What does an IT manager do?

What an IT manager is responsible for

An IT manager is responsible for the systems staff use every day and for making sure the right people can reach them and the wrong people cannot. The work is a mix of planned projects and interruptions.

• Buy, set up and retire laptops, phones and peripherals
• Create and remove user accounts when people join, move or leave
• Administer email, file storage and business SaaS subscriptions
• Run the help desk or manage an outsourced support provider
• Keep backups, patches and basic security controls in place
• Review new tools before they connect to company data

IT manager vs IT director and head of IT

An IT manager runs IT operations, while an IT director sets IT strategy and the budget across several teams. In a larger company an IT director may lead managers for infrastructure, service desk and applications, and report to a CIO.

Head of IT is the title many smaller firms give their most senior IT person, who does a little of both. At a company of fifty people, the head of IT, the IT manager and the help desk can be one person working with an external provider.

How an IT manager vets a new SaaS tool

An IT manager vets a new SaaS tool by checking how people sign in, what the tool connects to, what data it keeps and how access is removed. Each answer decides whether the tool is approved, approved with conditions or blocked.

Unapproved tools that staff adopt on their own, often called shadow IT, are the reason for this caution. An IT manager who discovers a tool already holding company email will start from suspicion, so it pays to involve them before the trial grows.

• Sign-in method and whether passwords are involved
• Which accounts and data each connection can reach
• Admin roles and who can add or remove users
• What disconnecting does, in the tool and at the provider
• How a leaver's access and data are handled

Where an IT manager sits in a buying decision

An IT manager usually sits in a buying decision as a technical approver rather than the budget holder. A sales or marketing lead chooses the product and pays for it; the IT manager confirms that it can be run safely and fits the existing stack.

That approval is not a formality. An IT manager can ask for changes, delay a rollout until questions are answered or refuse a connection to company accounts. For products IT itself uses, such as device management or help desk software, the IT manager is the evaluator and often the buyer.

Working with an IT manager when you sell

When you sell to a business team, work with their IT manager early and on their terms. Send the admin guide, the security answers and a list of every permission your product requests before they have to ask.

Never encourage a champion to bypass IT. A deal won that way tends to unravel at the first security review, and the IT manager will remember the vendor that tried.