Technology.
Ian's history in IT stems back before "Information Technology" was a term. His background in Computer Science recalls desktop computers that did not even have hard drives in them, then ones, ten-thousand to ten-million times smaller than ones we carry in our pockets now. They still happily contained the latest version of Windows and had space for ancillary programs and data. These changes have happened within twenty-five years.
Computers are meant to think for us and make life easier.
So why don't they?
It's about effective usage. Ian once read this quote : "If you only have a hammer in your toolbox, you'll see all of your problems as nails."
One of the buzz-phrases in the early Twenty-first Century is "business process re-engineering", which looked at business the wrong way around, as far as Ian was concerned. It looked at the tools that were being used by a business, and went to market to find similar, cheaper tools that could be brought in to replace the existing ones.
Naturally, training followed, and even though a new piece of software may have had more powerful enhancements, overall (anywhere Ian saw or worked at), productivity did not really seem to improve because people didn't get a good grasp on where their job slotted into the scheme of things, and why their day-to-day software had to be changed. Was it to spite them? To make them want to up and leave? Show up deficiencies and incompetencies? Other than the bottom line, there was never good communication as to why any of this was being done.
So - what needs to be done?
Start at the Top, and work down.
When Captain James Cook wanted his sailors to avoid scurvy, he found that force-feeding them foods high in Vitamin C didn't work. So he served sauerkraut exclusively to the officers for a time, until the sailors practically begged for it. He led by example.
For starters : What does your business DO?
What regulatory pieces of paper do you need to produce?
How do your customers wish to do business with you? (Note : this is a very different question to : how do you wish to do business with your customers?
Do your competitors already operate in this way? If they can, what's stopping you?
Those are the simplest questions, and don't involve technology at all in the first instance. If you want Ian to work with you to increase productivity by lessening complexity, feel free to contact him.
Computers should make things simpler!
Here are some examples of solutions Ian has created using the built-in functions within a fifteen-year old version of Excel...
A Sudoku solver
A mind-reading game
A traffic-light simulator
And a question which may be solved if you compare your phone with your computer keyboard.
www.ianharrison.id.au is developed, owned and run by Ian Harrison. Contents of this site are Copyright © 2021.
Some publishers and customers have placed restrictions on my current ability to reproduce some material.
What is posted on this site is a small sample of my work and IP. Contact me if you would like a quote or for more details.
![[Tales]](/Images/sm-tales.jpg){kind=small}
![[Technology]](/Images/sm-tech.jpg){kind=small}
![[The Pub]](/Images/sm-pub.jpg){kind=small}
![[Welcome to Ian's Site]](/Images/sm-home.jpg){kind=small}
![[To The Nines]](/Images/sm-nines.jpg){kind=small}
![[Blog]](/Images/sm-blog.jpg){kind=small}
![[Arty]](/Images/sm-arty.jpg){kind=small}