Discussion on:

IT departments warned: Evolve or die

Right when the server goes down and they have to fly a team from India to fix it and its down for a week.

Sadly, this is true. Corporations these days appear to get their marching orders from think tanks and seminars. This sets their agenda and no matter have many dog and pony shows they give asking for IT's input, anything that IT says that does not align with that agenda is ignored. Odds are that this pattern of self destruction will continue until the infrastructures collapses. When that inevitably occurs - God help the surviving remnants of the IT workforce when we get called upon to put Humpty back together again.

Based off of this comment: "todays workforce is more IT-literate than that of a decade ago, he said, so can do more IT-related tasks for themselves."
I don't think he has spent much time on the ground. IT has evolved even more, as most people know, and if you just take one of many areas, let's just say security, how many people are still clicking unknown emails? How many people know how to modify a sudoers file, let alone know what sudoers is? IT doesn't get easier, it is becuase of professionals that know how to collaborate that make it look easy. I think whoever works FOR this guy should run away very quickly, as that boat is going to sink.

It'll be interesting to see how literate users will be once a company makes the mistake of deploying Windows 8.

nt

Contemporary workers overrate their computer literacy, which may be more dangerous than raw ignorance that's at least self-aware. Corporate computers and shared resources are different from personal gear.

I thought so to for a long time, but no, todays workforce is NOT more IT-literate than that of a decade ago. I thought that a decade of students who took laptops to class would result in workers with computer skills, but no it has not, not by a long shot.

Most people have no interest in learning anything about computers beyond the absolute minimum knowledge required to log in and launch an application. And even that can be a challenge if the desktop icons are missing.

I have no fear of tech savvy employees.

That's what I don't get... Its a tool they use every day, their job cannot be done without this tool, and yet they don't want to know anything about it.

but have no interest in learning how it works or how to maintain it - other than drop it in to the mechanic shop on the stated maintenance cycle. The same goes for all the tech gear they use, including computers. They learn enough to use it to do what they want, end of story.

Just because the idea of working every day with a tool I don't understand annoys me?

want to know how things work under the hood. It's VERY rare for someone to want to know how EVERYTHING works and to fully understand to be able to do it all. I know people who get very interested in knowing how their computers work, but don't want to know a damn thing about how to slaughter a cow, cut it up, and cook the steak they end up with on their plate - I also know people who have no idea what a live cow looks like but know many ways to cook a great steak. It's all about personal choices on what they want to know and most people do NOT want to know how things work unless that thing really interests them a lot.

I would want to know how it was done.

need to know how to use the phone, when your job is to deliver packages you only need to know how to drive the van, and when you job is to enter data into a computer program you only need to know how to turn the computer on and put the right data in the right fields. In none of those situations do you need to know what goes on beyond the human equipment interface.

But they're not being asked to design a computer. I'd compare it more to a delivery driver learning to use the windshield wipers and radio or how to change a flat tire.

It seems to me like many people are pawning what should be their jobs off onto IT simply because there is a computer involved.

he can put the gas in, turn it off, and can change a tyre, he needs to know nothing else.

The average computer use need only know how to turn it on, open an app, close an app, enter basic data in a form or document, save to a file, save to a disc, turn it off. They do NOT need to know anything else to do their daily work.

In both cases, neither bothers to learn what goes on under the hood.

They have to know all the rules, what to do to stay safe, defensive driving, everything.

How often do computer users "defensive drive" Not enough based on the virus infections. They don't follow rules, they don't stay safe.

Does a driver know why tires are slippery when wet?

You have to take training, courses and tests to drive a car, but any idiot can sit in front of a computer.
In short, as a society we force people to learn how a car works, but we don't for computers.
And I am not asking them to change the oil (or change a video card), but how many even know what a file extension is?

I ask the same question, I don't understand it either.

a tad amusing concerning who is being warned? Change is our way of life. How about this:

IT departments warn: Evolve or die.

nt

Resistance is Exhausting

I actually like that much more than Resistance is Futile.

See Dr Who still has some great wording.

Col

Never had to. We use DOS 2.0 here but were thinking about upgrading to a 750 MB HD so we could upgrade to Win3.11 for our main file server. Can you get that on 5 1/4 floppies? Do you think we should upgrade to 32MB of ram to go with that?
But seriously, if you have to beg for your job, what does that say about managment? In a business, if you need it, you pay for it, if you don't you lose it. Other wise what in the Sam Hill are they doing?
Aside form that, if you do your IT on line, you can loose some help. Even if, you will probably need about 1 full time person for every 50 or so employees. Not really sure about that number though. I mean at some point things fail, machines crash, etc. even if you don't have much software or storage on site. If you are really concerned about security, then you may need more help. If someone isn't always checking you don't have security.

I saw this coming and updated my skill sets to move from hardware and systems adminstration to software. Its no harder than figuring out how hardware and adminsitration work. Same deal, different flavor but you do less crawling under desks and listening to complaints. If you were waiting for the bell to get started: DING DING DING DING

Or your new Pc/terminal arrives and you have to connect it up yourself but then it doesn't understand who you are when you try to login. And what happened to that S drive mapping you had stored all that critical data on. Oh yes and your company is being prosecuted for dumping your old computers in your skip. You can't do that you know. Did you thoroughly wipe those old hard drives, format isn't good enough you know.

What do you mean someone has hacked your Cloud/internet stored data and it's going to cost the company millions in legal fees alone.

Not forgetting the language barrier for off site support which although improving, is always a degradation of service quality in my experience.

the way it gets messed up by staff is the same, and the number of software conflicts causing issues is increasing due to changes in fundamental Windows commands by Microsoft.

One place I used to work some years ago we had a change of middle management. My new division head did not like me or my branch, so he took action to have our work outsourced and we were 'let go.' Most of my staff found better jobs elsewhere and refused to take any calls from the company now doing the work. Everything had been well documented, but there is a hell of a difference between reading about something and having someone show it to you in situ and explaining it. After being with contractors for just on four months the division head was sacked by the General Manager for poor performance and some of my staff were rehired at higher salaries to clean up the mess. What created the blow up was when I insisted on being paid a consulting fee of $2,500 to work over a weekend to clean up a mess so they could avoid a $50,000 penalty payment to a client for failure to meet contractual obligations. The outsourcing contract did NOT include weekend work as a cost saving measure and the contractor had no staff who knew the work available that weekend. Thus proving that the fundamentals still apply.

Tech staff still need to be on hand and knowledgeable to do the tech work, it's no good if they can talk to the sales staff but can't perform at the tech level needed to do the job well - I see that useless situation occur a lot over the last decade with companies insisting on great interpersonal skills over tech skills. They get great talkers who aren't that good with the gear.

"bog standard engineering and desktop support...............is a diminishing service" and "it breaks down less and people swap it out more often". People may swap their personal equipment more often, in business they swap it when the business says they can. I currently work for a company with a 3 year refresh cycle - and that's probably the shortest I've seen, most try to keep it running for a lot longer than that. Plus, people may have learnt how to do more things in their applications (the familiar ones like word at least), try getting them to change their display settings, troubleshoot a network connection, or update a driver without help and that's a different story. My main experience is in support (desktop and windows servers) and I've been seeing these stories about how we're all about to become obsolete for years now, funny how I never seem to have any issues finding another job when I want one, usually on more money than the old position. Sounds very much like I'm about to become obsolete doesn't it.

Hmmm...

This sounds a lot like the lecture every control happy department head has ever given me just before demanding something they shouldn't have.

Password to the server/router/firewall/switch? Negative. Usernames and Passwords for all of their people? Uh, no. Full admin rights to their systems? Oh hell no! I don't want to rebuild your system every other week while you complain about lost data (anyone else remember Windows 9x?) Bless using some odd-ball database program? Only if you put in writing that you will never call for support on it, even when the one person in the organization that knows how to use it retires - and that goes double if you fired them.

Increase your bandwidth? Done. Find best value on hardware and software? Yup. Research and implement appropriate new technology? On it! Keep your virus and malware traps current, OS patched, and set network traps for odd activity? Damn straight! Keep your in-house software running, current, and legal? Baked in. Discuss ideas, methods and tech that will help your business unit perform better and then let you take the credit? Sure! Struggle to keep my knowledge and skills current despite cuts in training and travel allowances? Of course - it's what I do.

I love what I do, and I do IT. If you wanted an MBA, you should have hired one, but from what I've seen they can't run an IT Department worth a damn.

And tonight I shall go home and there will be three panting blondes in my bed who've mistook me for Hugh Hefner's long lost adopted son...

If only it could be true...

"People are more IT literate than they were".

To bring out a car analogy. (wince)
If the above was true you could also claim that we are a nation of mechanics because we figured out where to pour fuel in the damn thing.

Entire article just shows how far in to la-la land these people have managed to get.

Don't know why somehow I always love federal/government employees. They are so ..... special . Sorry if anyone here is the case, there are always exceptions, but the general idea is that these type of employees are the most conservative (to put it nicely) seeing that they can hardly be fired, and it is mostly them that are just "keeping the servers humming".
Anyway, indeed I do not see at all how IT can/could be ignored or become irelevant.

"Its almost an adapt or die moment for a lot of the IT profession, if you dont start being able to articulate and contextualise technologys value add to service delivery then why are you there?
Oh man, if only he would have used 'paradigm shift' I would have won the Buzzword bingo game in my IT dept.
Please. Users may know more about what a computer CAN do, but not how it does it.
"Contextualise" that to the mouth breathers in your office.

These articles must be the worm on a hook for IT staff to moan and groan. These are management fantasies where everyone is disposable and outsourcing means BIG savings and no risk. Keep dreaming. Back to work before we get outsourced!!!

I hope my boss didn't just see this - I'm the only IT person here so who will be here to swap out the batteries on the wireless keyboards and mice on Monday.

I think I am going to evolve gills this week.

So, this is the same accountant mantra that we can cut costs in the IT field and still be cutting edge. Well, if you want to bleed on the cutting edge then yes, go for it. Otherwise get those plodders back here and keep this system running 'cause we don't have enough money to reprogram it for the ARM.

The understanding of IT departments strategy interpreting the business objectives of the organisations they provide services and support to is definitely lack. The mere lack of national ICT policy and information security policy in the country clearly shows where public and private sector organisations' IT department are with understanding what their organisations want from IT.

IT departments do need to evolve. They need to be proactive, not reactive. Leaders not followers. Too many IT depts, struggling to meet SLAs, have good solid ideas for improved efficiency but the customer never gets to hear about them because IT is concentrated on fire-fighting (reacting). This is where you need strong and focused leadership, with as many business skills as techie skills and who can process the customers needs and translate those into solid workable solutions. So more accurately - IT management needs to evolve.

At first I thought the author was reporting on a spoof, but sadly this CIO is not uncommon in the world of County Councils.

"... if you dont start being able to articulate and contextualise technologys value add to service delivery then why are you there? ....
"....Im a big fan of moving to that value-add space around quality of information and business alignment, which I think is how you grow, he said...."
".....Stuff is getting better, it breaks down less and people swap it out more often. So the demand for those level of skills is reducing. ....."

Three statements why Councils are such profligate wasters of taxpayers money, council-speak for "I have no idea what I just said but I have loads of money to spend this year and that nice salesman has shown me the light and now I'm a believer"

You have to live here to believe it!!

Just let 'em try getting their work done & dusted without us. Then we'll soon see who's needed, and why. As for all these bums-on-seats healthcare pros, in whose interests it remains, for people to get/remain sick, & to be medicated up to their eyeballs, they're not aiding healing: far from it ! They're part of a keeping-us-all-ill industry, feeding us inorganics, which we can't digest, but which maintains the cash flows of the allopaths. Increasingly, the big batallions ( MNCs, international NGOs, & all the other dinosaurs ) prove themselves not only unnecessary, but parasitical on the people co-opted to service them ( eg. IT, secretaries, & all those others impressed into their service ). What's needed is a purge of all the freeloaders, jargon-munchers, & other parasites gobbling up all the goodies they can, while the poor people struggle & fail. Without IT, they're dead in the water. Don't try to frighten us; we're onto you: we've understood what your priorities are. When did you last do something useful, necessary, absolutely crucial ? IT keeps this whole juggernaut rolling. When you limber up to fire us, the whole awful momentum slows, and your end approaches that much sooner. Get real. We don't need you. YOU need US ! Without us, you can't continue to spout your guff, threaten, and otherwise attitudinize. Without our support, you'd just be a lone fantasist, dreaming power.

American management considers them just an expense item and all those servers in room D305 are eating up shareholder value. Outsource the lot to India, put the data into the cloud, fire those highly paid American workers, replace the helpdesk with one in Bangalore. I remember when that was done to my department. "Just make phone call, fix Windows problems faster, cheaper, better." Right. Convert room D305 to a cafeteria, get rid of that expense with cooling the data center servers. Salaries in India are $2 an hour, better still in China. (China, our friend, right?)

IT is dead in America and if you need proof, just ask any IBMer about RoadMap 2015.

I find that the saturation of technology into more and more departments, actually creates MORE work for me as a Field Tech - just because you deploy technology, does not assure that the end user knows what to do with it, or how to integrate it into their role, or how to avoid the inevitable hardware failures that arise over the lifetime (7 years, for us) of a computer.

Not sure what planet this author is living on...

Wish I had that kind of outlook...

I'm not sure which companies the article talks about because I actually see fewer and fewer IT literate people day after day (either that or they are lazy, take your pick). Is this relevant to company size or industry? Or is this an overall generalization? If a general statement, then someone got their big data analysis wrong or at least, slightly off the mark...

One blonde who didn't object too strenuously would do.

In fact she doesn't have to be a real blonde.

In fact not even being a she is necessary. Hmm may have gone too far there...

These people make laugh when I'm not crying, what does IT literate mean anyway, just keeping up with the words is fair amount of effort. Stringing a few together to make a sentence that looks at though it should intelligible, taxes more than 50% of "professionals" beyond their capacity, never mind users.

Now we just grunt at each other, we all seem to catch each others meaning.

How about the business proving to the IT department why it's always treated as just a support function, no matter what it does? i.e., even if it DOES do all the business stuff described, the business rarely recognizes it.