IT and You

As a small company in growing pains, Amici has grown accustomed to incessant process changes in constant search for the best way of doing things.  Some changes though not merely whims without reasons are due perhaps to hypotheses and not so scientific methods of experimentations.  Most will have foundations in text book analyses and prescriptions of friends in or out of the industry.  It should be good then that we are not so big as to be inflexible.  We strive to be agile.

Information technology is one pillar our company leans on to improve itself.  And as much as changes live and die and evolve through generations, information technology only outlives itself due to constant makeover.  Processes such as counting inventory, tracking serial numbers, monitoring expenses, preparing our next orders, etc. find themselves renovated as ideas and plans come into fruition in every next iteration of our information system.

People, whether cooperative or antagonistic towards each and every change, play the bigger part in moulding our company evolution.  IT changes that find huge backlashes are commonly flawed in design or expectations.  People are the users who swear by the strengths of and curse the weaknesses of our system.  They demand change more demandingly than mere routine pro-activeness.

There is however a natural wall between people and IT.  On one side, a lot of people do not know what to seek from IT.  They live with what's there, and dismiss inefficiencies as way of life.  And then on the other side are people who see IT too magically, without practical consideration to time or budget.  IT though materially inexpensive costs time and manpower.

Also, the software developer who receives requests from users is too often distanced to understand what users expect.  Users themselves do not know too well their requirements, and the software developer challenged in communication is only happy to guess usage and expectations.

The solution of course is a comfortable entanglement between IT and users.  But before that, Amici IT should seek organization and sustainability.