You can’t handle the tech

Businesses are dependent on technology for the organisation to work – but what happens when the tech becomes too advanced for the average manager to handle?

It has become increasingly difficult for business owners to handle the tech that is incorporated in every aspect of the organisation. Can you really run a modern business without any technology or IT experts on your team? Everything from accounting to HR and communication – it all relies on technology today. If you don’t have at least one technology expert on your team, “can you really handle the tech?”, contributor Ian Hopkinson asks.

You don’t need a so-called ‘Technology Stack’ before the 1 responsible person, in this case – me, gets buried in tech admin. A new staff member arriving, or an old one leaving means a whole list of activities that takes up hours of my time and probably isn’t configured in the most efficient way. The truth is, we rely so much on these machines now it’s a little hard to survive without someone to wrangle it all.

So can we handle the tech?

Enter the IT Experts.

After barely 40 years of modern computing “Bam!” a whole new industry. One that, even with the latest birth of ‘the cloud’, we can’t do without. Greg Clarkson from Network Overdrive says,

“The IT industry has evolved rapidly and has splintered into several segments”

It’s a classic case of an industry just barely staying on its feet as new developments in areas like Artificial Intelligence (AI) speed up the rate of change even more. Terms like ‘Digital Transformation’ have become commonplace. This is an area that attempts to educate bigger businesses on the mindset they should have to evolve their technology fast enough and continue to evolve efficiently as an organisation.

“To be agile, even in a corporate environment, is key for big businesses especially when you are competing with well-funded startups,” says CEO of KJR Ashley Howden.

“It’s open season on technology solutions and it’s a race to utilise the cloud and everything it has to offer.”

Many businesses need a team of IT Experts now in order to keep up.

“Ideally the team needs to understand all the stacks operating in a business. Internal teams don’t always keep up with the rapid rate of change so they need an IT partner”, says Clarkson.

Digital Experience

New positions in business structures have also changed in an attempt to keep up with managing all this tech. The CTO is “last season” now, with even newer roles emerging such as CXO or Chief Experience Officer and CDO (Chief Digital Officer). Both roles incorporate ‘Experience’ and ‘Digital’ as their own dedicated areas whilst still needing to integrate with already existing C suite roles. Technology Architects can be found hiding around every corner as well, to not only fix existing systems but create new ones where necessary. Systems Architects grace our workplaces too.

So what about the humans in all of this? Founder of Human Hackers, Phil Richards explains,

“It’s important that we don’t lose sight of the fact that from an experience point of view the human beats technology hands down. It is our minds that determine the feeling & value associated with an experience, not the technology. The danger is the overwhelming power of technology to condition us.”

Wise words, especially with worldwide revenues from cognitive systems and AI estimated to go from nearly $8 billion in 2016 to more than $47 billion in 2020, according to IDC.

So where does all this technology lead us? Hopefully to a better place, but in the meantime, keep your head about you, take a deep breath, and try and keep up.

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Ian Hopkinson

Founder at Mad Scientist Digital

Musician turned Entrepreneur Ian Hopkinson is a Digital Strategist and founder of SEO company Mad Scientist Digital. A professional musician since age 10, Ian toured Europe and recorded with iconic Australian musicians. He was working in the US when the the tidal wave hit - and he found he had the skills and the passion to ride the wave and have great fun doing it. His enthusiasm led Ian’s Californian community to label him a digital “mad scientist” and send him in to advise startups in a range of industries.