Question

As a health information technology manager at your organization, what are some vital technical skills sets you would seek in a new hire? In which technical areas is your organization strong and in which areas do you see room for improvement?

Answer 1

An Information Technology Manager is responsible for implementing and maintaining an organization's technology infrastructure. Businesses rely on a central informationprocessing system to support efficient data management and communications.

Key skills for information systems managers

• Analytical and problem solving skills.
• Strong technical skills.
• The ability to work well under pressure.
• Attention to detail.
• Teamworking skills.
• Organisation and time management.
• Interpersonal and communication skills.
• Management and leadership skills.
• DUTIES

• As businesses are increasingly reliant on technology, your role as IT manager is crucial to business continuity and success.

  You will be advising organisations on IT solutions that will best help them grow and perform more efficiently. You’ll work with companies from beginning to end, outlining the most effective resources and oversee projects through design, development to completion.

  You’ll be working closely with the client to ensure projects are completed on time and to budget. You’ll be in charge of your project team and it’ll be your responsibility to ensure everyone is doing the right thing at the right time.

  It can be a highly varied job, and you’ll find there are opportunities to work alongside a wide range of sectors. For example, you might be helping to create a new patient database for the NHS or assisting a private company to switch to a new phone system.

  Whatever project you’re working on, your daily tasks may include:

• Speaking to your management team/clients to find out what they want and to advise them objectively on where IT might make a difference to the business
• Planning the stages of the project and how each affects the business
• Coordinating the project team
• Agreeing costs, timescales and standards to be met and monitoring these throughout the project
• Adjusting the plans where needed
• Making sure there is a smooth change over from the old system to the new one
• Keeping management and clients updated on progress
• Evaluation of each project stage and once completed If the flexibility and diversity of self-employment is something you’re looking for, you could move into freelance work as a consultant or contractor. The additional advantage of freelance work is that you can organise breaks between projects, for example, to get a qualification or go travelling.

• Opportunities

  Promotion prospects for IT managers may often depend on the size and type of organisation you work for. Wherever you are, it’s likely you will be able to work towards a more strategic role. You’ll find many large companies have structured career paths, which lead to acquiring more management responsibility.

  As IT is such a diverse field, you could choose to take a more technical path instead of a management role. It’s possible to then specialise in a specific sector or computer platform like SAP or Oracle. Alternatively, you could work towards becoming an IT specialist or technical architect.

• AREAS THAT CAN BE IMPROVED

• TIME MANAGEMENT-

  Time management is crucial to your business’s success. Without it, few tasks would get done on time (if at all). That could be disastrous for everyone involved.

  The best solution to this problem is to incorporate scheduling software like Sling into your daily routine. Sling not only helps you schedule when your employees are going to work, but it also provides a cloud-based to-do list with customizable deadlines and reminders that will keep everyone on task.

• Organization

  Organization can make time management much easier. When you and your employees are organized, you’ll know what needs to be done — and in what order — to get the task at hand accomplished.

  Encourage your employees to create a daily schedule of the top three or four tasks (in order of priority) that they need to focus on. Then help them stick to that list until it’s finished.

• Interpersonal Communication -It doesn’t matter if you manage a restaurant, a coffee shop, or a call center, you and everyone else who works there can all stand to improve interpersonal communication. Even if it’s just between team members, being clear and direct in what you say (without offending) will improve the way you work like few other suggestions on this list.

• Customer Service

  Good customer service is the cornerstone of every great business. Even if your business already has a reputation as a customer-friendly establishment, this is one area of improvement for employees that you can never spend too much time on.

  One of the best ways to improve your employees’ customer service skills is to demonstrate it in all you say and do. Then encourage your employees to follow your lead.

• Cooperation

  Unless your employees work by themselves with absolutely no human interaction, they’re going to have to cooperate with others at some point. And for your employees to operate at their full potential and overcome the obstacles in their paths, they’re going to need the help and cooperation of those on their team

• Learning New Skills

  Unless you’ve got a perfect employee working with you (in which case, we’re going to poach him or her from you), everyone will benefit by learning new skills. Doing so not only stimulates thinking and creativity, but it also increases the employee’s value to your business.

  With new skills, you can use team members in different capacities, and they won’t be a “one-trick pony” who is only good at one thing.