Discussion on:

IT departments warned: Evolve or die

Not where I am. They can't connect a network printer, set up their outlook profile and log in after they've changed their password.
...but they do keep me in a job:)

mean that phrase to be limited to the ability to turn a computer on and to use the proprietary software they were taught to use in school. In short, they already know how to use MS Office and that's about it.

I just got a bunch of puzzled looks when I told people you can scroll up and down a page by using the page up and page down keys.

how to do things with the keyboard any more - it's all supposed to be done by touch-screen or mouse now.

The article is maybe discussable but in a way he is right and in others no.

Yes:
Hardware is getting better and "cheaper" so we have a 3 year exchange plan for the moment but it would be easy to make it longer as far as an office computer goes.
Users are more used to use computers.
IT-department has to evolve.

No:
We will not die but we will have to change.
Users more used to computers does not necessary mean they are better in their profession. They might still only be used to playing games, surfing the net and using parts of the Office-suite.
IT will as long as external contractors are not handling companies better with long time goals and services be a better resource to have inhouse..

There is a great difference in using a computer and using it efficient. There will always be users that have no interest at all to be connecting to a printer, changing the toner och changing batteries in their clocks, keyboards and so on. There will always be those who do call the helpdesk each time they have to book a meeting in the calender.

And this will be partly due to that we allow them to behave that way. We will go very far to help them out with easy tasks because it is so much easier than instructing them how. And some. like a user I once had explained it "I behave as a bitch because that gets things done". And sure it works.

I work in IT and I??m proud of it. I do the best I can to make it work as good as I can but I do still see that we need to better understand who our customers are. And that we are not here for our own pleasures.

That spiel has been recycled more times than I can count. Makes for a good conference speech/seminar, but it has to be taken with a healthy dose of salt. For one thing, it doesn't just apply to IT. You can exchange any department name with IT...HR, evolve or die. Sadly the "C" execs hear this stuff and think they need to change the world when good managers have been watching and keeping pace all along.

And sorry to nit-pick, but what kind of sentence is this and what does it mean?:

"He said that automation of provisioning of the likes of storage and compute power took place years ago and that with cloud computing comes additional complexity that needs to be managed."

Hi, I think David Wilde from Essex County Council is dreaming.

I live and have worked in within the same Essex County Council, they have outsourced IT services to many companies including IBM in the past (@Chelmsford County Hall); they always come back with their tails between their legs. Their internal IT staff have always saved their skin. Partly because these same IT-illiterate top officials usually dream of ideas, and implement without consultation, even with their local IT staff; and sometimes, they simply do not know what they want.
They pay ****** salary, that is why I moved to private sector. One of them even said, "Exchange Servers should run themselves". Most of the users would need proper IT training, and follow basic rules such as keeping their password safe, and remembering advice given; I might then start agreeing with him.

I've been hearing versions of this since early 2003. "IT must serve Business." Agreed, but with fewer retirements since 2008 and many young folks being phone-centric there remains a great deal of face 2 face support. Yes, having people in house is expensive but if all you need is wireless for BYOD and gmail then why do you have an office? What are we building here? How about councils must evolve or die? I know a number of government/public workers whose job functions (I've seen their output) could be replaced with a decent shopping cart system, that way we can offload the responsibility to the people using the system. Wait, that sounds familiar.

Referring to his comment "todays workforce is more IT-literate than that of a decade ago,so can do more IT-related tasks for themselves."

The more they know the more the oppertunities for IT pros.

'... todays workforce is more IT-literate than that of a decade ago' - yes, of course as everyone grows up with IT these days. Are they IT literate enough to be able to support themselves fully? Definately not.

' ... so can do more IT-related tasks for themselves' - CAN do more IT related tasks? Probably. WANT to do more IT related tasks? Definately not. My business customers are aviation professionals, sales professionals, finance professionals etc. They want to focus on these areas not support themselves.

IT is a field which is known for evolution only then how can you tell that IT department will die. It will never happen i think.

always good to see it brought out some passionate views, pity the comments haven't changed from when I was cutting code and running out secure networks and systems in the '90s - kinda proves the point in some ways....and look, ICT is still here and evolving faster than ever....:)

I particularly like the old private/public sector stuff, hope it's not from the banking world, can't remember if that's private or public these days?.....depends on your viewpoint I guess

we'll have to do big data next time and see where that goes.

Who is going to fix David Wilde's PC or data server when it goes down? Windows 7 crashes just like all the other operating systems before it. Sure, you can call a third party company (which will probably be made up of all your ex IT staff anyway) and they will charge the **** out of you for the service. Clueless.

Contextualize? Bog standard? Value-add space? Hah! I stopped reading his quotes for value-add, and kept reading for humor-add. Where did he learn English?

"Evolve or die"? That's what we do for a living.
"Influence within the organization"? Never has been, and never should be the goal of IT.
"[T[odays workforce is more IT-literate than that of a decade ago". Well, yes. Now they know how to use a mouse. But if Microsoft continues to make the software, we will continue to have jobs. Look at Office 2010. Everything has to be learned all over again. Besides, you still have users who have not figured out that the reason the screen is dark is because you need to turn the power on.
"[T]hat automation in cloud computing will destroy the IT department." The jury is still out on cloud computing, especially where security is a concern. Eventually this may happen, but that will take a long time for industries like healthcare. Can you see DoD putting their stuff in the cloud?
This person knoweth not of what he speaketh. I have watched IT evolve for 35+ years. I have heard the "evolve or die" mantra just as long. We're still here, and we've evolved. This is not news.

This has been a debated topic for years and that will never happen. Companies has seen the disasters associated with IT services that are outsourced. A company cannot function properly without any internal IT staff on site and that is a fact. Another new issue which has come up for discussion is we are becoming aware of the risks associated with cloud computing, moving to the cloud and right now there is even talk about cloud insurance. Which means who is responsible for when a company bellies up and that company was responsible for housing all critical and financial data for their customers? That topic of IT be warned do or die should be left alone and let us IT professionals do our work and keep our companies network running, and our internal users happy.

To the person who wrote this article, recommended that I upgrade all my 200 desktops and 40 laptops to equipment that will last and require very little or maintenance. When they call the Help Desk, all calls will be re-routed to China or India. All data will now reside in the cloud but do recommend to the company I work for that they do need Cloud insurance. The server room will be closed down for extra office space. Then recommend that all 250 users be more computer savvy which means they will be more security conscious and not jeapordize the company's network. Then the company's physical network infrastructure which has 11 satellite offices will be maintained by contractors who by the way do not give a dam about your security, difficult to reach when you need them and doing their job with very little perfection. So my dear brother good luck to that topic which has been debated for a few years now with little realization.

Forget all that security and service and actually being able to do business stuff.

Think about the lower salary bill and equipment costs..

Get with the program!