My name is Phil Scanlan. I work for a conferencing center. I manage 400 or so computers. Some of those computers are for public usage. Those public machines use a special system I designed that ensures security while at the same time providing ease of use and no discomfort for the customer. The remaining computers are used by the 200 or so users who handle all the registrations and event coordination and hotel/food accommodations. Those computers are also secured and managed by using automation systems I designed.
 
The network is Novell based, the workstations are all Microsoft XP SP2. Most of what I do is to find clever ways to build automation systems for management, and then implement those systems in a seamless/invisible manner. I’ve been doing this for about 15 years now, and very much love the problem-solving aspect of what I do. What I believe differentiates me from most of my IT counter-parts is that I include the “soft side” as part of the puzzle that needs to be solved. Bear with me so I can describe what I mean.
 
We’ve recently become a part of a massive integration effort to align previously separate divisions into a single database architecture. That architecture was decided to be Active Directory/Exchange. So we were “forced” to make these moves (from non-domain to domain, and from Sendmail/Eudora to Exchange/Outlook), to become part of a bigger, more integrated, whole. All the other divisions ended up doing the Outlook conversion manually, with IT members literally going machine to machine. It took hours at a time and there was tremendous down-time for the user. Basically from the customer’s standpoint it was a torturous process. By contrast, the solution I came up with (for AD first, and then Outlook) was entirely automated and produced virtually zero downtime (as is ultimately my standard). The big difference in what I do is that I not only create the automations so that they work from a technical standpoint, I also create them with all the aesthetic/experience variables in mind. The “how this will work” is coupled with the “how this will look to the user”.
 
By including the “soft” variables, the overall complexity of the system increases dramatically, which I like because it creates a more interesting problem. But beyond that, the users and customers like it. I know that IT is usually very antagonistic to the idea of supporting users and often there’s a lot of bad blood between the IT perspective and business perspective. Ultimately, the main interest of IT is to provide some sort of beneficial service to people. Implementing those beneficial services in a seamless manner I believe to be the new standard of professionalism in the field. When you flick the switch, the light should turn on, and it should always be as easy as flicking a switch.
 
In addition to the above, I also have a strong background in website design (Joomla-based), project management (more out of  frightened necessity than anything), and information design (from how information is communicated in major projects to ensure buy-in from all shareholders, to how information is tracked in a Footprints system).

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