Information at your Fingertips?
Information at your Fingertips?
A long, long time ago, I can still remember… when, at University, we were taught about how computers were going to help people have all the information they needed, quite literally at the speed of electricity. Hum. It’s now twenty years later, and I don’t feel any more like information is at my beck and call, than I did back then. Indeed its the other way around – I feel beholden to information, rather than feeling it is beholden to me.
I don’t think I’m alone. In fact, I know I’m not – a research study we conducted at the beginning of the year showed that information access remains an area of weakness for many organisations. Quite ironic really, given that we supposedly work in “information technology”, that is, the technology of information. Someone, and I suppose we all need to put our hands up for this, isn’t doing a very good job.
But is it an impossible goal? Think: if you could tap into whatever information you needed right now, what would it look like and how would you access it? Its not an easy question to answer, and indeed, it is difficult if not impossible to do so without considering what facilities are already available to us. Every now and then I have a deep insight into my own information needs, for example when I am in a strange town, there’s nobody around and I really, really could do with a curry. Weren’t mobile software vendors telling us years ago that such a problem had already been solved? Perhaps its just me – the rest of the world are enjoying fine curries, laughing into their Singhas at having managed to keep the secret – but I doubt it.
It’s the same for business information. Whatever the reasons, many (if not all) organisations still struggle when it comes to pulling together whatever information is necessary for day to day activities. Again, there have been many promises over the years of how (say) we would be able to access a single view of the customer, or manage product information over the lifecycle. But, lets face it, if it is still a challenge to organise meeting room bookings – and indeed, in many places it is – what chance do we stand in achieving more esoteric goals. Even this is a simplistic view of the real requirement, as anybody who invites a potential customer for a meeting, only to be turfed out of the room by some irate jobsworth, will know.
So what’s the answer? To be frank, at this stage in the game, there isn’t one, not a simple answer anyway. Technology is changing too fast, and the complexities are just too, well, complex. With all the cool-yet-disposable gadgets, software packages and supporting chicanery we are the beta testers of the information revolution, in which the real battles are yet to happen.
This is not to be downhearted. One day, I believe, we will reach the tipping point of making technology work for us, rather than the other way around. First however, we must decide what we actually want.