madison

How IT can save us from recession

Colin Barker ZDNet.co.uk | April 9, 2008 8:16 AM PDT

Summary

IT staff to the rescue. They have to both identify and solve business needs to lift the country out of a financial downturn, says Gartner analysts.
IT innovation will be a key factor in helping the US to get out of recession, said a Gartner analyst on Monday.

Speaking at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo for spring 2008, vice president of research and senior fellow Ken McGee outlined an action plan for IT departments, termed "Innovation of the Third Kind", that he said must be implemented now.

"IT can lift America right out of this recession but it's up to you to make the difference," McGee told the conference. Businesses have to innovate, but what is needed, according to Gartner, is a new, third kind of innovation.

The first kind of innovation is when IT people devise plans to meet technical needs that have been observed by IT staff, McGee said. "Infrastructure modernization is an example," he said.

The second type of innovation is when IT introduces solutions to deal with business needs that have been identified by business people. These solutions only produce incremental change from an infrastructure perspective.

What is needed now is innovation of a third kind, said McGee. This comes about when IT people introduce projects to meet business needs that have been observed by IT staff, he said. The senior analyst said IT executives should start scheduling meetings with business unit managers and executives, review their IT portfolio and decide what is going to go ahead, what could be trimmed and which products are going to be cut. "Have business plan in place before getting the green light", said McGee.

Elaborating on his message, McGee stressed that creative technical projects turn IT departments into a more proactive, productive and innovative part of the business.

Talkback Most Recent of 41 Talkback(s)

  • yeah...right!
    When people and projects are axed, you want to start new projects...lol.
    "IT can lift America right out of this recession but it's up to you to make the difference,"
    And I thought most of the IT has already moved to India, so that begs the question: who's doing the 'lifting'?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Linux Geek
    9th Apr 2008
  • Yup
    The global markets are purely hijacked by the people that think it means they should remain rich by keeping others down.

    Bye bye.

    Welcome to the "knowledge economy" coke sniffing Penelope and Rupert.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    fr0thy2
    9th Apr 2008
  • Not to mention
    successful IT projects, and there aren't many, eliminating human jobs. Or is that saw too old?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    sborsher
    9th Apr 2008
  • H1-x & L1-x visa programs caused this mess!!!
    With a million plus US citizens displaced (by H-1x & L-1X) in favor of cheap foreign labor!! At least four times that number affected by wage stagnation!!! Rampant age discrimination..

    What did you really expect!!


    Vast numbers of foreign workers keep on flowing in
    ~140K H1-B's each year.
    ~50K medical workers per year. (leftover H-1B's visa quota from the tech crash). ~70K L1-x's per year..

    The DHS just added another ~400,000 F1 visa holders to the mix. (Extending their post grad stays (& work authorization) by 17 months.)

    All into a collapsing job market!!!

    No the US isn't going to be recovering anything!!

    Right now the US suffering a credit crash due to a reduction in credit worthiness. Adding more below average income workers into a finite job market is exactly the WRONG medicine.

    This economic crash is going to get much deeper, and the idiots in charge are blind to the obvious indicators.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    thetruth_z
    11th Apr 2008
  • ie: welcome to the knowledge economy
    The old angle of profit/recession, unaffordable housing etc

    Fcuk financial growth, the real growth is actually doing useful stuff.

    How much longer can the market's pretend they actually have any worth whatsoever?

    My bank? Chargin me ?500 quid for ignoring their threats because they made me ?6 overdrawn with a ?7 charge, then jumped on "their opportunity" to ramp it up (within 4 months they thgought I owed them ?500 quid).

    Bye bye.

    Welcome to the knowledge economy wink
    ZDNet Gravatar
    fr0thy2
    9th Apr 2008
  • HAHAHA IT Save?
    IT come up with solutions for infastructure modernization. This is after they claim that all the metrics used to measure this improvement (ROI) are wrong. So basically you want the business to let IT buy the newest equipment and software and not show any actual dollar impact.
    There seems to be a severe lack of business insight among IT managers in general, until this changes they have a better chance of worsening the recession rather than helping.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    weepule
    9th Apr 2008
  • ZDNet Gravatar
    robdls
    9th Apr 2008
  • RE: How IT can save us from recession
    OK...so this is pretty stupid.

    Yes efficiency is good...so if all sectors...not just IT pull their heads out and trim the fat...it may help.

    To say that just IT can save the day is just stupid.

    Of course the best ways to keep this recession in check is to stop wasting money on a war that nobody asked to be fought....stop thinking that "just one more small monthly payment won't bankrupt me", stop thinking "sub-prime" loans were a good idea, and heck...just cut up the plastic...you clearly can't use it safely.

    The US is so wasteful it's not funny....you are now getting what you had coming to you...enjoy the slide down off the super power list that karma has planned for you.

    ciao
    ZDNet Gravatar
    ColdFusion_z
    9th Apr 2008
  • Of all the narcisistic blatherings someone could spew
    this one takes the cake.
    Anyone who thinks that his or her industry can single handedly save a multi-faceted country from recession is plain stupid.
    The recession has come about because of many compounding problems that won't be solved by simply cutting costs in IT, which is the main "groundbreaking" idea of this blog offers.

    Please, get over yourself.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    tikigawd
    9th Apr 2008
  • RE: How IT can save us from recession
    What a bunch of nay-sayers. I for one consider myself a forward thinker who happens to work in IT. I have the opportunity to suggest ways to improve our business processes within and outside my department and I do it often. Maybe I'm in a more fortunate situation than most, but my opinion is that people in general need to start asserting themselves at work more, i.e. "speak up." Get interested in what you do and maybe you'll see more rewards down the line AND save us from recession.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    DotWhat
    9th Apr 2008
  • good attitude
    That's a great attitude to have....keep it up.

    That said...it still is NOT going to stop a recession.

    The recession stems from many issues, but the biggest is spending too much flippin money that you don't have to spend. Eventually you must pay the piper.

    The US continues to increase it's national debt....other countires no better.

    Heck...China owns the US now. How much debt is to China? What would happen if China decided to sell of US currency? BOOM that's what.

    The reality is it's TOO LATE. FOr the future I hope the US stops being such a blatant consumer and realizes if you can't afford it...don't buy it....pretty simple really.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    ColdFusion_z
    9th Apr 2008
  • business vs. government
    While I wish the government would stop overspending and generally get it together, I think the gist of what Gartner is referring to is getting businesses, not the government, to work smarter through IT and to get IT staff to think strategically about the business. IT won't magically end the recession, but it's one small but useful resource that almost all companies can tap to make significant changes that will increase their bottom lines. As companies grow and become successful, more jobs get created. If everyone's working and doing generally ok, them they'll be able to pay their mortgages and pay down their debts. Sounds good to me.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    DotWhat
    9th Apr 2008
  • RE: How IT can save us from recession
    Do you want to save us from recession? How about admitting that because we off shored all of the jobs, Americans are out of work in record numbers. If there is no work, Americans can't buy the goods, services and housing. We did it to ourselves.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    wmpierro@...
    9th Apr 2008
  • Corporate greed killed America
    I have been in manufacturing 40 years and lost my job; which is being sent to China. The average person didn't do it to themselves, corporate greed did it to us. What are enemies couldn't do to us in WWII, the Chinese will do without firing a shot.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    stevenhalsey@...
    9th Apr 2008
  • Paraphrasing here, but...
    ...I read somewhere that the best way to defeat an enemy nation is to destroy their economy, and everything else will fall into place.

    Of course, China, the Mid-East, et al don't have to worry about doing that, because we're doing it to ourselves thru short-sightedness, greed, and vested interests.

    Canada is looking more appealing to me every day...
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Your Mom 2.0
    9th Apr 2008

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