Thought of the Day - IT Departments are the new Typing Pools

Something i have been saying since i joined the world of work almost 4 years ago is that in the near future IT Departments are going to become as much of an anachronism as the Typing Pool. I don't think we are there yet but three things are converging that are accelerating the process: 1) The IT skill level is increasing exponentially as the 'millennial' generation join the workforce, these people will be able to support older users and should be much more used to solving their own problems. 2) Increased automation of IT processes make the system administration simpler. 3) Increased outsourcing of high level IT infrastructure, if you don't need people to support servers and bespoke programs it isn't really worth keeping them around to support stupid user issues.

They are surprisingly similar to the things that caused the demise of the typing pool. 1) Most employees were using computers and became used to typing (people). 2) Printing technology meant you could type something once but producesubtly different versions with minimal effort (technology). 3) It was possible to retain secretaries for specific people for whom typing was not the best use of their time (outsourcing high level tasks).

Idea From: http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/02/14FE-user-managed-pc_1.html