The Importance of Technical Managers in IT

Between improved client and employee satisfaction, investing in Technical Managers can take your company from good to great.

At Indellient, as a part of the IT Services Industry, our clients look to us to be experts in the services we provide and the technologies we work with. Our employees are talented technical experts: full-stack developers, data scientists, solution designers, data engineers, DevOps specialists, and more. Providing technical experience and leadership from our front-line managers to our board of directors is critical to achieving our full potential.

We believe this investment in technical management supports our employees, improves innovation, and saves our company valuable time and money. Here is why…

Table of Contents

• Informed Business Decisions (Tools/Techniques)
• Technical Employees feel Respect and Respected
• Technical Managers as a Valuable Resource
• Higher Client Satisfaction

Technical Managers Can Make Knowledgeable Business Decisions

In an industry like IT Services every part of this business is changing week by week. From the tools to the methodologies, nothing is done as it was even a year ago. This is a key area where a technical manager will save you time and money.

Adopting a new tool or technique can be costly. Tools have pricey subscriptions along with training or certifications. Methodologies need to be learned and then adapted to specific applications that your company is already using.

Managers are available to have the final say on these business decisions that can highly affect your bottom line. A Technical Manager will know how to work alongside their employees, weighing the costs and benefits, to choose the most effective investment for their team.

Technical Employees Feel Respected by Technical Managers

As we mentioned earlier, most of Indellient is comprised of highly skilled technical employees. These employees have spent years studying and perfecting their skills, working on a variety of projects, collecting certifications, and mastering the ins and outs of different tools.

Managers are expected to:

• Understand each team members strengths and weaknesses
• Assign work based on those skills and weaknesses
• Set expectations on achievements and requirements
• Assist in planning career growth

If a manager doesn’t fully understand the time and effort required for tasks or the limitations of the technologies in use, employees can end up feeling underappreciated and burnt out. They aren’t reaching their expectations or goals because they aren’t realistic, or because they lack the experience to handle the challenges. While help can come from other team members, having a technical manager that understands these challenges helps maintain team confidence.

Where managers do not understand the detailed differences in team members’ experience, work won’t be distributed in an optimal way. Projects end up taking longer than they need to, and there can be confusion about roles and responsibilities, leading to frustration on teams.

Technical Managers have a closer connection with their employees as they intrinsically understand the work. Optimizing team dynamics and recognizing the effort employees put in sets them up for success. This creates a positive work environment that encourages innovation.

Technical Managers are a Valuable Resource

Not only do employees feel more respected while working under Technical Managers, but they also respect them as a valuable learning resource. Technical Managers have the expertise and experience to be able to work with employees through issues as they come up. This makes it an “our problem” instead of “your problem”.

Employees may also feel more comfortable talking to their Technical Manager about innovative ideas or tools. Even if the ideas are not used every time, valuable conversations between employees and managers are happening that may lead to a breakthrough idea. And it will always lead to greater enthusiasm by the employees for their projects and career.

Technical Managers may also recognize weaknesses in employees that can be corrected with training. Managers have the authority to send employees for appropriate training, looking for ways to improve their teams skills. Technical managers are able to assess what kind of training, and which providers, will be the best for each situation. Nothing is more frustrating than investing time and money in the wrong training, so getting this right is an important factor in developing technical employees.

Technical Managers Ensure Client Satisfaction

Above we showed how Technical Managers keep your employees happy, but they also ensure client satisfaction. To cover what we have already mentioned Technical Managers:

• Can make valuable business decisions in terms of tools/techniques
• Understands their teams individual strengths and weaknesses

Both are incredibly valuable skills for keeping client work on time and on budget. Happy employees do their best work and come up with innovative and unexpected solutions. Clients will also feel more confident in the manager’s decisions based on their understanding of the technologies and solutions being developed.

Technical Managers can often anticipate problems while developing Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) :

• Can we respond to each category of support issue within an hour, around the clock?
• Has anyone on our team worked with the tools we are using, or integrating with?
• Does a certain tool or process require a certification?

A Technical Manager’s understanding of project requirements allows for realistic expectations for both the client and the team, leading to higher satisfaction all around.

In Conclusion

There’s no doubting that both developer and recruiting Technical Managers is a large investment. They have higher salaries and are harder to find, but the benefits are far-reaching. From a more positive work environment for employees and higher client satisfaction, the investment more than pays off.

Indellient is dedicated to creating an innovative and positive workplace as we continue to provide the best IT Services. We are hiring in multiple positions please apply on our Careers Page.

Indellient is a Software Development Company that specializes in Data Analytics, Cloud Application Development, DevOps Services, Managed IT Solutions, and Business Process Management.

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