This may to many ears sound like heresy. Technology is boring.
Thirty years ago, IT was heralded as defining the future of business. A new Golden Age of efficiency and productivity was predicted. But three decades on, is anyone really interested in the minutiae of Wide Area Networks, Virtual Private Network tunnelling or Unified Messaging?
Understanding the technology of business is not the same as understanding business. In the end, the hardware is a tool to do business, not an end in itself.
This perception is understandable though. Over the years many compelling applications and functionality have appeared on the scene, along with countless visions of the next big innovation or trend. The shape of things to come was, it seemed, mapped out and ready to happen sooner rather than later.
We listened to and believed all the plausible arguments. Problem is most of those predicting the future were wrong to a greater or lesser extent. After the dotcom crash of 1999/2000, the pundits and soothsayers went very quiet indeed.
A period of mature reflection then took place before the IT industry felt confident enough to come back talking about RoI, Return on Investment, and TCO, Total Cost of Ownership. The focus now was very much tighter, homing in on tangibles that businesses could measure. Emphasis for the vendors was henceforth firmly on business benefits. At last the sellers were catching up with the buyers in terms of what was important to their purchasing decisions.
Unsurprisingly, the way in which technology was marketed underwent change too. Business technology marketing is therefore now heavy with case studies, contract wins and business benefits. In other words, business transformation is the process of selecting the right technology for your business for the right reasons. Technology of itself is boring, the real interest is not the tools but what you can do with them.
Related HIE Business link - Key manufacturing technologies
