IT and productivity
IT departments are understandably concerned about uptime and security issues, as Bob Stasonis of Pickering Interfaces puts it in EDN’s November 12 cover story, as he comments on connecting LXI instruments to corporate networks. But as I’ve put it before, “IT departments need to become part of the solution, not the problem,” when it comes to productivity. In the Wall Street Journal, Nick Wingfield sounds a similar note in “It’s a free country…so why can’t I pick the technology I use in the office?“
At the office, Wingfield says, “you’ve got a sluggish computer running aging software, and the email system routinely badgers you to delete messages after you blow through the storage limits set by your IT department… At home, though, you zip into the 21st century. You’ve got a slick, late-model computer and an email account with seemingly inexhaustible storage space. And while Web search engines don’t always figure out exactly what you’re looking for, they’re practically clairvoyant compared with your company intranet.”
As does Stasonis, Wingfield acknowledges IT departments’ legitimate concerns: “Employees would blindly open emails from persons unknown or visit shady Web sites, bringing in malicious software that could crash the network. Then there were cost issues: It was a lot cheaper to get one-size-fits-all packages of middling hardware and software than to let people choose what they wanted.
“But those arguments are getting weaker all the time,” he writes. “Companies now have an array of technologies at their disposal to give employees greater freedom without breaking the bank or laying out a welcome mat for hackers.”
And when IT personnel don’t adapt, “…employees often become digital rogues, finding sneaky ways to use better tools that aren’t sanctioned by the IT department.”
Wingfield cites as one enlightened employer Kraft Foods, which until a couple of years ago locked down its PCs. The company, though, became concerned that its policy kept employees from keeping up with trends that the consumer company needed to be familiar with. It opened up its PCs and gave employees an allowance to buy their own smart phones. Winfield quotes David Diedrich, vice president of information-systems technology, security, and workplace services at Kraft, as saying, “The win for Kraft is employees are more productive if they use devices they’re familiar with.”
As for his own employer, Wingfield writes, “The Journal declined to comment on its policies.”
Lainey commented:
At last, smooene comes up with the "right" answer!
Marylada commented:
Ah yes, nicely put, evyerone.
Maryland commented:
A good many vaulbales you've given me.
Simon Templar commented:
IT departments (better referred to as email/telephone/overhead projector depts.) definitely need to become part of the solution instead of the problem. Excessive over-the-top security policies and lockdowns, which they don't apply to themselves, make everyone else's job more difficult and time consuming.
Meredith Poor commented:
In a company I was working with recently, the secretary to the president called down to ask what the newly introduced 'F' graphic was on our web page. I had to explain Facebook, Linked-In, and Twitter to our senior people, who in turn probably had to explain it to some of our old-fogy clients. I don't use any of these 'socal network' sites because I actively dislike them, as opposed to not understanding them. My particular personal interests could invite lots of unsolicited marketing messages if I made them public. I am too familiar with intelligence gathering techniques to see a short bio as 'harmless'.
New technology and new uses of technology rework the language, which occurs faster and faster as whole populations get accustomed to new paradigms. A consumer products company is going to be in big trouble if they aren't currently accepted communications pathways, which may be substantially different in the 18 to 35 age range as it is in the 36 to 60 age range. For a large consumer products company, 'letting go' may allow their people to use new stuff, but that doesn't mean very many will. It could take years for currently novel technologies to sink in at an old-line business.
