instrument thoroughly; the musicians feel this control and follow the conductor’s instructions exactly, who has no right to make mistakes.

And now let’s talk more specifically – what does the Project Manager do?

• Draws up the ToR.
• Manages the team.
• Predicts risks.
• Monitors deadlines.
• Makes reports.
• Communicates with clients throughout the project.

When a client comes to an IT company, PM manager should 100% understand the tasks set, and a good specialist will always offer the best solutions at the moment, dissuade from implementing some idea or vice versa. With the achievement of experience, it is PM who can turn an ordinary project into a real goldmine for the company by offering SEO, PPC, mobile application development and so on. As you understand, you need to know a lot here.

A project specialist is a bit of a SEO specialist, a bit of a marketer, layout designer and programmer. You have to understand what you are offering and know at least the basics in order to be able to offer the right information to the client.

Managing the team. In IT, it so happened that each specialist works independently. It is very difficult to synchronize the work of each person. Sometimes their work is not combined. It is impossible to say that some specialist did not do his job well. What does the Project Manager do here? He puts all these puzzles together, or rather makes sure that the specialists initially work in sync and do part of the same job.

Risk Forecasting. Sometimes a client wants something that can be very detrimental to the project, or his wishes are impossible to fulfill with the current budget. This is probably the most difficult technical part for Projekt. Here you need to take the current tasks and calculate how feasible it is and if it is worth doing at all + you need to make a convincing argument.

Deadline. IT specialists get their salary mostly based on hours worked. A PM’s salary depends on a project being closed on time. If the deadline is missed, the client will be dissatisfied, the money will not get to the IT company on time, the salary will be cut. It is the Project Manager’s job to motivate every specialist, to ask, to flatter, to swear in general any means to prevent breaking the deadline.

Reporting. All the work that happens on a project should be documented. This is necessary for both the IT company and the client. Writing frivolous notes in a notepad will not be possible. Here you need to be able to make this documentation in the right format.

Communication with the client. PM is a direct representative of the company who is constantly in touch with the client during working hours (sometimes after hours). Almost always an IT company allocates a specific time to communicate with customers, but in practice it is difficult to keep a clear regime. There are different clients – some are dissatisfied with the work done, some want to speed up the process and give their advice, sometimes clients even want to break off cooperation. It is the Project Manager who takes care of all this.

You should also take into account that a Project Manager’s earnings often depend on the timely delivery of projects and his knowledge of the language.

Drawing conclusions
Project Manager in IT is a specialist who controls the process of working on the project. First you need to listen to the tasks and desires of the client, then to bring them to the team of specialists. During the working process, you practically have to be a “babysitter” for each team member and the client himself, explaining where and how their money is spent.

To make a project a success, you need to initially correctly draw up the TOR and analyze all the risks. When everything goes upside down (this is most likely to happen), the Project Manager should gather the will in his fist and “finish” the tasks with a mighty punch.

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