“(Companies) are allowing their current technology to drive their IT strategy instead of letting their long-term business strategy drive their technology decisions.”
Ted Carty, VP Business Development, Grade A
An old telecom friend of mine, @Ted Carty, of Grade A, made an interesting analogy recently, that really resonated with me. Ted’s a thought leader in the Ottawa IT community and always has an interesting take on industry trends.
I asked him what he thought was the biggest gap when he spoke to potential clients about digital transformation and the ‘fourth industrial revolution’. The 4IR or Industry 4.0, by the way, is all about the fusion of technology such as Artificial Intelligence, robotics, IoT, 3D printing, VR, quantum computing and blockchain, to name a few. This disruptive technology wave will change the way we live and work, profoundly.
He said that most companies are running a Technology Debt that compounds quickly. Just like consumer debt, the longer you ignore it, the deeper it gets and the harder it is to climb out. Most companies are just covering the ‘minimum payment’, in other words, they continue to throw money at old and legacy technologies to keep them limping along, instead of investing in new ones that will future-proof their operations. They are allowing their current technology to drive their IT strategy instead of letting their long-term business strategy drive their technology decisions.
The Federal Government is a leading example of what happens when you run a Technology Debt, https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/federal-it-systems-at-risk-of-critical-failure-trudeau-warned-in-memo-1.4793335, and like all debt, if there’s no clear plan to deal with it, it eventually becomes unserviceable.
Watch this space for more insights into this interesting topic.
