[Discuss] core competency

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

2a. Outsourcing because you cannot hire anyone competent. Example is my
son-in-law's previous employer. He quit, moved to Buffalo to take a
pretty good job with the Federal Public Defender's office. But, his
company has been unable to hire anyone competent to take his place. In
this case this is a Windows shop. In any case, he is able to support
them after hours.

On 01/24/2013 08:58 AM, Grant M. wrote:
> So I've only read the most recent posts, but I think there are two different
> ways of looking at this:
> 1. Outsourcing to save money (this seems to be the most common)
> 2. Outsourcing for expertise.
>
>    We actually do the latter, and often interact with the former. The painful
> part of the process is dealing with incompetence due to outsourcing. This is a
> widespread issue in IT, and I think is actually hurting big business. We often
> come across customers that have outsourced their IT and those outsourced people
> don't even understand the simplest of technologies. Depending upon the company
> it can take years for them to realize their mistake. You get what you pay for.
>    We sell a different level of support, based mostly around our products and
> market space (Advertising & Print). I can't remember the last time I encountered
> a tech with a higher level of experience than what is available here. For our
> customers they tend to defer to us for the complicated answers. Customers will
> pay for it, but we do find ourselves arguing the point often enough, just not
> with the folks that count (typically bean-counters).
>    So you do get what you pay for. Much of outsourced IT is built around Windows
> Desktop Support with a bit of Windows server support. Paying more and getting
> more, you may get a reasonably skilled MIS/Enterprise IT support that will be
> well versed in Microsoft products, networking, and perhaps some SAN/NAS
> products. However my experience is that *NIX skills (includes Solaris, HPUX, AIX
> and Linux) is something you actually need to pay a premium for. Often there are
> in-house admins, and higher-level systems engineers get contracted for projects.
> So day-to-day administration is always available, but complicated projects or
> issues that directly affect the bottom-line get either T&M resources or contract
> experts applied.
>
> Last point: GOOD Linux system engineers are very difficult to come by. Competant
> Linux admins are out there, but it's not always easy to tell them from mediocre
> Linux admins. Tinkerers calling themselves admins, and admins calling themselves
> engineers are far too common.
>
> Grant M.


-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
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