Solutioneering: Innovation and getting it done another way

It is easy for so many of us to solve an incident with a canned default answer of : The only thing we can do is rebuild your machine, I'll put in a ticket, or No we do not support that.  Many IT shops focus nearly exclusively on standard work and static problem solving responses that it is easy to lose sight of why we are here.

Listen, I get it... there is value in having standards and service catalogs and policies but it is a red herring to chase these things exclusively. No doubt we need consistency and standard work where it makes sense for the School but we need to reserve the possibility for the innovative solutions that often make all the difference for our faculty and staff. Innovation is one of our MSIS Values that we would all be wise to pay attention.

Case in point and kudos for the group of device support agents that franken-putered a solution for one of our faculty. Scott Bolak, JD Jordan and Kenny Hill worked together to restore a critical lab based server that was the very definition of non standard hardware. They cobbled together bits and pieces, found the creative solution and got the job done. One shops trash is anothers treasure.

It is one example of the work that makes MSIS different. It is the practice of not starting our work from a position of "No we cant do that" and instead working to find a way if it can at all be found. So much of what makes MSIS different is that we are not trying to engineer out innovation from our services and support for the sake of standards. We can tout it in our vision statements but the real difference is in the everyday efforts that are all too often invisible to the organization. This is the work that the faculty remember and help build trusting partnerships. Good work and keep going.