You mention nothing about budget, so I’ll assume the worst and tell you how I’d do each on the cheap. 😉
First, I’d look at what is required from the department. What services do they expect you to provide? Then I’d start by figuring out how I can use existing personnel to aid me in creating the department, as it’s a lot of work for one person to organize, inventory, write policy and procedures, etc. So what are the other people’s skills? Does someone seem to not be so busy and have great organizational skills? Hmm, awesome. I’d put them to work inventorying everything you have at your disposal. If no one is available, that is still the first task for you. Find out what your working with and see how you can best use it to achieve the requirements laid out to you for your department. Then formulate a plan of action, which seems like you have already been doing by posting here for help.
Then, with that plan, I’d pass it through the corporate hierarchy just to CYA.
Things I’d be looking at in that plan would be:
- Can you use any of the existing hardware and software, or are you going to need to budget for new stuff.
- Do you have any manpower? If not, how can you automate things so you’re not kept too busy with menial tasking.
- Finally, how are you going to meld 1 and 2 together to make the project as time-efficient as possible.
That’s essentially how I would start. I would then organize all remaining equipment into an obsolete pile and a potentially useful in the future pile and gain authorization to dump the obsolete pile. Trust me, if it’s not been touched in 6 months it will never get touched again and you’ll end up hoarding it until hell freezes over and in a small business environment (at least in my experience), space is at a premium.
Once you have the plan rolling, keep tabs on what you’re doing and keep asking “why am I doing this?”. Efficiency is key to getting a smooth running department and automation is useful if you’re low on manpower or it’s a one-man show.
As far as what hardware and systems you use, this is pure personal preference but I favor going with brand names (such as Cisco IP Phones and Dell desktops) that have support systems to back you up. Otherwise, you get bogged down in the basics of the IT department. You might also an intranet with a helpdesk ticketing system so people aren’t clogging your email or phone asking for help.
As far as messaging systems, there are a few decent open-source intra-office messaging systems I like. You can go from Pidgin to RabbitMQ (free for commercial use also). Or as a PHP/Java house you could always roll your own.
I realize this isn’t a very complete answer, but hopefully it’s a start and maybe of some use. I do have experience doing exactly what you’re doing and am on the home stretch at my current company doing just this on a tiny budget. Beware it’ll take twice as long as you think. I thought I’d be up and running in 6 months, but after 9 months I’m about 60% of the way!