If you treat the people to whom you are supplying information technology and services like the customers they are, then you will do things like ask them what they want. Part of the service you must deliver is helping customers define what they want. Just don't get caught up in the vendor game, or you might finding yourself saying Chickens Have Lips , or Miracles Often Occur . Manage the people and the machines will take care of themselves . What you do is you manage things.
Management means setting priorities and goals.
It means planning how to achieve them. It means guiding the people, because then the machines will take care of themselves. If you can justify buying technology that manages itself or other technology, like a LAN management tool that automatically re- routes traffic to optimise demand, then great, go ahead and do it. Installing that LAN management tool, however, will require planning and project management. If you mess that up, your tool will never work.