Comment The only reason I can see to create IT departments (Score 2) 214
In business areas where IT is a clearly defined discipline, different than what the primary business of the company is, where most, if not all employees have trouble performing their daily details without a clearly defined "IT function" within an organization, IT organizations seem to have sprung up as if they were needed, in all places where they were really needed. That they have not been (until now) clearly and obviously needed in your organization, suggests that the business need is not so clear cut.
May I draw some parallels? I have worked in R&D environments around scientists and engineers, who know how to do most of the IT functions that non-technical people wish IT would do for them, and who actively resent some snot-nosed MCSE telling them how good Group Policy and locked-down IT environments are for The Business.
May I suggest that what will (sadly) happen in your environment is that a major IT disaster will create the instant perceived need for Standardization and Lockdown. it is only a matter of time. Your most prudent course may be to do nothing extraordinary, but be there and ready with solutions when the actual animal offal hits the actual rotary air-movement apparatus.
Warren