As a technology professional, I am often asked how business is doing with the current economic slowdown. My standard reply is that it could be better. It’s not that business is bad; it’s just different. The latest technology is more user-friendly, with more and more users feeling that they can do things themselves. While we have come a long way, there is still a great deal that the average user will struggle with. This leads to frustration and sometimes shifts the focus to the setup of the technology over the actual usage of the technology.

Technology professionals typically spend hours of unbilled time scouring the Internet, reading manuals, and experimenting with various products to stay abreast of the rapidly changing industry. They are typically able and willing to give a customer much more than is expected or billed. I encourage current and prospective customers to take advantage of this unique opportunity and spend more of their time actually using and benefiting from the technology.

As for the evolution, subscription-based hardware and software services are coming of age.  The “Cloud” is the hot new buzzword. Advancements in the reliability and availability of Internet connections have made this an attractive alternative to investing in your own computers and software.  For a monthly fee, you can hook up to servers via the Internet and do your work online. While this is not a new technology, time will tell if it has matured to the point of being a viable way to run a business, especially those with mission critical applications.

I expect we will continue to see the proliferation of hand-held and tablet devices with vendors competing for market share.  Holography technology will bring 3-D to your cell phone. Home entertainment will eventually move to the web providing more pay per view opportunities and usage based Internet access fees. Satellite technology will finally be able to compete with cable and telco providers for residential and commercial communications market share.

Unfortunately, all this innovation comes with hidden costs. The more we connect with each other virtually the less physical, face-to-face contact we have. We hardly see  our children and the family dinner table is a pretty lonely place. Also, all these electrons bouncing off us can’t be too healthy. But as long as people have a love affair with gadgets, technology professionals will need to be there to enable the addiction and, hopefully, make a little profit.

-JgB