Fud Buster Friday #27 - Administrators are Expenses

If you were offered a Ferrari for a one year lease with the stipulation you had to pay for gas and insurance and any repairs or maintenance, would you still do it?
I see.
Those of you out there that said yes, you are the Fortune 50 companies of the world.
Everyone that said no, you are every other company.

I chose this, aside from being most people's dream cars(mine is still a Corvette AND I owned a 1962)it is representative of how we see the world from an IT window.

Now let's imagine instead of just leasing the Ferrari, you also got free maintenance with it? Now how many would do it? And what if that free maintenance included someone or something that would proactively record and analyze your habits to help with future driving or gas mileage? Now would you do it?

And so we come to the admins of the world. The picked on, hated/revered, always say NO people who are basically firemen/women who rarely get any respect let alone bonuses have been slaving away to keep your infrastructure flowing and prospering on the small budget you gave them.

You want to cut more corners, reduce expenses, yet have you (executive title person) ever once gone to your admins and asked what they can do to enhance usage, reduce bandwidth or expenses in any way shape or form? Even wondered how changing the way a process is accomplished could save you over $750,000, repeatedly, as I submitted for one client recently?

Your admins can make or break your business, future and finances so treat them with respect, encourage them, give them bonuses and then create a Lotus consulting team and go call a non competing company using Lotus Notes and ask if your team can manage their infrastructure.

What you say? I'm crazy? Who would do such a thing? Someone who trusts their staff, knows what they are doing and appreciates that they work 8-9 hours a day, 5 days a week(occasional off hours items may come up of course but in general..). Because with Lotus Domino you really don't need to work that hard, if your admins know what they are doing.

Your admins can and will save you money, but you never ask them do you?
PS - Developers can help too, but that is for another post.