What's your technology mindset? Is it helping your business? (part 2)

In my last post, I talked about the impact of the technology mindset, for people who are uncomfortable or are inexperienced with technology. There is an assumption that people who are comfortable or experienced are much more successful.

Technology is a very broad and growing field. It is constantly changing. Because of this constant change, it is impossible for anybody to keep up-to-date on the changes in every field. So we end up with a lot of specialists. The problem with specialists is that they have excellent knowledge in one area. If that's exactly what you need, then that's perfect. Who determines what's needed. In medicine, we have generalists and specialists. The generalist identifies that a particular skillset is needed and makes an appointment with the specialist.

Unfortunately, we have the same need in Information Technology, but we haven't got the same infrastructure. What is the result?

A old quote (I don't know where this comes from) "When all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail", describes the situation perfectly. Many solutions in IT come from the tools that we are already comfortable with. The more knowledgeable a technician is in an area, the better the chance that the solution will be based on that tool. This may or may not be the best thing for their business.

When you start with the tool, often the business need will be skipped. Although the solution should provide some value, and it may look like progress. In most cases, the solution becomes highly complex and can be overkill. You get some of the benefit, possibly at a higher cost, however, the complexity may create new problems.

I worked with one organization that was concerned about the rising costs of PCs. They leased them and replaced them every three years. A sophisticated Excel spreadsheet was used to manage the inventory and leases. When I strated to investigate the issue, I used a Microsoft Access program to analyze the contents of the spreadsheet. I quickly found the problems and helped them to develop simple reporting to help manage the situation. The individual who was managing the assets was experienced with Excel, but wasn't familiar with Access. He didn't look at the overall business need, or the process required to manage the assets. He knew that he could do all the calculations that he needed in Excel.

That "solution" had cost the business $25,000 per month. The cost of the solution was not the problem. The lack of definition of the need was the real issue.

Whether you have experience with computers or not, is not the issue. Information Technology has to be managed. What is needed is management skills, not technical skills.