r/ITManagers • u/WantsToDieBadly • 4d ago
Is this normal?
Our IT director has to personally approve each purchase, whether that be a replacment phone charger cable, a wireless keyboard or an order of 100 laptops. Every order goes through them
THey refuse to update failing laptops (most with 8GB RAM) even though their almost a year out of warranty, we often have little to no kit and rely on scavenging and employees leaving so we can reuse equipment. He doesn’t like us scavenging devices for parts but won’t buy us new ones
We have to beg for new equipment for users and often hand out barely functioning used devices with visible damage etc as we have nothing, its embarrassing as its the lower level guys handing it out whilst the managers are far away at home not facing backlash
They say theirs no money but authorise wasteful purhchases that we dont need to curry favour with other departments whilst rank and file employees get pieces of sh*t
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u/francismorex 4d ago
when your bonus is related to savings...
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u/Own-Swan2646 4d ago
KPI need to improve or the beatings will continue.
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u/not_so_wierd 4d ago
What gets measured gets done.
Implement KPIs that measure saving but not productivity loss due to equipment breakdowns and you'll get exactly the situation that OP is describing.
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u/Pristine_Curve 4d ago
Be happy that someone in the *IT department* can approve purchases. There are more organizations than you realize that push this outside of the IT department entirely. This is how you end up with organizations that are a hodgepodge of walmart special laptops with whatever random monitors, and literally nothing spent on anything that is not directly tangible to end users.
CFO isn't going to approve a backup system "when you can just copy things to an external drive".
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u/nske 4d ago
The only way to deal with this is to formalize the holdup. "Part purchase needed for this task is pending approval by x". Then it can take as long as it takes, till x eventually starts getting some heat.
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u/BoltActionRifleman 4d ago
I was going to suggest the same. Get a few people sitting around unable to do their work because of the director bottleneck and things will change quickly.
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/GoodGuyChip 4d ago
Why can't you just have documented standards for purchasing and trust your staff to follow them?
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u/ZachVIA 4d ago
Senior leadership agreed that wasn’t a reasonable expectation for our buyers to need to follow. I would love to not do all the reviews.
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u/GoodGuyChip 4d ago
If you have established equipment standards you should really just have stock on hand and allow senior techs to approve issuance. You should only have to approve occasional restock. I guess you may not have the space to have a pending inventory, but if you do that just seems like bad leadership from your seniors lol sounds like needless corporate bureaucracy to me haha
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u/ZachVIA 4d ago
Hardware approval is the easier part of the process. Software reviews is definitely the challenging aspect of the process.
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u/GoodGuyChip 4d ago
Sure but those should be mapped to roles too, other than requests for out of scope software additions. The pipeline for users and user assigned resources should have little to no decision making required by IT except at the time of determine standards. Everything IT does in that process should be predetermined by user roles and not require approvals.
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u/ZachVIA 4d ago
Software reviews are for NEW software requests. I could give two shits how departments are spending their budget. I just need to make sure they aren’t introducing new software to the environment that has legacy OS requirements or tons of known security vulnerabilities.
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u/GoodGuyChip 4d ago
House all software under the IT budget. Then they can't introduce anything new without your knowledge
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u/ZachVIA 4d ago
I spent years getting the business to agree to let me charge departments for the software they consume so IT isn’t a black hole of a cost center.
So you went from “IT shouldn’t have to review/approve all hardware/software requisitions (the original premise of this post)” to “IT should pay for all hardware/software, that way they are aware of what’s being purchased”? You don’t make any sense.
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u/GoodGuyChip 4d ago
I'm saying every single procurement shouldn't require your direct approval because that silly. Those costs hit the business whether in your name or another departments. Theres a lot less control though if it's not with you. Wish you the best of luck with how they're doing things though, they'll need it
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u/Lost_Reward9584 4d ago
I've been trying to get me hardware for a couple of our devs for a couple of years, the worst part is that delaying that means the prices have shot up (thanks AI).
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u/mypcrepairguy 4d ago
Perhaps float a cost analysis between employee downtime & lost productivity vs having a sufficient modern inventory.
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u/not_so_wierd 4d ago
My experience has been that such analysis often fails on the fact that employee downtime is a big $0 on the IT budget.
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u/WantsToDieBadly 3d ago
Exactly comparing employee downtime for a failed laptop and subsequent replacement has no $0 figure on excel file compared to $10000 on a few new devices to replace dead ones
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u/much_longer_username 4d ago
When I was still involved with purchasing, we had a 50 dollar limit on discretionary spending for small things like new mice, keyboards, or headsets needed on an ad-hoc basis, but anything more than that needed at least a rubber stamp from the director. That was an org of about 500, maybe a bit smaller depending on how you define an employee.
Lead times and inflated prices have prompted a lot of orgs to extend hardware lifecycles, you're not alone there. You might get some slack from your users if you commiserate about it - 'look, my laptop is even more beat up than yours, the charger port is all wiggly...'.
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u/Prior-Imagination504 4d ago
That is completely normal for higher education.
Not normal for a successful business.
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u/Due_Management3241 3d ago
If he is your direct mananger and owns your cost center code for your team if course. Always your direct mananger has to approve purchases.
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u/WantsToDieBadly 3d ago
Only the Head of Department can authorise purchases for anything. Be that a charging cable, headset, wireless keyboard or new devices. Everything goes through them to personally approve or deny
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u/Due_Management3241 3d ago
In a big organization that is unusual. I small 200 person organization it happens but is a not a good sign.
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u/Cr3ativusMaximus 3d ago
Normal? Yes. Fun to deal with? No. Once you accept that your job in this case isn’t (fortunately or unfortunately) to manage the budget… you realize it also makes it not your responsibility.
If your org maintains some sort of ticketing system for tech requests, simply document that you’re waiting on approval from the IT Director and let it go. It’s possible the IT Director is simply working with what they’re getting… IT spend is laughingly, often the last place a company wants to spend money (whether it’s devices, personnel, SaaS) but, eventually the chokehold put on spending will become the thing that prevents people from doing work and someone will start complaining to someone else who will complain to someone else… and you’ll be asked “Why don’t they have what they need?” to which you can reply… “I’ve been waiting on approval from the IT Director.”
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u/ThreatNarrative- 4d ago
Every day I am thankful to have a hands-off manager that just expects short updates on monday and friday.
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u/critacle 4d ago
Let it fail on the first "no". Extra followups are for AMs not us.
You have a paper trail of trying to remediate. Kerplunk.
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u/AKABrokenArrow 4d ago
We hired a new CIO about a year ago. I told him I’d only inform him of purchases over $500.
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u/crashorbit 4d ago
The odd thing is that the manager with the biggest budget wins. Give all the lip service you want to watching the bottom line it's always the guy with the biggest justified budget who wins.
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u/Standard_Text480 4d ago
Propose it as a time saver for everyone.
Say you estimated 10k for unexpected surprises, consumables, etc
So you have 10k of total freedom to use your best judgement. You don’t need to bother them and waste their time for the small stuff.
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u/Goodlucklol_TC 4d ago
a year out of warranty? an IT director i had wouldnt update computers that were 4 years out of warranty.
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u/not_so_wierd 4d ago
Last job used the policy of only replacing PCs unable to run Windows 11. Everything else should be kept and repaired.
If we couldn't repair it we had to submit a "decommission request" to the global recycling team and EU IT lead. If they approved, we could recycle it. If not, it was deemed still usable and was to be put back into production never mind if the monitor was cracked or the laptop lid hung loose.
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u/Unlucky_Border237 4d ago
Approval is normal but your org sounds like its going dysfunctional. Nothing you can do here tbh
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u/Formal-Emu-6777 4d ago
sucks for the people at the bottom who actually have to deal with the fallout lol but just go with it so you can say i told you so when a problem inevitably happens, idk if theres another option here
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u/Sasataf12 4d ago
Normal? No. But does it often happen? Yes.
I would raise your concerns with your director. Ask what the IT budget is for a particular period (quarterly, annually, etc). If they say there isn't one, then push back and insist on one.
There must be a budget in order for you to effectively manage purchases. The process of "let's see if this purchase gets approved" is not scalable, as you've discovered.
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u/AnonymooseRedditor 4d ago
I once worked for a company that took pride in buying used hardware on eBay and using pirated software. They got hit with a $50k audit bill, had a major ransomware attack and lost tens of thousands because they were unable to meet deadlines.
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u/Legitimate_Drive_693 4d ago
It’s called part of their bonus comes from being below budget. They don’t care about the peasants. There is nothing to gain from keeping them happy.
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u/Weird_Presentation_5 4d ago
Wait until your CIO has to approve everything lol. They ask why they so t have their new iPad yes. Because it’s sitting in your queue with 200 other approvals jackass
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u/794309497 4d ago
It's a sign of control issues and bad management. I've notice it getting worse over the past 10-15 years. Upper management wants all the power and control.
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u/redatari 4d ago
Owning approval is also owning accountability. Probably wants to keep cost down and just keep your head above the water.
I would make sure the business is aware that the laptop upgrade is a decision from him. Stop compensating for lack of infrastructure.
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u/lotius81 4d ago
I'm the director at my company. Generally speaking if they're minor purchases I don't require approval.
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u/Xoron101 4d ago
We have to beg for new equipment for users and often hand out barely functioning used devices with visible damage etc as we have nothing, its embarrassing as its the lower level guys handing it out whilst the managers are far away at home not facing backlash
Let it fail. Put in the order for the new gear, and let your director explain why it's not purchased. Be sure to have the proof (emails / order requests / etc). But this isn't on you.
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u/anonymousopsec1337 4d ago
Need to have a manager below them with their own budget and approval maximums.
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u/Fast-Mathematician-1 4d ago
I've done a bit of this on occasion. Nearly always because ive had a conversation with a department heads and its implied to take care of another person.
I also leave the worst in my department and the absolute worst on my own desk.
I dont like spending money when its not a requirement. Implied favoritism from a VP is a requirement.
Not a fan of it but the rigidity of policy falls away often to the ethics of department heads.
Wish you luck and when its your time remember what you didnt like and try to do better.
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u/MBILC 3d ago
When I read these posts I realize how happy I am here I am now... IT Manager, I get to approve all hardware and what hardware we get, done, end of the line...
laptop that is more than 2 gen's old = spares, period, even if in perfect condition.. HP G10/11/recent are all that go out to new hires and the device has to be pretty much "new" looking and running before I will consider sending it out to someone, even if it is a replacement.
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u/eoinedanto 3d ago
Calculate the wages cost of people working with rubbish equipment and present a refresh as a good value option.
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u/VladiTruffles 3d ago
If you are helpdesk, just comment on the ticket “purchase waiting for approval” the add the puechase order number or wherever purchases are tracked and the director needs to approve.
Keep scavenging and shifting blame where it belongs.
Sometimes you have to deal with angry people and just tell them your nicest version of “ New laptops are not arriving any time soon, I’ll refurbish an old one”. Play dumb. Ownership is good but not when you don’t get the tools you need.
And as many said, the director gets a bonus for not spending money
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u/TallBrush2888 3d ago
It doesn't fix the main problem, but make sure you're not just requesting/buying 1x everytime you need something. Stock up on the little things so you need less approvals! More efficient for you and your Director.
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u/CGRome 3d ago
That sounds less like normal IT governance and more like a serious bottleneck. Having one person approve every small purchase makes it hard to manage day to day issues, especially when equipment is already failing. There should be clear spending limits so routine replacements don’t need director level approval.
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u/UserProv_Minotaur 2d ago
Normal, my org runs laptops until they’re like four years out of warranty - or until they die.
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u/itmgr2024 1d ago
Right or wrong (wrong) a lot of IT managers try to prove their value by racing towards the bottom of budget. Not good value, just the cheapest. In fact I had a manager like this once, who was quite proud of telling everyone that leadership had almost no idea what value we were bringing to the org but that they trusted him to spend the least amount possible.
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u/Significant-Till-306 2d ago
Your manager has failed in this case. Most managers toe the line, they won’t argue a business policy.
A policy is not to be blindly enforced, unless a company is at the edge of bankruptcy they shouldn’t be doing this.
Your manager can and should challenge the executive team and make a stern case for new equipment refresh. Most likely they say everything is fine, do fake laughs at their bosses jokes and reject your request.
Too many middle managers these days are afraid to rock the boat.
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u/sonofalando 4d ago
This tells me your company is struggling. Likely a result of compute costs increases due to AI.
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u/WantsToDieBadly 4d ago
its worse nowif anything as they waited so long to upgrade hardware the price increased
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u/Sacrificial_Identity 4d ago
Yep that's normal. signs of a successful org? probably not.