Caution: Very long post!
I like my job, but I’m getting increasingly frustrated with the fact that I have no budget to spend on getting anything done, and there are a lot of things which need to get done.
Here’s some background on the situation – I am the IT Manager (and sole IT person) for a small business with about 10 employees; I’ve been here since November, although I took a leave of absence from May until August. The company has been in business for almost 10 years, and has gotten the vast majority of its systems second-hand, through liquidation auctions or some such thing. They’ve had several people in my position over that time, so the end result is that their technology infrastructure is a “Frankenstein’s monster” of various vendors and software, with little or no standardization.
SERVERS
Our network server runs Windows 2003 Enterprise edition, from a “Not for Resale” copy that looks like it’s one of those that you would get at Microsoft events (scarily, it says that it’s unlicensed on the CD, and I cannot find any documentation). The web server (our primary business model is online) runs the same, again marked “Promotional Sample Not for resale”. Instead of using Exchange for e-mail, we use a cheap-as-dirt basic POP3 account from a company called Intermedia (http://www.intermedia.net).
DESKTOPS
Every PC we have is a refurb machine from several years ago. There is no standardized vendor. We have three Compaqs, two IBMs, two Dell Precisions, and one ancient whitebox in the Warehouse. With the exception of the ancient machine, they all appear to be Pentium 4s, with about 512MB of RAM, and run Windows XP Professional (the ancient one has… I have no idea, probably a Pentium II, maybe 256MB RAM if it’s lucky, and runs Windows 2000 Pro).
NETWORK AND TELEPHONY
The network is a hodgepodge of various bits and pieces, cobbled together over the years. There are a multitude of small, 5-port Netgear switches in various parts of the office, which all go into a Linksys switch and a 3Com switch, I think for failover but I’m not sure (it’s a jumbled mess, with Cat5 cables hanging like weeds). We have both basic Cable and DSL for redundancy, and our phone system is provided by something called Bizfone, presumably because it was cheap (only about $200), although it actually works alright and with little to no administration required.
SOFTWARE
All the computers use Office 2000 Professional SR-1, although the only disc of it I can find looks to be a burned copy, so I have no idea if it’s legit or not. Our back-end management system is a swamp of Classic ASP spaghetti code, based off of an open-source system called Comersus. There are dozens of bugs that crop up, and since the system is over 1,000 ASP files, it’s nearly impossible to track them all down; I have to resort to the worst of the worst, making quick fixes on the live server, so my co-workers can do their job. A rewrite is in the works, because everyone in the office knows that it’s shoddy crap, but the story is that they’ve put up with it for 5 years so far, and on my end I want to make sure it’s at least working semi-efficiently so everyone can do their jobs while I work on version 2.
The big problem with all of this is that, in the end, I have no budget to improve anything. The owners are notoriously cheap in this regard – for example getting anti-virus software was dismissed if it would cost more than $50/PC (instead they said to install the free version of AVG, which technically speaking has a non-commercial license), and a third-party tool that would greatly increase our ability to manage our products and stay competitive was shot down for costing $1,000/month, with no discussion (i.e. Me: “It will cost about $1,000 a month, but–” Boss: “Too much.”).
I would really, really like to start standardizing how things are done, and avoid being stuck in the past with regards to technology, but I don’t know where to begin due to the fact that I have to do everything really cheap or (preferably) free, since I cannot get approval to spend money, or at the least any significant amount (I don’t have a figure for what constitutes a “significant amount”, but I’d say more than a couple hundred dollars, and even that would be pushing it). This is my first management-level position (although I admit it’s not much of one) and the first time I’m in charge of the whole organization’s IT operations, it’s just I feel like my hands are tied because I need to fix things, but I can’t requisition the resources necessary to fix it.
The two biggest problems I have to face are the lack of any license documentation, and the existing code in our ERP system:
The licenses frighten me the most, although management seems to be of “What are the chances someone will find out?” mentality, and actually think that everything is legit because they purchased it legit at an auction (of course, I can sell you an illegal copy of XP, and even though you legally paid for it, it’s still illegal). I know for a fact that we only have a one-processor SQL Server license, running on a two-processor Xeon system; my boss swears up and down that we’re legit, and said “We’re a [f-ing] small business; I already paid [Microsoft] $5,000!” when I mentioned it to him. He now will remind me every so often that we’re “completely legit” with the server, but to my knowledge we have never purchased a second processor license. I’m doubtful that we’d ever get audited or ratted out to the BSA, but I would not want to take the chance, even if it’s a slim one.
The code is not complex, but very convoluted and uses really poor programming. Also there’s the fact it’s essentially legacy, since it’s done in Classic ASP, with all the associated hackery of 1996-era ASP “applications”. There are several dozen include files, cryptic variable names, and the like strewn about a thousand or more files, so lots of copy/paste going on as well. I have been considering a rewrite with .NET, but I don’t even know if I can get the money to purchase Visual Studio. Also there’s the fact that staying with the Microsoft platform forces the eventual upgrade down the road, and knowing that management is loathe to spend money on software, getting off that road is something to consider as well – it would be more difficult to hit the ground running, but once it was done, it would be better longterm. So I am also evaluating using Java for the revamp, since it will run on our Windows servers, and all the “industry standard” tools are pretty much free.
I’ve begun looking at free/open source alternatives to common things we use or should use, in order to at least have a standard “software suite” for all our PCs, but I’ve never really delved too much into it (just some dabbling in my spare time) so I don’t know if it would make a compelling case to management. I also don’t know how to make them aware of the licensing issues, since as I’ve stated (several times already while writing this) they swear up and down it’s all legit – yet there’s no documentation as far as the licenses.
I wish things were not as bad as they are, but unfortunately that’s the hand fate has dealt me. I can’t ethically leave it alone since I can see on an almost daily basis how it’s screwing up our business and costing us money, so I *want* to fix it and set things right.
I know that some people here must be involved in a similar capacity with a small company – how do you manage to deal with having a lot of fixes needed, but no money available? Do you resort to open source software? For reasons I’d rather not go into, quitting and finding a new job isn’t an option.
