Thoughts on IT

IT originated to save users from time, effort and frustration, but also to empower them to do new and better things while reducing business risks.

Automation is key, as it replaces mundane tasks that offset the time and money spent by both IT and non-specialists doing low-value work, and also increases their efficiency so they can produce more or better outputs.

When IT is used strategically, the results are non-linear. That means the cost savings, increased output and new opportunities can far exceed the IT budget investment.

However, many IT staff get caught up in the same pitfalls as everyone else. We fall into routines where we fail to see all the opportunities to realize the potential benefits, or we linearly offset effort rather than work non-linearly.

When things go sour, the expense, effort and frustration exceed the benefits realized.

While many processes are being moved from the paper-based analog world to the digital one, it takes visionaries to realize the true potential of this transition. The outcomes must provide some intrinsic benefits, such as:

• Ease of access and timeliness to clients
• Improvement of staff and management access to information collected
• Computers used to summarize collected data in new and effective ways
• Improved data safety and legal compliance
• Ability to work remotely (at home or in mobile situtations)
• Automation to reduce mundanely repeated work
• Scalability of solutions
• Enable new opportunities which would not be realized otherwise
• Etc.

The result can be business transformation.

As IT directors, we must make strategic decisions about which initiatives and processes to create, and which to retire to make room for new ones, because as time goes on, the old processes and activities eventually become outdated, but staff will continue to invest in them as they always have.