Gray Areas

The intersection of IT and Business historically carries some ambiguity. When we're talking about spinning disks in the data center or codification of business rules, the responsibilities are generally and logically clear cut. But as we move closer to where IT infrastructure and Business applications meet, roles and responsibilities aren't always so distinct.



When we dichotomize functions and roles, it becomes increasingly difficult to find someone who has enough A-Z knowledge of any given application to provide intelligence for problem solving, upgrading or disaster recovery. To make matters even more challenging, many times the application analyst or coordinator is employed by the business unit, not IT.




Somewhere in the middle lies a realm of knowledge that I like to call application administration. An application administrator is the individual who knows enough about the application and about SQL server to know how table permissions can affect the application. Or that your pharmacy application uses a VPN setup to transmit claims data. Or a server service is required to be run under a specific account for call tickets to transfer to another help desk. And they have access to server permissions and change management processes to make things happen.

This level of application expertise can reside in a third individual or be delegated to each Subject Matter Expert (SME) in the continuum.


Because each application has it's own idiosyncrasies and knowledge requirements, the required intelligence and responsibility for it's usefulness could be individually negotiated between IT and the Business.


If you have some thoughts on distributing and managing these roles and responsibilities, shoot me a comment or email.

Higher Expectations

At Our Lady of Victory Hospital, we are expanding our wireless IP phone system. Our current system is a Unnamed Vendor [UV]-based setup with an interface to our Dukane Nurse Call. Except for the occasional blip at the [UV] gateway, it has worked well.

Fast forward to yesterday's experience with adding an additional gateway and more phones. It went poorly. The new phones worked, the old phones didn't. Then our implementation technician called for "support". After 15 minutes of being treated like an imbecile, [UV] support (now owned by Polycom, by the way, our enterprise video conferencing vendor) pulled the plug on the call stating our "free" support was up and it was now going to cost $200 per hour. They actually hung up the call.

Our implementation technician is not unintelligent and he understands our environment well so I can't understand [UV]'s treatment of his support call.

As life goes, I am also researching the value of a wireless IP implementation at Good Samaritan Health Center in Merrill. Unless [UV] comes through, comes through big, and comes through soon, it's not likely they will even be considered an option for Good Samaritan Health Center.

Apatheic support is not acceptable. I have higher expectations of my business partners.