The key technology items on the agenda for 2007

Did you think 2006 was hectic and busy? Well, 2007 will only bring more of the same.

Technology is firmly back on the boardroom agenda, and chief executives are turning to their IT managers for innovations that can drive growth, profits and competitiveness, or deliver improved public services or customer satisfaction.

There is every reason for IT managers to be confident as we enter the new year.

There are plenty of technologies around that can support IT-enabled change, and the opportunity is still there to introduce them before your rivals.

If you are forward-thinking, quick to act, and willing to lead change through the use of business technology, this could be your year.

On the following pages, we present Computing’s preview of the important technology issues that we expect to dominate in 2007.

What do you predict for the new year? Email us at feedback@computing.co.uk

Next page: The five key themes for IT directors

Five key themes for IT directors in 2007

Green computing

Our Green Computing campaign, launched last August, shows that the environment is increasingly important for IT – certainly if you judge by the huge response we have had from readers.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive becomes law this year, forcing firms to consider their recycling policies.

Consumers are looking to suppliers to prove their green credentials. And the new Companies Bill will force businesses to be more transparent about the environmental impact of their supply chain.

Innovation

In the business world, as well as in government – and not just in IT – innovation is the word on decision-makers’ lips.

By innovation, they mean ‘doing things differently’ not ‘inventing new products’. It is about improving processes and services by finding new ways to work, being creative, and seeking out and exploiting new opportunities.

And the only way to do any of this is through technology. Chief information officers (CIOs) who can deliver innovative solutions to their employer’s business problems have a great opportunity to prosper.

Skills

There is still a skills shortage – when has there not been one? But these days it does not simply mean there are not enough people to fill all the jobs.

The challenge for the IT community is to develop their skills to fit a new profile – business aware, good communicators, able to manage business relationships internally and externally, creative, innovative, and at the top level, leadership. Sorry, but commodity technical skills are going overseas.

And note that the sought-after skills include many traditionally associated with women – what a great opportunity to improve the appalling figure of just 16 per cent of IT workers being female.

Outsourcing

Recent research suggests that £7bn of outsourcing contracts are up for renewal this year – and that does not include the growing number of firms contracting out for the first time.

It will soon be almost impossible to find a major organisation that has not outsourced some or all of its IT, and experience of managing external service providers will be essential to IT professionals.

The growth of offshore services is going to continue – but experienced IT decision-makers will look for suppliers to provide the right mix of local and overseas talent.

Consumer IT

Consumers are turning to technology like never before. A new generation of workers expect the IT they use in the office to be as easy-to-use, responsive and intuitive as the technology at home and in their pockets.

And it is the same for customers – their new-found love of technology is going to determine who they choose to buy from. CIOs need to capitalise on the consumerisation of IT in 2007, both to help staff become more productive and to make customers more loyal.

Next page: Five technologies to watch in 2007

Five technologies to watch in 2007

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is an awful buzzword, but it represents a major shift in the technology world. The new internet is no longer static, but interactive.

Web sites can deliver functionality that previously could only be provided by software running on a PC. And online enthusiasts are searching not for the best site, but the best experience.

Tools such as blogs, social networking and wikis will allow startups to rapidly compete with established players – but they can also help companies improve productivity and collaboration.

Mobile computing

The mobile phone companies have struggled to understand the data world, but in a saturated voice market this is where future growth lies.

Mobile working is becoming an everyday part of the office – and the home – and wireless connectivity is becoming increasingly ubiquitous.

Internet access on phones is still not great, but it is getting better, and laptops are the big growth area in PCs.

RFID

Most major companies in manufacturing, distribution or retail are investigating the potential for radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.

The big names on the high street – Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Wal-Mart in the US – are well advanced with trials.

They have not been without problems – as Tesco found out last year – but RFID promises to revolutionise supply chains and deliver enormous benefits in cost and productivity.

Security

It is not strictly one to watch, but, as ever, security will be one of the biggest elements of every IT budget in 2007.

As soon as the vendors take a step forward, the cyber crooks find new ways around the technology. But a few leading-edge companies are looking at a different approach – changing their focus from the borders of their network to the data and applications within.

Big firms will be looking for new ways to tackle their IT security challenges.

Windows Vista

Microsoft is hoping – praying – that businesses will migrate to Vista in large numbers this year.

The company has a huge investment to recoup, but more importantly needs strong Vista uptake to retain its dominant position in the IT department.

Many firms are considering alternatives to the increasingly complex PC environment – thin clients, open source, or hosted software are all threats to the fundamental principle of the Windows PC being the way users access all their information and applications.

Next page: Five big issues for government IT in 2007

Five big issues for government IT in 2007

A new prime minister

Tony Blair may have famously admitted he does not know how to use a computer, but he has placed technology at the heart of government like no prime minister before.

He realised that without IT, he could not achieve his aim of modernising public service delivery.

In 2007, he departs, probably to be replaced by Gordon Brown. Will the Chancellor be so pro-IT? If anything, perhaps even more than Blair.

Brown’s drive to cut costs by improving Whitehall efficiency relies on IT, especially through the move to greater use of shared back-office services. Expect a Brown government to increase the impact of IT in the public sector.

Getting IT right

One of the big reasons there have been so many high-profile government IT problems in the past few years is because of an unprecedented number of high-profile government IT projects.

It has taken some time for Whitehall to learn from its mistakes, but today government IT is more professional, knowledgeable and skilled.

However, it still has a long way to go. A recent National Audit Office report highlighted some of the successes in government IT – many of which are conveniently overlooked by critics. But the public sector knows it has to be as good at IT in every project as it is in some projects.

Identity cards

With the first ID cards due to be issued in 2008, this year will see big steps taken to establish the technology behind the most controversial government policy of recent years.

The Home Office has wisely decided not to go for a Big Bang, and will look to use and adapt existing systems wherever possible – even if it has rather worryingly said it will not test every element of the ID cards IT before it goes live.

But the challenge of delivering biometric technology to millions of British citizens should not be underestimated.

NHS

Is the NHS National Programme for IT in a mess, or not? It depends who you talk to. A lot of progress has been made, but in some critical areas, such as the central element of electronic patient records, there are plenty of challenges yet to be overcome.

This year, expect some of the project to go well, and some to go not so well. After all, this is the biggest civilian IT project in Europe, if not the world, so there were always going to be problems – the measure of success is not if they exist, but how they are dealt with.

Joined-up government

We have had the Gershon review on efficiency, the Transformational Government strategy, and recently the Varney report on transforming public service delivery, each of which has stressed the importance of joined-up government.

The political will is there, but changing decades of siloed Whitehall culture is another thing. You will not be surprised to hear that IT is the key.

The Comprehensive Spending Review of department budgets – led by the former IT analyst and now chief secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms – will increase the financial and political pressure for change.

Next page: What the experts say - predictions for 2007

What the experts say - predictions for 2007

Picture archiving (Pacs) and electronic prescriptions will be rolled out to the benefit of millions of patients. CSC, Fujitsu and BT will start to roll out patient administration systems in the NHS in England with the same success with which Pacs is now being deployed. Following the completion of the N3 network rollout for the NHS, voice over IP will be deployed.

Richard Granger, director general of NHS IT 

IT management will evolve to regard its role as the management of talent rather than technology. Service-oriented architecture will finally move from pilot to mainstream. Security will be viewed much more holistically, and expand to cover areas not traditionally included. And vendors may finally realise that there is more to be gained from strategic relationships with customers than a quarterly targets-driven hard sell.

Rorie Devine, chief technology officer, Betfair 

I hope that 2007 will be the year in which small businesses act on the need to protect their organisations through sensible business continuity (BC) planning. According to Institute of Directors research, BC is the top IT concern cited by 71 per cent of respondents. Sadly, the same research shows 11 per cent back up only once per week or less, and 51 per cent only back up on site.

Jim Norton, senior policy adviser, Institute of Directors 

It is said that an army marches on its stomach, well I believe a modern economy and a modern business runs on its IT. As an IT profession this is what we do, make things happen, we improve the way an economy and a business runs. In 2007 we will continue to see the drive to improve the IT profession. We should see our improving focus to drive down the environmental impact of IT, more thin client, more virtualisation, and more reuse of what we have. And let us continue to learn when we get things wrong but also celebrate our successes.

John Suffolk, government CIO 

The trends that will gather pace in 2007 are: standardisation and dramatic cost reduction on desktop, server and network infrastructure, building on technologies such as IP and virtualisation; delivering value to customers by combining an organisation’s unique values with other organisations’ technical and business components, using maturing technologies such as the internet, SOA and web 2.0; And there will be a growth of self-empowering professional leadership groups building common policies and alignment between them.

Andrew Stott, deputy government CIO 

Many people do not realise that viruses and spyware have not gone away, but have gone silent and infect by stealth. Systems now contain trapdoors and in 2007 we will see real losses from information theft increasing. On the people side, the importance of professional security certification will continue to grow – driven by the need for engineering levels of digital reliability.

Paul Dorey, chairman, Institute of Information Security Professionals 

In 2007 we will see green computing move from hype to reality in two respects. Firstly we will start to see power consumption being widely regarded as a differentiator. Secondly, as a user community we will start to assume the use of collaboration tools which will reduce the need for travel as the norm rather than the exception.

Ross Taylor, managing director, E.ON information systems UK

One of the hot topics for 2007 may be energy consumption. Recent research from Intel, HP and Capgemini showing that energy use by IT equipment accounts for one per cent of the western world’s energy demands is certainly a wake up call.

Moore’s Law states processor power doubles every two years and again, there's an associated power demand. Software implementers have learned to take this for granted and often develop software for as-yet-unavailable processing power. As we demand more up to the minute information, we continually implement more information delivering devices. If IT departments have to stabilise, let alone cut their power use, it will impact us in ways we've not yet begun to contemplate.

Sandra Smith, IS director, Toshiba UK