Technology is going the full circle

One of the most significant shifts we`ve seen in the ICT industry this year has been a move by customer organisations away from a reliance on technology for solving all their problems to a renewed focus on human skills.

The shift is tied into what has been seen as a high for 2005 - a massive take-up of IT infrastructure library (ITIL) as a best practice framework. ITIL, as most people know by now, is a set of pre-written strategies and procedures for running a corporate ICT function. It covers aspects from development, through system delivery, availability and maintenance, all the way to support of the system through helpdesk and other services. It consists of a set of reference manuals written by acknowledged industry experts, commentators, practitioners and theorists.

And it is the only publicly available integrated, process-based, best practice framework for managing IT services.

The current heavy emphasis on corporate governance and regulatory compliance is driving most companies to find ways of increasing their ICT governance, because if their systems don`t work at maximum effectiveness, then they`re certainly not going to achieve the transparency of data and accountability of personnel that will ensure the necessary levels of governance and regulatory compliance.

According to Forrester, ITIL will be the de facto standard for designing, implementing and managing ICT systems by 2008. So it`s becoming the ICT governance tool of choice for both private and public enterprises in this country.

Organisations now have to question the efficacy and relevance of their existing processes and procedures.

Tracey Newman, MD FrontRange Solutions SA

But many organisations are overlooking the fact that ITIL is a framework, not a stand-alone technology. Unless its principles are already incorporated into off-the-shelf products, it can`t simply be implemented. It has to first be adopted into an organisation`s thought and business processes and only then can its principles be translated into technological functionality. One can even say that ITIL is a bit like SA`s Bill of Rights. It tells you what the ideal is and suggests how you might get there, but you still have to work out how to apply it in your own circumstances.

So, I foresee that this year`s enthusiasm for ITIL could be severely constrained next year as organisations confront the reality of having to take a step back and do some ITIL-driven re-evaluation of their processes, policies and procedures before they can reap the efficiency and transparency benefits they`re looking for.

A bumpy ride for voice over IP (VOIP) technology is also expected, simply because of the cost of bandwidth in this country. VOIP should be SA`s single most significant technology because of its ability to make sophisticated business connectivity affordable to even the smallest of micro businesses - and therefore to bridge the digital divide, at least for businesses. It`s also going to change conventional business habits forever, finally fulfilling technology`s promise of enabling people to work anywhere, anytime. But until SA`s regulatory telecommunications situation comes into line with thinking in Europe and America, VOIP will remain something of a Cinderella.

So, what does all this have to do with a renewed business focus on people in preference to technology? Well, both VOIP and ITIL represent a new interface between technology and people based on coherence of effort and information.

Technology has always been about automation. Until now, organisations have simply accepted that technology will make their old manual systems easier and faster - not necessarily different or better.

However, with the advent of technology`s ultimate capability - integration - organisations now have to question the efficacy and relevance of their existing processes and procedures. Understanding that ICT doesn`t just automate, it enables, organisations are asking what it should be enabling. And that invariably forces them into a realisation that there are some things people do better than machines - or, that a particular combination (integration!) of people and machines makes possible entirely different and more desirable business scenarios.

Accordingly, business is looking for a different kind of ICT vendor. One that listens very carefully to the business results they want and then finds a way to enable those results. Not a vendor that offers a take-it-or-leave-it application that will require the business to adapt itself to a software developer`s view of how a business should run.

Technology providers, particularly in the software space, are going to have to become much more sensitive to the market - less focused on their sales targets and more focused on solving customer`s problems. To facilitate that, the software itself is going to have to be much more open, flexible and people-friendly.

In other words, technology is coming full circle - from minimising the human factor to giving it priority.