MIS or internal IT guys...

I don't want to offend any sensibilities, as I know there are gonna be some MIS guys here. But I've got to ask this:

Does anyone else think the mIS guys can sometimes be pretty damn unhelpful? I work in tech support, and the MIS guys pretty much hate all of us. Why is it that the only answer they seem to give is "no". Unless, of course, "no" would help in some way :)

So maybe they just hate us -which I can deal with. But it was like that in the support dept of my old place.

What's going on?? I don't do hardware support now (although I used to) but MIS treat us like we're (a) idiots and (b) dangerous.

Is there some historical reason????

[quote]Originally posted by gutted:
<strong>I don't want to offend any sensibilities, as I know there are gonna be some MIS guys here. But I've got to ask this:

Does anyone else think the mIS guys can sometimes be pretty damn unhelpful? I work in tech support, and the MIS guys pretty much hate all of us. Why is it that the only answer they seem to give is "no". Unless, of course, "no" would help in some way :)

So maybe they just hate us -which I can deal with. But it was like that in the support dept of my old place.

What's going on?? I don't do hardware support now (although I used to) but MIS treat us like we're (a) idiots and (b) dangerous.

Is there some historical reason????</strong><hr></blockquote>


humm good question, I used to work in tech support for newegg/abs computers/nutrend computers

The MIS guys there did the same thing. I then moved up to designing the Intranet then to then manager of the linux department.

The MIS guys hated us even more with linux servers and workstations going up. Since there was 4 of use we all installed our favorite flavor distro and thats what we worked in.

Any ways the MIS guys would come in at night after we left and just turn all the power off from the computers an un plugg the NIC cable. They would also disconnect the NIC jacks somtimes just to take the linux servers offline.

But from doing this they took down the ms sql server and lost every customer data on that server (no packups only on paper) so that whole weekend they got a group of people and they had to manully enter all the data into the database by hand.

Now I work for the ounty of riverside (in california) and im the MIS/ tech support person. there are only 3 of us here it pretty ko. and no I dont hate anyone else thats either tech support or non tech related.

any who...

Not here, most of my MIS people are generally pretty helpful. Specially on the custom apps they are responsible for.

[quote]Originally posted by Daemon:
<strong>

Any ways the MIS guys would come in at night after we left and just turn all the power off from the computers an un plugg the NIC cable. They would also disconnect the NIC jacks somtimes just to take the linux servers offline.

</strong><hr></blockquote>

Wow! Ok, so I'm not so bad off after all :) Our MIS guys just say "no" and that the end of it. They don't intentionally disbale our test machines!!

It's so strange. When I first started (about 2 years ago) I thought it would be ace - I thought we could kind of work together since we both had a few skills. It'd make sense, don't you think, for MIS and tech support to get along?

Ah well.

But man - if you still worked in the same place, I'd get their sorry asses fired :)

[quote]Originally posted by gutted:
<strong>But man - if you still worked in the same place, I'd get their sorry asses fired :) </strong><hr></blockquote>

Better yet - if I were the boss, I would get the actual MIS guys who unplugged the server and lost the SQL database to enter all the data by hand! It's their fault, they should fix it, the ignorant boneheads.

to make it even more interesting, I might give them a time limit in which to do it. :D

NOt to sound stupid, but what are you referring to when you say MIS vs internal IT? I always thought it was just words, not something real. Confused cause I often get called both, but in reality, I am the guy that keeps the computers and printers working and on the network.

MIS or internal IT guys. Both the same. Our guys are called "MIS department" while other companies have the "IT department".

Same deal... I was kinda referring to both.

(no offence to you or anyone personal though dude ;) )

MIS = Management of Information Systems.

This was a business degree at the college I attended. They had to take some intro classes in computing, but nothing about theory or design. So basicly, most MIS people are almost worthless in helping out with complex solutions, unless they have a certain amount of intuition. Which in my experience, is almost never.

IT (Information Technology) guys are more of the hands on, people that can fix computer problems type people. These are your classic computer geeks(I am a proud computer geek).

I'm sure that there is cross over between the two some places.

Ok, sounds like the difference between me(IT) and my friends who got MIS degrees(or BANA). Thanks, just wondering what the difference was so that I could start in on the rants.

With the experience I've encountered MIS and IT are totally different but often refered to as the same.

Captain O is right about the acronym but think about the actual meaning of Mangement information systems. To me it sounds like a database guy(Oracle DBA, SQL). He manages the information that is placed into our systems in which we(IT) build, fix and maintain on a network that is designed by us(IT). As an IT guy we just provide support and keep things running. We just make sure people can work. We're the Mr. fixits at work. We don't touch the database.

I don't know if there's any anamosity between the two departments. I've always been pretty close to mine but I do get the "NO" answer many times because I ask if I can watch. I guess they're just trying to preserve their job and make sure no one but them knows what's going on with their work. That's fine with me.

If I'm wrong please feel free to correct me.

[quote]Originally posted by gutted:
<strong>Does anyone else think the mIS guys can sometimes be pretty damn unhelpful? I work in tech support, and the MIS guys pretty much hate all of us.
What's going on?? I don't do hardware support now (although I used to) but MIS treat us like we're (a) idiots and (b) dangerous.
</strong><hr></blockquote>

Man , I have the same problem where I am...I can't get anything done without them putting there nose in the middle and screwing everyhting up. :mad: I hear ya bud.

I have an MIS type degree, but I am a techie at heart, the reason why those MIS guys give you ****, is that you might know about the nuts and bolts and thus blow holes in their 'Theoretical datamodels'.

Ask an MIS guy if truely relational databases exist, he will say yes. Ask a database techie and he'll say no, can't be done, I can make you a hierarical database that nearly is.

Its viewpoint -

techie=bottom up

mis= top down

Remember MIS don't have to make it work, they just design it.....

I must say that as I am in Network support and most of the tech's I work with natiowide are id10t's and deserve any crap they get - I get real fed up with having to explain every little detail to an ignorant quasi-newbie who will not follow directions and will not remember the same set of information from day to day - and we are not talking brain surgery - just very simple setup and install instructions on software.

Yeah, but on the flip side, at my last job I had to deal with Network Engineer's who tried to compete with tech's in building images(we usually had one or two new ones a month). Nothing more fun then getting in knock down fights becuase the "Engineer" doesn't understand security rights on the physical NT machine, or having to explain new technology on the PC side might mean you have to change some settings on the network. Most of the engineers were very condasending(sp?) with their attitudes with the tech's, they really hated how we were right 9 out of 10 times. Of course, I think they were also pissed off because they had to work next to the bosses office, while we had our own room with our own network to play Quake on slow days.

These were the guys I think of when I here MIS, because the 30 programmers were all cool, if you could understand them. The only people that told us know had a C and an O in their title. We all eventually left because they refused to pay us for what we did. HEHEHE stock at fifteen cents now.

I work in kind of a mix of both. Both departments get along pretty well. It's thoes wascaly developers that bug me. They just can't seem to understand that boxes have limits that can't be exceeded with out dropping performance. One of them asked me to install personal oracle on a 166 with 32 megs of ram, and then couldn't see why the installation took an hour. There are some people that just need to be smacked repeatedly.