Research highlights the biggest frustrations in Australian IT departments
Around six in ten Australian IT admins are frustrated by unexpected network issues in the workplace, and just over one third feel underappreciated. That's according to Paessler, the network monitoring company, which compared and contrasted the views and opinions of 2,000 IT administrators across the world.
While 59 per cent of Australian IT staff were frustrated by something in the network going wrong unexpectedly, only 49 per cent of Dutch managers felt the same frustration. Both markets compare favourably to those in the US, where 68 per cent of IT administrators were frustrated by unexpected network problems.
More than one in three (34 per cent) of Australian IT staff say they feel there is a lack of understanding and appreciation for what they do. This compares to 29 per cent of IT administrators in Germany, 26 per cent in the US and 23 per cent in France. This frustration was most prominent among IT admins in the UK, at 46 per cent.
End users reporting problems before IT knows about them was the second most stated frustration for IT admins at work, with more than half (52 per cent) of Australian IT staff stating this. This was less of a frustration for their French and Dutch counterparts, at 45 per cent.
"Information technology sits at the heart of the modern business, underpinning everything from production and back-office functions to customer interactions and order fulfilment," says Paessler director of sales operations George Wilson.
"Operating without IT would be like operating without electricity. IT used to be firmly under the direction and control of a business's IT department, but increasingly this is no longer the case. Trends such as BYOD, SaaS and cloud storage are allowing staff to source and use their own resources independently of the IT department.
"This survey suggests that Australian IT staff are feeling a sense of vulnerability with issues potentially originating from the users themselves, many no doubt due to human error. At the same time, there really does appear to be little appreciation for the work that IT staff do for their business.
"The IT administrator's role is only really made apparent when something goes wrong. Indeed, tasked with deploying and managing hardware and software, the traditional view still holds that the IT department is not a group that can provide strategic vision and advice.
"This situation needs to change if organisations want to thrive. Rather than being predominantly labelled as a cost centre or reactive service provider, the IT department must be given the opportunity to become more innovative, and as a result, better positioned to take the lead role in digital transformation projects. Maybe then we will see frustrations dissipate among IT, administrators.
The survey also pointed to the lucky ones: 14 per cent of Australian and UK IT staff claimed to have no frustrations at work, referencing a reliable monitoring solution as the reason for this. Austrian and Dutch staff were most likely to say they had no frustrations due to their monitoring software (38 and 33 per cent respectively).
