It has been a solid two decades since Information Technology overtook Data Processing as the moniker for application of computational tools and techniques in business environments. More than a mere label, Information Technology was a transitional approach that served to bridge the gap between a generation oriented by computational scarcity to a generation formed through computational abundance. It served us by providing an organizational model for reducing the risk and cost of adopting computer technology in the banishment of redundant and menial tasks. It served us by carving out an elite class of technology gurus who lived with one foot in the esoteric world of DLLs and one foot in the rigorous world of CMM-level deployments.
But we are entering a new era—an era defined by unprecedented familiarity with computational tools. The generation now feeding the workforces in the developed world is made up of comfortable consumers of technology—and more than that, they are expectant consumers. IT was born from a consumer world that required advanced degrees and multimillion dollar grants to access computer technology; Business Technology (BT) was born from a consumer world where such technology is ubiquitous, friendly, and taken for granted.
The rise of Business Technology means a shift in power from Information Technology gurus driven by the need to protect sensitive systems from harm to Business Technology leaders strewn throughout the lines of business, and driven by the expectation that systems are at their disposal to make work life faster and more connected. The Business Technologists will not report to CIOs and work on guarded floors—they will work in the call centers, the claims processing departments, and the branches. Business Technologists will begin to solve the operational problems facing them with the technology tools that they have grown-up using: the internet, cellular telephony, and mobile computing.
It is a risky proposition to be the first to embrace this new generation of transformational leaders, but it is also a promising one. Technology in the hands of people most familiar with the ins-and-outs of daily business can squeeze out cost by automating routine fulfillment tasks and can coax out additional revenue by enabling risk-reduced, customer-smart decision making at the grass roots level. To gain these advantages today, a business should have a guide. A guide that can work with both the business operations and information technology staff to chart a safer journey that encourages the direct application of flexible business technologies without risking the health of core systems and safety of core data.
