People power
With data pouring into businesses, companies should be careful not to underestimate the human factor
Gordon Brown's announcement last week regarding changes in the civil service got a mixed reception in the IT sector.
The news that £6bn has been spent on IT systems offers encouragement to our industry, but the loss of so many jobs is saddening.
Investing in technology can lead to competitive advantage, seamless processes and increased efficiency. But with more and more data pouring into businesses, companies should be careful not to underestimate the importance of the human factor.
It is people who will have to make sense of the data and offer the experience to understand what use the data can be put to. The truth is, you just can't beat people.
I spend an awful lot of time on the phone (my mobile has become permanently attached to my ear, rather like an oversized earring) and I know as well as anyone how infuriating automated voice systems can be.
Press one for an option you neither need nor want to hear about; press two for something else that isn't what you require; press three for something that is even more annoying, and so it goes on.
Hearing a human voice on the end of the phone has become a rarity these days, but it works.
First Direct is a bank based entirely around IT - the phone and internet - and yet it runs a policy which means that as a customer you always speak to a human. The rush of people to bank with the firm was huge.
Take Dell as another example. Yes, it is unarguably a highly successful business selling IT systems. But what it doesn't sell is the people with the experience that go with the systems. This is exactly what the channel does offer: people and experience.
If Dell's business is so great, why is there still a channel at all? Why aren't two of the biggest IT behemoths in the world, IBM and Hewlett-Packard (HP), operating a direct model, if it makes so much sense?
Business is business, and they aren't using the channel out of the kindness of their hearts. IBM and HP recognise that, while technology is the way forward, everyone likes the personal touch now and again.