The IT Department, Explained: Roles, Functions, and Tools

When most people think of the IT department, they picture someone resetting a password or asking, “Did you try turning it off and on again?”

That’s part of it — but it barely scratches the surface.

In 2025, IT is at the heart of how businesses operate. From onboarding new hires to locking down security and keeping systems running across time zones, the modern IT department does it all — and then some.

This guide walks through what the IT department really does, how it’s structured, and how Fixify helps IT teams work smarter without burning out.

What the IT department actually does

At its core, an IT department exists to ensure your company’s technology works — and keeps working as the business grows and evolves. It covers both support and strategy. 

Here are some of the day-to-day responsibilities:

• Managing company devices, networks, and internet access
• Installing software, applying updates, and tracking licenses
• Setting up new hires and offboarding departing employees
• Controlling access to sensitive systems and data
• Troubleshooting everything from hardware issues to app errors

And that’s just the surface. In modern orgs, IT also collaborates with HR, finance, compliance, and operations to build smarter, more secure workflows

For a broader overview, this guide from Indeed gives a solid beginner breakdown of core responsibilities.

Common roles inside the IT department

Not all IT teams are structured the same way — but most include a few familiar roles:

• IT Managers or Directors set priorities, manage budgets, and shape long-term strategy
• Help Desk Technicians handle day-to-day support tickets and employee issues (see this breakdown)
• System Administrators manage and maintain internal systems, servers, and tools
• Security Analysts monitor risks, set up protections, and respond to incidents
• Infrastructure Engineers oversee networks, cloud platforms, and enterprise hardware

In smaller companies, one person may wear multiple hats. Larger orgs tend to specialize — but the goals stay the same: keep the business secure, efficient, and productive.

How the IT department supports the business

Great IT teams don’t just keep things running; they make the entire company run better. 

That includes:

• Onboarding and offboarding: Making sure employees have the right tools on day one—and lose access the minute they leave
• Security and compliance: Enforcing access controls, audit trails, encryption, and authentication
• Software support: Managing licenses, deploying new tools, and training users
• Infrastructure stability: Ensuring systems stay online, especially in hybrid or remote environments

IT is often the first to hear about friction and the last to get credit for fixing it. But that’s changing. 

More companies are recognizing that a strong IT function isn’t just support — it’s a growth enabler. Ripple IT explains this shift well.

The biggest challenges IT teams face today

IT teams today are expected to do more — with fewer people and more tools than ever.

Here are the biggest pain points we hear from IT leaders:

• Too many tools with disconnected data
• Too few people to manage growing ticket volumes
• Repetitive work eating up analyst time (password resets, anyone?)
• Lack of visibility into trends, workload, or user sentiment
  

When support is reactive and fragmented, it’s harder to show impact — and easier to burn out.

Cutting costs often seems like the only option, but there are smarter ways to drive efficiency. Here’s how Fixify thinks about reducing IT costs without compromising service.

Where Fixify helps IT departments scale smarter

Fixify was built for lean IT teams that need to keep up without burning out.

We don’t replace your people — we give them superpowers. Fixify works behind the scenes to:

• Resolve up to 75% of Tier 1 and Tier 2 tickets with automation + real analysts
  

• Handle high-volume tasks like password resets, access requests, and approvals
  

• Pull insights from your support data to show where time goes and what slows you down
  

• Integrate with tools you already use — Slack, Jira, ServiceNow, and more
  

And the best part? You don’t have to rip and replace your systems. Fixify plugs into your existing stack and helps your team get more done—without rewriting every process.

If you’re looking to reduce noise, surface smarter insights, and make IT feel less like a fire drill, this guide to IT infrastructure is a great next step.

Request a demo and we’ll walk you through it.