What's in a name... an IT department name.

September 4, 2006 9:44 PM

IT Department naming conundrum. We've recently re-structured and in the shuffle a number of new positions, roles and responsibilities have been re-allocated to myself and my immediate staff. Help me come up with a name that adequately encompasses said changes and is recognizable in the industry. More details inside.

We were a smaller group (5-6) that were largely responsible for a lot of the forward momentum that has drastically changed the IT environment at a large organization. Due to our overwhelming success (very unexpected initially) we've been swamped with both rapidly increased workload and a wealth of new hires.

This is good. However, the department that I manage is still a rag tag group of highly talented individuals and I have had a difficult time coming-up with a name that adequately encompasses our job responsibilities. These include:

- Network application administration (security, environmental control systems, financial/HR services, print management, backup systems etc.)
- Application development (middleware, intranet/internet web applications)
- Workstation management (deployment, inventory, centralized maintenance, and developing hardware/software standards for support)
- Database development, maintenance and administration.

Like I said, it's all over the map. We have Enterprise Application Administrators, Database Administrators, Web developers etc.

What would be a good department name that could encompass all these roles? Our sister department is Infrastructure and they are responsible for physical hardware deployment (servers, networking, wireless etc.)

Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks.

posted by purephase to work & money (10 comments total)

Systems Group
posted by Funmonkey1 at 9:53 PM on September 4, 2006

Information Technology seems to cover it. Why do you find IT an unsatisfactory name?
posted by SPrintF at 10:06 PM on September 4, 2006

Your choice of name has two consequences. Firstly, it helps people locate you. Secondly, it helps people identify you. These are not the same thing.

If you want people to find you easily then just call your depatrment IT. If you want to increase your department's prestige then choose a name that sounds as though it sets policy. Google for large companies' phone directories and pick the most prestigious names that could possibly apply to your department. Choose one of those.
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:35 PM on September 4, 2006

Systems?
posted by k8t at 10:48 PM on September 4, 2006

IT Administration and Development (ITAD)?

Network, Desktop, Application & Database Development (NDAD)?
posted by pettins at 12:21 AM on September 5, 2006

Follow-up:
Information Technology is our parent department name. We also have a Systems group who are largely responsible for the mainframe and a few other home-grown applications. I can't use either of them.

Joe in Australia, thanks. I've been doing that already but it is a good suggestion. I'll keep at this morning and see if there's anything I can steal.
posted by purephase at 5:13 AM on September 5, 2006

I work in the "Special Projects" section of my campus Athletics Department IT group. We handle everything that has a short deadline, relates to the internet, or that the rest of the IT department can't handle (like designing an application from the ground up in a month and putting it in place smoothly in an already operating workflow for another department.)

My business card says

SpecialK
Systems Analyst I
Internet & Special Projects
posted by SpecialK at 6:07 AM on September 5, 2006

What are the buzz words at your corporation? At my last job, they were very much Operations and Transformation in the last few years. Before that, it was Business Management that was the thing people were focused on. Business controls and auditability is, I think, likely to be the next major focus area for the internal staff people.

Our departments, which focused on IT and systems, changed names as the focus of the business as a whole changed - to define our value rather than our tasks. Look at the buzzwords in your company and see how you can integrate them.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:36 AM on September 5, 2006

Sounds like you should use "all your base are belong to us"

Seriously, how about "network & information management"? Makes for a good acronym too.
posted by adamrice at 6:51 AM on September 5, 2006

You need a catchy TLA. Eye Tee Ess, ITS, or Information Technology Services always worked for me.
posted by grahamwell at 9:03 AM on September 5, 2006