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Welcome to the 21st Century It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting in my 5th grade class trying to count the years until 2000! I wanted to know how old I would be when that magic year arrived as it seemed important at the time. Well, I blinked, and now at age 36 the new millennium has arrived in full force. It's hard to believe that so many years have passed so quickly, yet time does pass swiftly and so does the technologies we use everyday. In as much as we seem to get older at an exponential rate technology really does. According to Moore's law we double our processing capacity every 18 months. I don't know this to be an absolute, but it sure seems to be the case. If that's not bad enough what used to be the appearance of a new Operating System or "OS" as we techies call it, about every 4 or 5 years is now about every 18 months. We can certainly thank Microsoft for a job well overdone! So what does this all mean to us? Read on. With this rapid increase in technology there are many pains we have to endure. At some point we have to make decisions that will keep us moving forward and at the same time keep us out of the red ink. It is more important than ever we keep informed of the technologies we possess and make sure they are adequate for today and tomorrow. It's easy to ignore what is working fine and let time slip by. Then, all of the sudden, you have what seems to be a simple failure and find you are forced into a major upgrade! In most cases I don't believe in fixing what isn't broke but with computer technology a proactive stance is the only way to ensure continued up time and compatibility. So where do we go from here? Well a good commander never goes into battle without a plan, and plan you must! Planning is the most important part of any business practice and is certainly the case with technology. In order for us to draw up a good plan we need to educate ourselves about the technologies we are using. I'm not saying everyone needs to have an MIS degree but we should have a general familiarity with our equipment and the software that runs on it. You wouldn't spend $20,000.00 on a car without knowing it needs regular routine maintenance like brakes and tires. If we did, we would soon find ourselves stuck on the side of the road. The more you know about how your car works the quicker you will recognize potential problems and correct them. A simple brake job can turn into new calipers, rotors, and a stock in your local garage without intervention. It's the same with your computer system; you have invested a significant amount of money in it, so it's important you keep it running smoothly. Ok, I know I need to learn more, where do I go to get that information? In a lot of situations the "where" can be as simple as turning to an employee. There is a tremendous amount of knowledge hidden within your employees and it generally only requires that you ask. In other situations you might want to hire an outside consultant or local technician, if this is the route you choose make sure you always get a second opinion. Just like there are crooked car salesmen there are crooked computer salesmen as well. In either case get as much information as you can. The more information, the more informed your decisions. I'm pretty familiar with my system and the software, now what do I do? Now that you have all this new found knowledge it's time to piece together your technology plan. There are several things that you need to consider when piecing it together they are; 1. Antivirus
Protection - I don't understand why my hard drive is smoking?
I don't have the internet on my computer. (Trust me, the virus
writers know this.)
I have my plan now what? You have a plan great, now fund it and put it into action. The plan will do you no good unless you use it, and to use it you have to give it money. The funding is probably the hardest part of this process, so instead of large scheduled upgrades I recommend the 401k approach. Most of us can't afford to lay whopping sums of money into our retirements so instead we put a little away every month. We can do the same thing by creating a technology budget with a regular schedule. You may not have an accurate budget right away but as time goes on you will get better and better. The ultimate goal here is to prevent an untimely and costly system upgrade because technology has out paced us. There is a middle ground out there, we just have to plan our way to it. By Jeff Griswold Other
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