Think ahead to avoid IT blindspots

My three-year-old granddaughter believes that some cars can talk and know where they’re going. And so she sometimes gets upset when mum doesn’t turn left when the built-in sat-nav tells her to.

Yes, it’s a typical sort of cute tale you would expect from a doting grandparent, but it’s a tale with a fairly limited chuckle-by date. It’s not something she’ll be able to dine out on in a few decades’ time, by which time kids will be growing up believing that computers can fix themselves or some other such nonsense.

The reason I’ve brought this up is that it shows how our own experiences make it all too easy to misjudge the mindset of a new generation. And when we’re talking about technology, such a misjudgement can easily turn round and bite a company on the ankle.

In my last column I ventured the opinion that the new wave of small ultraportable notebook PCs, led by the Asus Eee PC, were unlikely to become popular as business tools.

I still stand by my conclusions, but I realise that I’ve missed a trick. What I forgot was that my opinion is, naturally, based on my own IT experience, not that of someone who’s spent 20-odd years growing up surrounded by tiny Linux-powered computers and talking cars. What my granddaughter will take for granted when she grows up is what companies need to think about if they don’t want to be caught out.

The days when you had to explain to employees exactly what that funny box and screen on the desk are for are long gone (or are they?) Employers now expect a certain level of computer familiarity, extending even to being able to use basic office applications.

But the landscape never stagnates, and gradual changes can catch us unaware. For example, if small Linux-powered laptops continue to sell as well as they are doing, especially in schools, we could soon have a generation that isn’t necessarily familiar with Windows or Office, even though they are perfectly capable of using them after a bit of training. And so just when you’d thought that you’d never need basic training on the corporate desktop platform again, suddenly you might need to hurriedly try and find someone to provide “Windows 7 for Linux users” courses.

Of course, I could make a similar case for Apple, which is currently number two in the UK education market and still growing. Top dog by far in that market is still RM, formerly Research Machines, which is selling the Eee PC, rebranded as the miniBook, as fast as Asus can make them.

If all this sounds like stating the obvious, it means you’ve a good chance of staying ahead of the game. But if it still means nothing to you, try to think back to the pain during the days when you were trying to integrate mobile phones, PDAs or even laptops into your company network, or the agonies caused when instant messaging and Skype first reared their heads in the workplace.

More recently, Facebook and other social networking sites have recently caught many companies off their guard as employees have been found wasting hours pinging and poking their mates. The next trend? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t mind betting it will involve an i-something. Get those lock-down management tools ordered now?

Whatever the details, it doesn’t affect my overall point, which is that smart companies need to keep a very close eye – and preferably a young eye – on what technology, skills and attitudes the next-generation workforce might bring with them. Just ignore the funny haircuts and self-driving cars.