360°IT Blog

I came across a new phrase recently, one I liked so much I plan to adopt its use in future articles, thereby claiming all the glory for its conception. But to alleviate any feelings of guilt, I shall first give credit where it’s due and thank Peter Hambling, CIO of Lloyd’s of London, for coming up with the idea of “Sunday night/Monday morning syndrome” to describe one of the latest challenges facing IT managers.
 
Hambling was describing the situation whereby employees sit at home on a Sunday night on their feature-packed laptops, connected through their wireless routers to a high-speed broadband Internet connection. After an evening experiencing the ease of use of eBay, the simplicity of Google and the functionality of Amazon, they turn up at work the next day.
 
Five minutes after switching on their PC it finally boots up and lets them log in, then there's a further five minutes' wait for all the internal security routines to complete - which gives them a chance to discuss the latest episode of Mad Men (which they watched on BBC iPlayer, naturally).
 
Next it’s down to work – tabbing through all the fields in their business applications, maybe even entering a few control codes to make sure the software does what was intended. By the end of Monday morning they are ready to express their frustrations through a virtual chat with a couple of Facebook friends - but, of course, the systems are locked down and access to social media is banned.
 
Should we really be surprised if users compare their home and work experience of technology and then look at the IT department and think: “They must be useless. Surely it can’t be that difficult?” 
 
Perhaps many IT departments have already experienced the moment when the first-line helpdesk takes a call from a disgruntled user who knows more about their PC than the person answering the phone. If you haven't, just wait - it's coming.
 
Hambling's comment came during a Computer Weekly round table on how to better manage the balance between operational and innovation spending. According to some estimates, as much as 80% of a typical IT budget goes towards 'keeping the lights on'. Is it any wonder IT leaders find it hard to deliver the levels of innovation we have all come to expect from the websites and online services we use every day? 
 
The full write-up of the debate gives a lot more detail, but the delegates identified five key areas organisations must focus on if they're to to cut the costs of maintaining IT and free up more cash to help meet the changing demands of the business and the growing expectations of users: standardisation, virtualisation, generating business interest, maintaining innovation spend and managing user expectations.
 
Of course, the biggest challenge for IT managers is also approaching fast – the day the chief executive takes you to one side and tells you his 12-year-old daughter just developed her own iPhone app, and it only took two weeks, so why does it take so long to implement business systems? It will happen, that’s a promise.

Bryan Glick is editor-in-chief of Computer Weekly.

Tags:

IT innovation, cost reduction, operational expenditure, web 2.0, enterprise 2.0, managing expectations, web services, applications, social networking, consumerisation


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