Friday, December 13, 2024

Technicians Who Refuse to Learn - Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned Episode 9 - Technicians Who Refuse to Learn

For all the information, and an index of "Lessons Learned" episodes, go to the Lessons Learned Page. https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/p/lessons-learned-blog-series.html

-- -- -- 


Early on in my journey through the world of technology, I realized that there are people who only learn what they have to learn. Very often, they learn it well and they are very good - to a point. But the problem is, everything changes all the time! Those who refuse to learn the next big thing get themselves stuck at a point in time.

And time and time again, I've seen that these people become consultants. There is nothing worse than a consultant stuck in the past! Here are a few examples. These are more or less in chronological order.


Backups (of course)

In the last installment, I talked about backups, and how they are just as likely to fail as to succeed. This is true because of a little accepted rule that is absolutely true:

Backups don't fail unless technicians fail.

Related to this is an absurd, and widely held, belief that tape is unreliable. Tape technology basically never fails. Drop your favorite medium - BDR, hard drive, whatever - from the top of the Empire State Building into a puddle of water where it is instantly driven over by a delivery truck. ONE technology will contain easily recoverable data: The backup tape.

Tape is slow and generally cumbersome. It involves more mechanical dependencies than almost anything. But it is more reliable than any other medium ever.

I've seen time and time again that lazy or unqualified technicians want to sell a "set it and forget it" solution. By solution, they mean install it and walk away. It is often not the right choice for the client, not the right size, not set up properly, and not maintained. So it's not really the backup that failed. The backup didn't stand a chance.


SCSI Technology

The primary reason that many early backups failed is because the fastest, most reliable interface to the computer was SCSI - small computer system interface. SCSI required that technicians either 1) Understand a couple of layers of technology, or 2) Be willing to flip switches and move jumpers randomly out of sheer ignorance until you figure it out.

I don't know why, but SCSI technology was a major block for many technicians. When we say backups failed, it was often improperly configured SCSI controllers or devices. If you don't know what you're doing, it's easy to set up a system that "works" but is very fragile. 

And when it fails, the incompetent technician blames the controller or the tape.

Those folks then failed miserably when faced with five- and ten-drive arrays for large storage systems.  Or storage arrays plus early scanners and other SCSI devices. As SCSI form factors changed, they became easier to manage and harder to screw up. But lazy technicians never got better.

Note: I'm talking so bluntly because the majority of all the frustrations in my consulting business for the first five years was based on cleaning up after these incompetent technicians. And that was more than twenty years ago, so they either figured out how to learn new technology or left the industry. In either case, they shouldn't be offended.


Windows Versions

Some of my favorite stories about incompetent technicians involves those who fell in love with an old operating system. Here's another truth you can rely on: There will always be a new version of the operating system. We're never going to freeze development. And you can't freeze time. 

Early on, when I was using three major operating systems to run several companies, I committed myself to always learning the newest O.S. version. I believe deep in my hear that all those technicians who fell in love with an O.S. lost a lot of money because they and their clients clung to the past. In truth, the clients were hostages of the technician, whether they knew it or not.

And there's a related rule that made everything easier for us: We never sell hardware and software that are not matched in terms of version level. For example, I would not sell an AI-dependent software license today unless it was for an AI-enable computer. Installing old drivers on new machines, or disabling features because of a mis-match always leads to spending more time and more money down the road.

Great example: Many technicians (and I'll say it now . . . misguided, cheap, lazy technicians) avoided upgrading to Windows Vista. Why? Well, if you installed the new Vista O.S. on old hardware, it didn't always perform well. We never installed a new O.S. on old hardware. Ever. Period. As a result, we never had any issues of any kind with the Vista operating system. 

One time, I mentioned that I never had issues with Vista, one of my favorite Microsoft MVPs responded, "Well that's because you only install it on new hardware." Yup. That's exactly right. 

Falling in love with the out-going standard and avoiding the newest thing is always a mistake. Really. A perfect example is . . .


SBS - It's Dead, Fergoodnesssake. Let it go!

Microsoft Small Business Server is the second greatest software bundle in the history of the universe (the first is Microsoft Office). Many, many of us made an actual fortune selling various versions over the years. From SBS 2000 through SBS 2008, it was a great way to build a "total" on-site system for clients. 

But by 2008, the bundle was just too much for one physical server. Microsoft (and most technicians) had known this for a long time. Those who were tuned in saw the end coming years in advance. Unfortunately, way too many technicians refused to see it coming, refused to prepare for the demise, and even refused to stop selling it when it was obsolete.

In just coincidental timing, the housing marketing and financial markets crashed in October 2008. By the time the economy recovered, two things had happened: The release of SBS 2011, and the rapid adoption of cloud technology. Cloud was ready five years before, but consultants just refused to sell it to their clients until the recession forced many people to stop investing in hardware.

Anyway, SBS was long dead by the time SBS 2011 was released.

And yet, thousands of consultants spent the next ten years trying to find a "replacement." They refused to move on. The irony is, the cloud had already replaced every element with more reliable and secure options (except the onsite backup, which was replaced by BDR technology).


A Continuing Trend

I'll mention two more examples in passing because they represent an ongoing trend. The trend is leaving the industry rather than learn new things. The two examples are:

1. Active Directory. The first time I ever saw an voluntary exodus from IT consulting was in the fall of 1999 when Microsoft released Windows Server 2000, which incorporated Active Directory. Many technicians actually tried to see how far they could go without learning AD, the registry, or group policies. 

To be honest, many of them found themselves afraid of the technology for the first time. They hadn't educated themselves. They hadn't kept up. And they considered the learning curve too steep to climb. Ultimately, they gave up. And so, by the first anniversary of Server 2000, a lot of people had decided to take a job or leave IT consulting altogether.

It was painful cleaning up their messes, but it was good for the industry overall.

2. Cloud Services. I released the first edition of Managed Services in a Month in 2008 - and immediately starting moving all of our clients to the cloud. Starting in 2007, I spent five years trying to convince people to adopt cloud services as their primary offering. I got tired of preaching that message, so I focused on other messages for the next five years. 

During that period, more than one consultant said the following words to me, "I just refuse to learn another generation of technology." Well, I have to say, if you're burned out, leaving the industry is the best thing you can do. In that five year period, my best guess is that about 25% of all SMB IT consultants left the industry or retired altogether.

In 2017, I did a worldwide road show on cloud services - and it was successful. Even though the technology had been ready for a long time, the average consultant was now ready to embrace it.

You can hold off new technology for a little while, but it's like trying to stop the tide from rising. It not a battle you can win!

-- -- --

There are many more examples. Sadly, we see it all the time.

If you plan to be in this business twelve more months, then you are free to cruise on to the end without learning anything. But if you plan to be in business for two, or five, or ten more years, then you have to commit to the future. 

New technology will never stop coming. And with it come new opportunities. It's great to reach a plateau and and spend a year or two cashing in on your knowledge and experience. But then you need to re-educate, re-tool, and re-think your offerings. 

And if you're not at a profitable plateau where you can just sell and delivery the same solution for two years, that's okay. It just means you're in the re-tooling and re-thinking phase. Keep learn and you will keep growing.

-----

In the next episode: Doing Things the Right Way.

Subscribe to the blog so you don't miss a thing.

:-)


No comments:

Post a Comment

Feedback Welcome

Please note, however, that spam will be deleted, as will abusive posts.

Disagreements welcome!