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The functional impact of a server admin

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by the admiral 2 views

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I had been notified that our server administrator may be on the chopping block in a random act of stupidity.

Now - since he is the one who knows multiple systems that do different things - what impact would there be on the enterprise as a whole if the person was whacked - what what justification would you put in for him if you really don't want this guy to disappear?

5 replies

by j.lupo

First, Hi Admiral. I haven't seen you for a while and I am glad to see you on TR again.

Second, I don't know much about the reasons or the situation as to why the person would be termed, but my suggestion would be to do a performance review quickly.

You need to show how the person adds value, the knowledge loss that would affect the company (in terms of $$ and Cents.

If you can show how letting this person go would be detrimental to the company (bottom line $$, lost revenue, lost customers, etc) then you have just justified keeping them.

by the admiral

Hey - Been busier than a one armed paper hanger - sorry folks!

Your right - since most companies are going from a human resource to a dollar resource in their justification, that would make it a bit easier. The problem that many people would have is that HR is one of those "If they don't need to know - then they don't get told - We are the keeper of the key" type of groups. So it is hard to pull figures to find out how much they would loose without deep diving.

by hal 9000

You can justify it in [b]Downtime and Lost Production.[/b]

Make a Best Guess for the worst possible scenario and see who is capable of getting all the systems up & running properly in the shortest time. This may even involve calling in [b]Outside Consultants[/b] depending on the business and you should be able to find out their costs easily, just rely on [b]Security Specialists[/b] as the [b]Cost per Hour[/b] here that figure should be easily obtainable and you can point out at the same time that it will take an outsider or new person longer to become acquainted with the way that the system works so you can at best only [b]Estimate Down Time![/b]

Forward this on to the CEO or whoever depending on who is responsible for keeping the [b]Bottom Line Intact[/b] and that should do the trick and allow you to bypass HR totally.

Col

by j.lupo

from a functional perspective. What events can occur if the guy is not there? Now what will it take to fix those events. What costs? What type of man power? What special skills?

Try to list it all out and assign (guestimate) figures and then double those numbers. Include lost productivity, downtime, skillsets, # users affected, vendors, customers, and so on.

I am sure we could build quite a large list of issues that would be influenced by your Net Admin being gone. Think in terms also of what the guy does currently and how you/your department/etc are affected/benefited/etc.

Again, highlight the pros and cons. With cons make sure to tack on the $$$ (guestimate) that will cost the company.

This is the only thing I can think of that would get the person kept. Oh and is he working on any critical projects right now that would go "red" if he wasn't there. That's another one.

by dmambo

If he's being cut for work habits, then you might not get too far, but have a better chance of getting a replacement. If it's general cost cutting, then it might be a tough sell.

Come up with some costs for using an outside vendor for doing his work. When you look at vendor rates, it often makes it easier to justify the salary.

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