Astro Shapes Information Technology Blog

Software piracy and compliance issues are very important and can be costly. We need to stay vigilant and make sure our company legally owns the software products we have in house. If you don't have an auditing procedure in place, you should think about one now. When you get the letter from the software police...it's to late and it won't matter if your company is actually guilty or innocent of copyright infringement. Your company will be adding an additional account to your company's A/P and writing a check out to some legal entity, if you are not prepared. Continue reading "How's Those Software Audits Going?"

As a former developer that has developed windows applications, as well as n-tier web-based solutions of the LAMP variety...whenever a new application needs to be developed, I naturally gravitate towards the n-tier web-based scenario for a multitude of reasons. Nine times out of ten, we come up with a good web-based solution, but not this time. Here's the scenario...I need to scan bar codes on metal drums filled with 25-50 gallons of liquid paint, in a storage facility that holds over seven hundred 50 gallon drums, in plant with hundreds of thousands of pounds of aluminum extrusions everywhere...and be wireless! Continue reading "When Web-Based Isn't The Way To Go..."

As technology changes, we need to constantly re-evaluate our policies governing technology in our company. I recently had to review ours and thought that this may be a good subject to throw around for evaluation and collaborative ideas. One thing that I thought was interesting...over the last decade I had seen the policy morph from 'Computer Usage Policy' to 'Electronic Communications Policy'. Thinking back on all the changes in technology over the years, this makes perfect sense...nearly all forms of communications today has a digital facet to it. Continue reading "Forming a Good ECP (Electronic Communications Policy)"

I can't count how may times I walked into Best Buy and seen that orange and black sign, and said to my self..."I will never hire one of these people", or thought that if any of these employees really wanted to be an I.T. professional, that rose higher than their cubical, how crippled they might be with the label of "geek".

Taking the stereotypical definition of "geek" and applying it to the "Geek Squad" or any other self proclaimed "geek"...a CEO would have to ask himself "Do I want this person responsible for melding my I.T. infrastructure with my business and interacting with my customers...or do I want a professional that knows technology?"

I would pick the later, myself... Continue reading "If you don't want to be an I.T. professional...be a geek."

The MBO philosophy (by Peter Drucker) has been used in many other organizations and businesses other than I.T. organizations, and probably before I.T. did. I believe it is the most beneficial model of managing an I.T. department. MBO doesn't micro-manage ... it empowers and develops staff. Here's the formal definition...

MBO - Management by objectives (MBO) is a systematic and organized approach that allows management to focus on achievable goals and to attain the best possible results from available resources. It aims to increase organizational performance by aligning goals and subordinate objectives throughout the organization. Ideally, employees get strong input to identify their objectives, time lines for completion, etc. MBO includes ongoing tracking and feedback in the process to reach objectives.

Continue reading "I.T. and MBO (Management By Objective)"