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IT Staffing Models

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by nelson.abel

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I work in municipal goverment agency of about 160 people spread over 20 locations within the same city. My agency is re-assessing its IT staffing structure,in response to increased budgetary pressures. At present, our IT Support Functions (Help Desk, IntraNetSite Maintenance, database management, server operations) is completely outsourced.

Are there any "rules of thumb" or other simpified models that a (non-technical) manager for an organization can apply to estimate what its optimal (or perhaps minimal)level of IT support staffing should be? Any suggestions or guidence would be appreciated

Thank you.

3 replies

by jose mir

Outsourcing is one way to lower the operating cost in that aspects in wich the organization is not an expert internal provider!
That means that if one company must buy IT support from an external provider instead of an internal one (like it's own IT department) then it's clear that IT support is not the primary product the company produces.
Lowering the operative costs is very important.
If the mission of the organization is other than "having the optimun internal IT department regardless it's cost" then the Outsourcing must be deeply considered. BUT: This Outsourcing fever MUST NOT compromise the real mission of the organization (because I'm sure that in your organization's mission statement you won't find "lowering the IT budget regardless any other organization's objetives").
You may outsource the services to external service providers, but you must have internal (or at least neutral) IT expert guidance. Otherwise you WILL not obtain the best service, and you will not give it to your owns customers (and I'm sure you will spend many many many more dollars!).

Jose P. Mir.-

by nelson.abel

Thanks for your reply Mr. Mir. I didn't however really address my question: If you were staffing your own IT shop (as described in my earlier posting),how many positions would you desire to staff it. Are there any industry rules of thumb/rough standards to estimate your minimal staffing level?

by jose mir

160 Users is a small number, but 20 locations is not!
I realy don't know about general rules for calculating the number of support staff based on the number of users.
The "support" needed depends on the technology you are using. The newer the technology the fewer technicians.
If your system is adecuated to the use yor organizations gives to it you should not need more than 6 to 9 technicians. 1 or 2 for Comunications (lines, routers, cabling, groupware software, etc.), 2 or 3 for hardware and base software (operative system, general utilities, printers, accesories, UPSs, etc.), and 3 or 4 for systems designing, implementation and support.
i don't know what kind of system you have. If you could give more info I could give you a better idea. If you don't want to share this info in a public forum you could send me a mail to jpm@jpmir.net. I have worked with large systems for many years and can give you a detailed idea.

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