Peter Falconer

Scotland

ICT Manager

I agree entirely with the article that this is the general direction we all headed however the smart organisation already realises that just providing a member of staff with a laptop and other ICT devices does not necessarily make them more productive. The smart IT Department within a smart organisation is already broadening the services it provides to include staff development, buying/building applications that truly help staff do the work they are paid to do, providing innovative solutions which open up new business opportunities inside and outside the organisation, ensuring that the sea of legislative requirements is navigated effectively, working with the HR department to get appropriate policies in place, working to develop intranets and portals that efficiently let the organisation manage information, knowledge management and e-learning etc. For most organisations I don't see IT departments disappearing anytime soon - unless the scale of the reductions in the cost of hardware is also reflected in much lower costs for software, out-sourced support and development, consultancy, security services and disaster recovery.