Regain Control of the IT Department

Widgets KK is a company that has been established in Japan for 11 years, and 28 staff are employed at its office in Shibuya.

Being part of a global organisation, Widgets KK is supported by its US HQ. The IT team in the US sets the IT strategy, supplies a global software build for PCs, supports switches and routers via remote access, and provides the email service and Internet access to the Tokyo office.

Tanaka-san is the full-time IT manager providing support to the local office. Tanaka-san had been fulfilling this role for five years - long enough for staff to become used to Tanaka's unhelpful attitude.

Over time, as Tanaka-san become less available and more difficult to work with, staff generally tried to fix problems themselves rather than approach him.

Furthermore, when Tanaka-san was away there was no cover for the crucial systems required to run the company.

The IT situation became critical when a new Sales Director, Sato-san, joined the company.

Sato-san set to work, and within 3 months, he had developed new business processes to improve efficiency and save the company money.  Part of this strategy was the creation of several new IT systems, which would mean more work for Tanaka-san. 

Predictably, Tanaka-san resisted the changes, and refused to co-operate.

Staff could tolerate Tanaka-san’s unhelpful personality but now his negative attitude was holding the business back.

When management realised this, the pressure on Tanaka-san to co-operate increased, but Tanaka-san's resistance increased proportionately.

After talking with IT at Company HQ the Japan Directors slowly became aware that the only person with the passwords to applications and the server's administrator account was Tanaka-san. The Japan directors instructued Tanaka-san to provide all the passwords to the systems.  Tanaka-san refused on grounds of IT security.

The business was becoming increasingly vulnerable, and the more pressure was put on Tanaka-san to reveal the passwords and assist with the business improvements, the more obstructive he became.

Ultimately Webnet IT was able to work with Widgets KK's American HQ to get control of the systems and arrange new procedures to prevent this happening again.

After completing this project with the help of Webnet IT, and receiving advice from us on how to avoid the same situation in the future, Widgets KK concluded the following :

• An IT department with one member, no peers and no documentation is not a suitable long-term arrangement.
• A highly skilled individual in this position is likely to become frustrated with the repetitive workload and will look for new challenges, leaving his employer unsupported. If the individual lacks skills, she/he may become defensive and difficult to motivate, leaving the employer equally vulnerable and unsupported.
• An HQ support service can fulfill many requirements, and an external consultancy or contractor can efficiently fulfill local support needs.
• A support contract from an IT Services company is an effective way to save money, control costs, and erradicate such HR problems such as the company having no support when the IT Manager is on holiday
• Passwords should be stored in a locked cabinet within the office and made available to directors.
• A copy of the passwords should be stored with other critical documents as part of a DR plan.

For information on how Webnet IT may be able to help you with complicated internal IT issues, please contact us.

Note : This Case Study is based on a real situation, but the names are fictional.