It is a tough time for the University IT department. Just at a time when we’d like to take more control — to prevent virus/worm infiltrations, loss of sensitive information (ss# or credit cards) or movement of company assets to off-site companies (google docs) — our users are moving in the opposite direction. And expecting us to follow along or get left behind. Our students would rather discuss class homework on Facebook, not in the course website, and faculty are following. Departments expect cutting edge web-based services with the same feature set as offerred by Google and many others — tough to compete with when offerred for free. If we ignore their requests, charge too much, or take too long, they’ll just do it anyway.
How do we respond? By being out front. By supporting small defined tests, learning what works best, and then sharing with the community. Talk about what doesn’t work, what works, and how to make it work in a safe, secure and sustainable way. Accept that we are no longer in control, but be committed to leading our community of users. Move quickly, be agile, dare to fail, minimize loss, maximize success. Most importantly don’t ignore the tidal wave or suffer the consequences.
Report: Millennials Will Route Around IT Departments – ReadWriteWeb
According to a new report by Accenture, a large number of Millennials (those born between 1977 and 1997), expect their companies to accommodate their IT preferences… Millennials would prefer to use instant messaging, text messaging, and RSS feeds to communicate with their clients and customers, though very few companies currently support these technologies. The report also highlights that a lot of employees are simply bypassing corporate IT departments if those don’t offer them the services they need.
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Randall Rode's online home for thoughts, notes, and experiments with a wide range of technology topics. Visit the about page for info on my recent projects and professional background. I welcome your comments!
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