By Steve Ranger, 11 May 2006 10:50
NEWS
Unless tech workers adapt to new ways of working the profession will cease to exist, according to a panel of senior IT chiefs.
IT execs in local government have to gain new skills and be prepared to get involved in the wider business agenda as basic IT systems become outsourced or commoditised, they warn.
Speaking at the Government UK IT Summit, Glyn Evans, director of business solutions and IT at Birmingham City Council warned: "Unless IT people grasp the transformation agenda they will cease to exist as profession."
He added: "As IT becomes more plug and play, the traditional technology roles are bound to diminish. We no longer do much system development - we buy it in - and as we get the standards developed we won't need to do systems integration to the same extent. The networks are pretty much plug and play, so what are we going to do as a profession?"
But as local authorities in particular try to transform their businesses, IT chiefs could still have an important role to play - but only if they raise their game.
Evans explained: "I think in terms of supporting transformational change there is a real opportunity - and the flip side if we aren't doing it is who is? Is there a new profession beginning to emerge here?"
Rob Neil, Head of ICT at Ashford Borough Council said that there has been a growing realisation that the role of the head of IT has developed that of a "change agent" who is able to advise on the role of technology in generating efficiency. "There's a role there for the CIO to drive through business change and organisational change," he said.
Top tips for ambitious IT chiefs
- Empathy - understand the other person's perspective
- Understand the business
- Have some elevator conversations
- Communicate with everyone
But Simon Norbury, director ICT, Westminster City Council, warned that not all CIOs will be up to the task.
He told the conference: "One of the first tests of a CIO is stick them in front of a broken PC and see if they can fix it. If they can they aren't a CIO, they're a technical manager. The old skills of the technical manager are not what is required any more. It's having that ability to meet people, influence them and kick things off."
He added: "We aren't about running tin anymore. What people should be doing is letting go of some of this basic stuff in terms of making that transformation. Our main focus has to change to where the council is going rather than worrying about particular [IT systems]."
But as many other execs - including those from HR and finance - will also be keen to lead the transformation of local government services, IT bosses will have to fight hard if they want to be at the forefront.
Norbury said: "There is competition for these new roles and it has to be the right person for the job. If you are seen as the guy that runs the boxes it's quite hard to compete in that environment."
And Ashford's Neil warned that not all the tech workers would want to make the jump: "It is probably far easier to take a customer services person and introduce them to what technology can do for the business, than it is to take a technologist and turn them into someone who thinks strategically or thinks in terms of how to improve services to the end customer."
He warned: "Until we start to think of IT as a profession - rather than something that people drift into - then the profession isn't going to move forward because it won't be seen as a profession in its own right."
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Carl
Are these people insane ??
There seems to be some assumption that technology will evolve to the extent that it will install itself, look after itself, heal itself without the need to involve human beings who specialise!
Systems will still need to be designed, installed, looked after and people will still need to learn new skills so that they know how to look after IT infrastructures.
Are they seriously suggesting that IT people will become irrelevant ?
The average office worker, rep, director etc struggles to turn a computer on let alone know how a system works.
And if IT systems are outsourced it just means that IT staff will no longer work in house. Which is a good thing as most business people are beyond clueless when it comes to IT.
2. Amanda Rush
Carl:
To answer your question, I would say definitely. The executives are so bent on saving money that they will do whatever it takes to do it, even if it means decimating the IT department. Sooner or later though, it's going to bite them in the ass. Somebody's convinced them that all this technology that's supposed to be "self-healing" will look after itself, and that they can train IT people like they train customer service representatives, which means you get some handouts, lots of memos, and you are heavily discouraged from thinking outside the cube. If this is where the IT industry is headed, then we're in for some rough times ahead. It sounds like a lot of people are going to be looking at a lot of wasted money in college educations and certifications. And the fact that they're saying that IT people have to become people people would be funny if it weren't so sad.
3. Michael Saunby BEng MBA CEng MBCS
"if they can fix it. If they can they aren't a CIO, they're a technical manager"
Sure, and if they don't know how to change a lighbulb then make them chief exec perhaps?
Fortunately for the UK there are still a few folks who can turn their hand to what needs doing, when it needs doing, and it covers the whole gamut from fixing what's broken (but not what isn't) to making the future actually happen. It's called engineering!
4. Graham Coles
Isn't this what they predicted for programming in the early 80s?
The leisure society, one person periodically putting down his archery bow to go and see if the computers needed any attention as they were all supposed to be designing and programming themselves?
A quarter of a century later and I don't even remotely see anything resembling this. It's wishful thinking. It'll happen in the same way that computers produced the paper-free office.
5. Paul
Once we lose all our technical and manufacturing skills and become the worlds largest warehouse, we are surely storing up problems for the future.
I remember companies cutting back on training and stopping Apprenticeships back in the early 80's.
I sat thorough a speech last year where a man from the CBI was bemoaning the skill shortage in industry! What goes around, comes around.
6. Brinley Platts
Whist I agree that IT professionals need to be prepared continually to increase their involvement in the wider business agenda, I do get a bit fed up with the way such ideas are expressed and reported. It's been happening for a long time after all, and it isn't rocket science.
Are IT professionals resistant to change? I don't think so, no more than anyone else, and the response to the article from said professionals has been witty, measured and articulate, so I think generalisations about the communication problems of propeller heads are overblown as well.
There have always been skills shortages in sections of IT, and we are currently responding to a serious soft-skills shortage (influencing, relating, leading, communicating, etc). There is no lack of willing IT professional candidates for soft skills development; more companies need to put their skills development money where their mouths are, that's all.
7. martyn
Relax guys - as soon as you realise that phrases such as "grasp the transformation agenda" were in common use at this bash you can quickly deduce that this was an exercise in self-aggrandisement and back-slapping in no way connected to any reality inhabited by most of us.
Next week the pontification will probably move to "diversity in multi-agency tasked recycling " or similar.