Blogs

Recipe for success

IT | John Tate | 30 Apr 2008

John Tate calls for IT to be simplified.

The results from Charity Finance’s annual IT survey again make interesting reading. Money continues to get pumped into technology and there is a lot going on. However, staff skill levels are becoming more of a barrier to implementing world class IT systems and user satisfaction levels are mixed. How security issues are dealt with remains a concern with the figure for the number of respondents having annual security audits falling from 30 to 28 per cent.

IT has now been around for at least 50 years and it might strike one as a bit odd that technology is still such a challenge. New products continue to come onto the market at an ever increasing rate and our systems seem to get more and more complicated. Why is IT becoming more, rather than less, complex?

As well as the eagerly awaited results from the IT survey, football fans learn the outcome of the Champions League and the Premiership around this time of year. By the time you read this, the winning team in the Premiership should be known and I will go out on a limb and forecast it will be Manchester United. So for their supporters (and I am not one of them) I offer the hand of friendship. Here is a list of ingredients for a Manchester United celebration cake taken from the web:

Sponge  – sugar, wheat flour, whole egg, vegetable oil, lactose and milk protein, soya flour, humectant [E420], emulsifiers [E471, E475], raising agents [E450, E500], salt, flavourings, preservatives [E202, E282]

Sugar paste – sugar, glucose syrup, vegetable oil, hydrogenated vegetable oil (contains emulsifier E471), water, humectant [E422], invert sugar syrup, stabiliser [E413], acetic acid, acidity regulator [E262], flavouring

Butter cream – sugar, butter, glucose syrup, water, wheat starch, dried egg white, stabiliser [E406], citric acid

Strawberry jam – glucose syrup, strawberries, sugar syrup, gelling agent [E440], colours [E163, E150a], acidity regulator [E330]

Edible plaque sugar – glucose, hydrogen-ated vegetable oil, invert sugar, water, emulsi-fiers (E414, E471, E415], humectant [E422], colours [E104, E122, E133, E153].

This list is from a cake supplied by a supermarket and I am afraid I cannot provide the detailed mixing/baking instructions or the places to source ingredients. Readers prone to reflection might like to think about this recipe. Does it perhaps seem a little bit complex and full of things that are not good for you? Does this sound a bit like IT?

Back in the early 1980s I had a dumb terminal on my desk (called a thin client now) and a central server with all the processing power and storage. I used half a dozen or so applications including an accounting/order processing system and a basic word processor and spreadsheet. Step forward to 2008 and this architecture has become far more complicated.

So why not simplify IT? Take out the complex desktops and put back in the thin client. Ban vendors from forcing us to constantly upgrade to new versions of their products. Share resources with other charities and standardise common applications. Train staff to use the tools they are working with.

It is consumers at the end of the day that sign the cheques given to IT vendors and we can say no – but we don’t. If we really want to simplify technology and make our lives easier, we, not the suppliers, call the shots.

Once upon a time sponge cakes were made from butter, sugar, flour and eggs. We are now buying cakes with E numbers galore and dozens of extra ingredients. Prices are in some cases lower and food that previously would have had a shelf life of only a few days can last for weeks. But at what cost?

Governments are stepping in to drive out E numbers but with limited effect. Regulation alone looks unlikely to solve this problem. IT will only simplify if we change our whole approach to technology and the way we use it. Much of what we need to do is blindingly obvious in theory. Campaigning on environmental issues, food additives and unhealthy eating is showing some effect. Let’s add IT use and the desire for better management to the list of issues to address.

In the meantime I look forward to the 2008-09 football season and hope that the best club in London does better next year.

Tweet

Who's Who: John Tate