ICT Career Microsoft Presentation
Your career in ICT
By Peter Grant
Qld, NT, Pacific Is. State Director Microsoft
About the Presenter:
Peter has a total of over 30 years experience in private enterprises, government and Microsoft. Before joining Microsoft Peter was the Chief Information Officer for the Queensland Government providing high-level policy advice to the Minister and the Government on a wide range of government, industry, tertiary and strategic business issues. He was also responsible for providing strategic leadership and management to ensure that whole-of- Government Information and Communication Technology initiatives were maximised.Peter is the State Director Queensland, Northern Territory and Pacific Islands for Microsoft and is responsible for driving Microsoft’s business in these regions. Peter holds a Bachelor of Business, Master of Information Systems and is an Adjunct Professor, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland. Peter is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Australian Computer Society (Fellow), Queensland Branch Executive Committee Member and the Art Deco Society.
Where is ICT driving our future?
- Where does ICT fit in Australia’s way of life?
- What would fixing the ICT skills shortage do for Australia?
- What technical and non technical skills are in demand now?
- Where are 270,000 ICT professionals taking Australia next?
- How can ICT as a profession be promoted successfully?
The ICT Industry now
The Australian governments are trying to reduce ICT expenditure.
Of the $50 Billion Government 2009 Quarter 1 rescue package, none is given to ICT industry.
Aust Trade IT systems are under strain when special events such as the economic crisis occur. This can be a limitation for information delivery.
ICT now produces more carbon that the airline industry. This does not take into consideration the carbon saved through using automated processes.
Consider what QLD Government HR would be without advanced computer systems. Much more people and facilities would be needed, processes would be slower and paperwork would be higher.
University IT enrolments in SE QLD have fallen 70% between 2001 and 2007. This equates to 4000 less IT graduates available.
University now link IT to Engineering UQ, Science QUT and Business JCU. IT covers all faculties.
When all faculties work together the IT outcomes are awesome. All faculties are valuable in their own way.
What is an ICT career?
ICT careers can be classified as a general background plus a specialisation.
Building Technology
This includes software and hardware "Engineering" of efficient, effective and reliable equipment.
New government policy is to buy off the shelf or outsource to a software company.
Roles such as web developer, systems analyst, software developer and testing manager are in this field.
Myth: Most people think this is only about programming.
Running Technology
This is a $2 Billion industry in Queensland.
Qld Police have over 100 persons working in this field in a single building in Brisbane.
Qld Health have over 1000 persons in this field.
Activities in this field include ITIL, capacity planning, high availability, good management and security.
Roles can include database administrator, systems administrator, telecoms engineer, customer services manager.
Myth: Most people think this is about fixing broken PCs.
Transforming Business
This field can be partially described in terms of social science.
Lots of wonderful success stories come from this field. Promotion of successes is currently poor.
Activities in this field include benefits management, business analyst, trainer, project management and process modelling.
Theory includes process modelling, team dynamics, project governance, quality management.
An example given in this field was the equipping of 40 police cars with number plate scanning technology linked with outstanding fines database. The trial was too successful. It was returned $38 million from a $9 million investment. The issue was that too many person were put in jail for not paying their fines and that system could not cope. The technology trial was then dropped.
The public seem to only remember the failures. This thinking undermines the appetite for change.
Designing the Enterprise
This type of role can be like the city planner for business. Banking is very forward thinking in this field.
Positions in this field include IT Strategist, Service Oriented Architect, Technology Architect and Information Management Specialist.
Activities include Modelling tools, Zachman Frameworks, SOA, ICT Business Alignment and understanding how business works together.
This field is totally invisible to the public. It is not recognised as a seperate field in Hays Salary Surveys.
ICT Career Suggestions
- Find out what you like and pursue it
- Choose your ICT career specialisation carefully as changing it will require new training to build up base knowledge.
- Consider the requirements of all specialisations as you will need to work with them.
- With no qualifications a person can start in a help desk role.
- With TAFE qualifications you can move into a Running Technology role.
- With a University Degree all specialisations are available to you.
- Extensive experience and post graduate knowledge will help when entering Transforming Business and Designing the Enterprise.
- Vendor training can help with Building Technology, Running Technology and Transforming Business.
- There are no entry points in Transforming Business and Designing the Enterprise.
- Competitive advantage = good value + good return
- Try to be unique, valuable and have working technology that is hard to copy.
- Fast ICT adoption can be a rich source of sustainable competitive advantage.
- The ability to see enabling technology and being able to use it quickly gives you the edge.
An example of not seeing enabling technology was with Xerox. Xerox was worried about the paperless office. The set up a research group and gave them 1 year to define the future of business. In the year they created Ethernet networking, Mouse navigation device, Word Processor, Object Orientated Programming. The research was dropped and the results are now Microsoft, Apple and Cisco which is a $300 billion industry.
Lots of people cannot see technology innovation.
The Internet was created in 1959.
TCP/IP networking was defined in 1981.
Email was sent in 1971.
Technology adoption is slower than you think.
Four things we use IT for
- Transform, automate and lock in processes
- Improve decision making. Structured and unstructured. Lots of systems are for compliance only. We can design the next level up.
- Communication
- Entertainment
Business processes people need to know about
- What is CRM?
- Document Management...why do it?
- What is Portfolio Management?
- Business ICT Alignment...What's that?
- ICT Governamce...Why have it?
Society changes into the future
- Shifting demographics
- Information Economy
- ICT evolution
- Global workforce
- Population aging, urbanizing and ethnically complex
- Internet divide between users and non users
- Percentage of information workers increasing
- Digital information growth and information sharing
The future of ICT
Government and Business need to invest in ICT to allow the next generation of productivity gains. The first move advantage in technology adoption is strong and should be in the minds of business and government.
Humans are poor at technology adoption. E.g. Steam engine pump invented in 1600s, steam engine vehicle invented in 1800s.
New non traditional business models will need to be catered for with IT.
New ultimate teams can be formed from people anywhere in the world using IT.
People can be accessed independent of any single communication device.E.g smart phone, laptop, desktop, desk phone.
There is a lot of breakthrough technology available today. How quick can you or your organisation leverage it?
Gifted information workers will be able to automate business including unstructured decisions and improve interoperability.
Exchange 2008 allows user to ring Exchange server and it can read emails and you can respond with voice only. 60% of email work in Peter's case can be handled by voice only.
Sharepoint Enterprise edition can be used to create user friendly front end interfaces to back ends such as SAP.
SQL 2008 is now just as functional as Oracle.
Cloud Computing
Data can be held in a cloud and accessed for many devices such as a mobile phone, laptop, netbook, desktop, table top touch computer etc.
The information is independent of the devices used to access it.
Cloud storage of data can allow small business to get access to big business features.
Central storage could be handled like a utility is now with fees for service.
Cloud information can be meshed and shared amongst business partners and clients as required.
Search
The use of OCR scanned documents and electronic documents with modern search tools will able you to do more with information.Search for any data in documents, cross match similar data, look for alias and typos, reduce data errors, reduce real mistakes e.g. Health.
Collaboration
Video conferencing can now support multiple users. Return on Investment can be measured sometimes in days.
Home technologies
- Home health monitoring with remote monitoring
- Surface touch screen that adapt to what is placed on then. E.g. Medicines.
- Car and home security linked systems
- Seamless information exchange between client, architect, builder, supplier all from the cloud.
Lets promote a vibrant industry that we are!