Do You Have a Personal IT Department?

Just think about how technology has changed our lives over the last 30 years. So much so that it is firmly embedded in the very fabric of our personal world and how we choose to live it. Most of us would never dream of leaving home without our smart phone. It is our information appliance; our connection to the wider world; our personal platform, so to speak. We use it to book flights; arrange accommodation; follow our favorite football team; get the latest news; see what the weather forecast is; trade stocks and check on our investment portfolio; investigate when the next train is scheduled to arrive; pay bills; search for information about the washing machine we are about to purchase; all seamlessly, sometimes at just the push of a button. I am always shocked with the statistics for my weekly screen time that pops up on my iPhone.

Before the Internet (ca. 1993), most of us of a certain age probably only used computers at work. The more enthusiastic may have had a PC at home, but they were expensive and standalone devices (they were, after all, personal computers). With the emergence of the Internet a whole new world opened up. Rather than wait for the postman, we could now communication instantly via email. We could browse shopfronts and catalogues. We could order books online. We could track our parcel delivery. We could compare the features and prices of a product we might be considering buying. We could tax our car. As more and more digital services became available we took to them all like ducks to water.

While early mobile phones were crude and with limited access to digital services – remember WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and the “walled gardens” of operators? – they pointed to a digital future that exploded with the Apple iPhone and its app store. Untethered, the smart phone provides direct connection to the pocket of every customer, patient, citizen, supplier, government official and regulator. It has been a real game-changer.

Of course it wasn’t always like this. With early PCs, you were shackled to a desk. And tech was not always easy to use. I can remember manually changing the ‘dip switches’ configuration of printers when looking to print from different models of computers, even from the same manufacturer. Installing a modem (remember them?) to connect to a service provider for internet access usually required some help from a technician. Software came on physical disks that had to be installed. There was no graphical user interface (GUI), the point, scroll and click that we are all familiar with today. Even using DOS, the precursor of Windows, sometimes required a little programming knowledge (remember the autoexec.bat file where you could automate the loading of specific software on boot-up?). Getting apps to work together, if even a possibility, was the proverbial nightmare to achieve. We actually used the phrase “not user friendly” to refer to apps that were clunky and difficult to use. But over time, things improved drastically. Apple, Google, Salesforce, Facebook, Microsoft, and a host of tech companies all saw to that. Our experience as users and customers is a central focus of attention.

Today, most of us would never consider going back into a bank branch. Our monthly salary automatically arrives into our bank account. We pay for our coffee using Apple Pay. Facebook allows us to connect with old friends and share personal news and photos. We transfer money to our kids using TWINT. We book hotels and flights using online reservation systems. Tic Toc provides some light relief. Twitter allows us to reach into the thoughts of presidents and athletes. AnyList enables the family to collaborate on grocery shopping. When I flew through Changi Airport last year I quickly downloaded the airport app to find my way around. We have just embraced technology and the opportunities it affords.

Our decision-making has also become much more “data driven” as a result. I can remember as a kid, to take the bus to the city I would just turn up at a bus stop hoping that I wouldn’t be waiting too long for one to arrive. When we got a paper bus timetable, I arrived at the bus stop just before the time when the schedule indicated the bus should arrive; of course, there was no certainty that it would turn up at this time. Today, using the bus company app, I can track exactly where the bus is on its route, see the expected time of arrival and schedule my departure to reach the bus stop with seconds to spare. And there no need to rummage for coins to pay my fare; payment is integrated with the app.

My fitness routine has also become much more data driven. My Garmin watch records my heart rate and tells me the distance I run during my daily workouts and my pace per kilometer. Plotting my running route on a map, it will even show me an elevation profile as well as the times of others who may have ran that same course. When I run intervals, I can evaluate my progress over time across distance, recovery periods and heart rates, data points I desperately tried to accurately capture when I was in racing shape but without much success. Try taking your pulse as you gasp for oxygen after a 1,000-meter interval run, on a freezing January evening when you can barely feel your fingers! To cap it off, every morning my watch even tells me whether I got enough REM sleep!

Growing up, our annual family holiday was a two-week sojourn by the coast in a rented house. My mother initially found the accommodation in a newspaper classified ad for holiday rentals and wrote to the address requesting availability for the June dates. Of course, she had no idea what the house looked like, beyond a ten-word newspaper description. Was it even clean? Last year, we used Airbnb to locate a villa in the South of France, saw pictures and videos of different properties, read the reviews of previous guests, used google maps to find their precise location and then made a choice and booked the property we liked. On reflection, this decision was data driven, but really it’s just how we do things now. It is how we now choose which washing machine to buy or what film to see or music to listen too; being data driven is now part of our personal behavior and we do it without even knowing it.

This is a considerable transformation: you might even call it a digital transformation. For many of my decisions, I am data driven where previously I was a ‘gut feeler.’ I use tech to improve my efficiency; and, of course for the convenience it offers. It is just an integral part of my daily life and I have embraced it. Indeed, for many, the restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic only accelerated their move to digital or gave those who might be resisting a little push.

And guess what? I don’t have my own IT department. I don’t have a personal CIO. I have never attended a training course on how to buy books on Amazon’s website or use my local bus company’s app. I don’t even know if Facebook has a help desk. Yet, the tech and apps I use just work. If they don’t, I either replace or delete them. Simple as that. I have become “digital by default” and it isn’t due to any fancy slogan or new year’s resolution or change management program. To paraphrase the 2009 iPhone advertisement, for many of the problems and situations that I encounter, I usually wonder if ‘there is an app for that?’

This got me thinking about corporate computing and the digital transformation efforts of organizations. Tech has become a competitive necessity for all organizations; data is a critical resource and a strategic asset (I would, of course, argue that it always has been). Yet, for most employees, tech doesn’t function in the work environment the way it does for them in their personal life. At the same time, not all employees are as data driven in work situations as they are in their personal life. They are certainly not digital-by-default. Most organizations, it seems, are just slow to embrace tech and struggle with their tech initiatives. We know from research that many organizations are struggling with the digital transformation efforts. Why can we make tech work for us in our personal life but not always in our ‘organizational’ life? What can corporate computing learn from how we have embraced tech and data in our personal life?