I Am Not Your Company’s Computer Guy
06 March 2010
If you were watching Saturday Night Live during the 1990s, you remember Jimmy Fallon’s hilarious sketches as “Nick Burns, Your Company’s Computer Guy.” If you weren’t watching or if you’d like a refresher, scroll down to where I’ve embedded an example from YouTube.
Nick Burns was the help desk guy from hell. He could help with your computer problems, but you had to pay the price of being insulted and made to feel stupid. After taking care of your difficulty, Nick would always finish by asking “Was that so hard?”
So why am I writing about Nick Burns today? Here’s why. I’m trying to differentiate what I do for my clients from what Nick does. Most people see the phrase “computer consultant” or “technology consultant” and they think of Nick, the guy from the help desk, the only one who knows how to keep the computers and the networks running smoothly. Maybe they think of someone with a kinder, gentler attitude than Nick’s, but they do think of someone who performs Nick’s role.
Well, that’s not me. Not only do I have a better attitude than Nick’s, I actually do something entirely different. I don’t man the help desk. I don’t configure the servers or run network cable. I don’t install Outlook and connect it to your email account. No, that’s not me.
What I do is to supply a role that’s missing in many small and medium businesses – informed executive oversight for the use and management of information technology. This is the CIO (Chief Information Officer) role or the I.T. Director role, and many smaller companies don’t have such a person in their executive line-up.
In fact, most smaller businesses have little in-house expertise in I.T. There’s no expert oversight, no viable process for defining requirements, and in the end no way for the company to know whether or not a software or hardware vendor has really delivered the best solution for the business.
Yet they’re probably right not to have that expertise in house. They don’t have enough need for a full-time executive devoted that. But that doesn’t mean that they have no need for the role to be performed occasionally. They do. So what usually happens is that it gets shunted off in a direction that’s not optimal for the company.
Here’s how it often unfolds. The company’s executives realize that they have a need. They think it’s for some software and/or hardware to help automate their business processes. They decide to find a vendor or vendors to fill the need.
To make the decision, the company turns to someone they trust but who isn’t really qualified. This is often their accountant (how do you think the original Big 8 accounting firms managed to grow and spin off consulting divisions?) or their computer guy. The accountant typically knows little about the field, and the computer guy, paradoxically, may know even less. Adept at the nuts and bolts operations, the computer guy usually has no experience in optimizing business processes and their automation or in managing relationships with large vendors. Or the company may appoint an executive or committee to choose a vendor to meet a particular technology need. In any case the choice is made somehow, and then they turn the entire project over to the vendor.
This approach is gambling pure and simple. Sometimes the vendor will be willing and able to devote enough resources to find out exactly what the company really needs and to provide it. In other cases (and I’ve seen them, believe me) the vendor just puts in their standard product, assumes it’s going to do the right job, provides a little training, and walks out the door.
What’s missing is informed executive oversight, oversight of the requirements definition process, oversight of the vendor selection process, oversight of the project itself to make sure that the vendor delivers. This is the CIO role, and it can only be provided by someone who understands both the business and the technology. You can’t have one and not the other.
I supply that missing link. As a part-time, consulting CIO, I manage the requirements gathering, vendor selection, and vendor relationship processes. I also give advice on effective use of technology like accounting systems, marketing systems, online marketing campaigns, online customer relationship management, website utilization, and related fields.
And that’s why I am not your company’s computer guy. But I may be its part-time CIO.
As promised, here’s Jimmy Fallon as “Nick Burns, Your Company’s Computer Guy”:
Part One
Part Two
Great post, I haven’t had a laugh like that in a long time, that Nick has always made me laugh. I find it very interesting that the IT guy (computer guy) doesn’t know about the programs and software. If they don’t know about these things why are they in the IT department? You shouldn’t have to have two separate guys to do this kind of job.
I agree with your reader that left a comment about not needing two guys to do these jobs. If you are looking to hire someone that does both make sure you ask the right questions when interviewing. If you have someone that knows the software they should be the helpdesk guy as well. I don’t think I ever watched SNL when this guy was on so thank you for sharing that video it was hilarious.
Sticking to your area of expertise will ensure that you get maximum value from the people who are working for you. They will be able to get to the problem and solve it quicker and ensure that the correct things are been amended.
Speaking of Jimmy Falon, I am looking forward to seeing his late night talk show all throughout this week because the show has relocated to broadcast from Indianapolis during Super Bowl week. I always enjoy the craziness of media day which I think takes place on Tuesday or Wednesday of Super Bowl Week. He is also doing s Subway promotion where they are accepting people’s video submissions so long as they show you tossing a sub to a friend in front of a well known location that represents your state.
Jimmy is funny in these skits, but he turn controversial trying to be funny recently when a controversial song was performed by the Roots as Michelle Bachman took the stage. The song begins with a distinctive “la la la la la la la la la” refrain — the only words that were audible before Bachmann, smiling and waving to the audience, sat down for her interview. The song itself, about a relationship gone wrong, isn’t political, but it repeats the refrain “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” about a dozen times.
I passed out last night earlier than usual. So I missed Late Night With Jimmy Fallon who I understand is broadcasting from Indianapolis, site of this year’s Super Bowl. Oh well, I guess I will catch up with it by watching the footage on his web site. I will certainly not miss tonight’s show because Tuesday is media day and it can get pretty interesting as the media from all over the world gathers to ask all sorts of inane questions.
I was reading your blog and on a side note I thought I would ask you about using the video clips from SNL, I have been reading blogs about how important it is to your web site to have pictures and videos so I was trying to update my site but like you I wanted to use a clip from something else, do you have to obtain permission to do that?
I had fallen asleep early on Monday and Tuesday thinking I had missed Jimmy Fallon’s late night talk show from the Super Bowl in Indianapolis, only to find out last night that Wednesday’s show was the first telecast from the Super Bowl. They will continue broadcasting from there till Friday. Anyway, the show was very entertaining last night and they featured an appearance from none other than Tim Tebow. I look forward to the next two shows and of course, the game on Sunday.
Jimmy Falon was certainly funny in those circa 1990 Saturday Night Live skits, and he has remarkably remaind relevant and funny two decades later. I love to watch his late night talk show. And it is pretty entertaining this week in particular because he is hosting the show from Indianapolis from the site of the Super Bowl. I really like when entertainers center their show or comedy skits around the relevant news of the day. Maybe that is why he remains relevant.
Now that we are discussing hilarious Jimmy Fallon comedy routines, I should point out that Nick Burns the resident computer geek was only the beginning of Fallon’s comedic channeling of characters. Most recently, he conjured up a character which is essentially David Bowe as his alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, on stage with a guitar singing a rendition of a famous song but dubbed as a tribute to Denver Broncos quarterback, Tim Tebow. I was more entertained by the outfit than the song.