The author uses a 5 person startup with 1 IT guy and 4 most likely computer literate engineers as a model for responsiveness and efficiency and wonders why this doesn't scale to large organizations. That's a ratio of 1/4. At a university, the ratio of support staff to students might be 1/134. If large organizations were staffed at startup ratios, the salary costs would eat up any gains from increased responsiveness.
The real advantage of uniform hardware and software throughout an organization is the time savings which allow for smaller IT support staff. The suggestion to "hire an intern for every ten people at a company" is a poor cover-up for the salary cost expenses.
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The author uses a 5 person startup with 1 IT guy and 4 most likely computer literate engineers as a model for responsiveness and efficiency and wonders why this doesn't scale to large organizations. That's a ratio of 1/4. At a university, the ratio of support staff to students might be 1/134. If large organizations were staffed at startup ratios, the salary costs would eat up any gains from increased responsiveness.
The real advantage of uniform hardware and software throughout an organization is the time savings which allow for smaller IT support staff. The suggestion to "hire an intern for every ten people at a company" is a poor cover-up for the salary cost expenses.