Interdependency: Why IT Costs Are Tough to Control
March 20, 2010
Network World ran a very interesting article which, in my opinion, helps explain why search and content processing applications are characterized by sky rocketing costs. The story is “Is IT Keeping Up with a Changing Infrastructure? “ When I read the write up, I realized that most IT departments are like buggy whip manufacturers who did not want to manufacture automobile seat covers. Bad move but understandable. Buggy whips were comfortable just like silos of on premises applications and users who did not know that data could be mashed up and displayed in an actionable format.
For me, the most interesting segment of the article was:
A new study from Forrester Research Inc. shows that application developers and their project managers are not keeping up with the times…. [a] senior analyst…, said IT pros aren’t necessarily adjusting to what is the new reality of a tough economy and the popularity of certain technology trends.
I think I would have inserted the word “some” so that the statement would have stated: “some IT pros aren’t necessarily adjusting.”
In San Francisco earlier this week, I talked with a New York consulting firm. One of the interesting throw away remarks was that this outfit has found a number of new customers among the consulting firms in New York. I probed but was unable to get the names of this company’s consulting firm clients, but I recall the comments made during out chat.
One message that came through was that consulting firms are struggling to manage their information technology operations. The challenges range from cost control to finding information that someone in the consulting firms knows is on a server.
The Network World has hit the nail on the head. I wonder if the clients of the firms who purport to point out IT problems have the expertise, money, and time to fix their own IT problems.
My hunch? No. But talking about the flaws in companies is much easier and more fun than fixing one’s own problems.
Just my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, March 20, 2010
A freebie. No one paid me to write this. I will report information technology cost issues to the General Accountability Office, an outfit with responsibility for tackling such issues. I don’t think the GAO works for free as I do, but perhaps the entity will sympathize.
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