Comment Define 'Admins' (Score 1) 414
Since your question was rather vague, I've got a few questions for you:
- Let's start with your definition of Admin, Technician, or "Support Tech".
- What responsibilities do they have within the environmnet?
- Are they simply Desktop/End User Support, or do their roles expand beyond that?
- Are you lumping all support people into this same category?
Assuming you're talking about strictly Deskop / End User Support (aka. the guys who show up at your desk to fix a problem), the answer depends alot on their skill sets, the complexity of your environment, their responsibilities, level of automation, and a whole series of factors. The Help Desk Institute (http://thinkhdi.com) has a lot of information that can help. Given that you are a Windows PC shop, Microsoft has a bunch of analysis tools that can help you detirmine the complexity of the environment and suggest ways to optimize it. (Google: Microsoft Infrastructure Optimization model (IOI)).
Assuming you're talking about an entire systems support organization, I've seen IT consume up to 60% of a company's total staff (including developers, project managers, and systems analysts). Within that, I've seen up to 30% of those people to be "systems support" (Service Desk, Desktop Support, Data Center Operations, Telcom, Networking, Windows/Unix Server Support, DBAs, and various Architecture and Engineering teams).
Since you're probably looking for a swag, here's what I'd say:
For 900 seats and 9-5 operations...
3 persons answering phones
5 persons visiting desks
3 persons managing servers/storage/mail (add 2 more for networking/telcom)
3 persons managing patching and making everyone else's jobs easier (aka, engineering/projects/packaging/scripting/imaging/etc)
If you want to know where my math comes from, just ask. But it breaks down on a few assumptions of having a diverse team with varying degrees of experience and skill sets. Of course, if you have a handfull of rockstars, the numbers change, but in the end, the salaries will probably add up to being the same.
