InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
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January 8, 2001 |
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Advice To The President-Elect
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ear President-Elect Bush:Technology threads through our lives, both in the workplace and in our communities. Yet, somehow, in terms of national policy, technology stays on the back burner. The Clinton administration pulled together groups to study technology and even crafted general guidelines represented in an E-commerce framework. Still, technology has never fully arrived on the national agenda.
Mr. Bush, we urge you to make technology a top priority. What's lacking is a coordinated national effort whose leadership comes from the Executive Office. The 21st-century's economy is largely being driven by technology, just as the 20th-century's economy ran on manufacturing and production. The Internet is here to stay, with the potential to affect the lives of every American.
We recommend greater collaboration between government and private industry in matters technology-related. Building relationships and forging coalitions across disparate groups is part of your reputation as a leader. We encourage you to bring that skill to bear on this issue.
As leaders in the implementation of technology, IT professionals are greatly concerned about its impact on privacy and security. In an InformationWeek online survey of 200 IT professionals, 80% rated Internet privacy as the most important area of concern for the incoming administration. Nearly two-thirds believe more government influence is needed in the area of privacy; the number jumps to 77% for consumer protection. The Internet has opened new doors for collecting customer data; technologists are thrilled with the possibilities and aware of the potential for misuse.
Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, and numerous advocacy groups are tackling the privacy issue. We urge you to get involved in the development of such legislation. We want government and private industry to craft smart policy that lets the Internet rise to its greatest potential, a place where both business and consumers can succeed.
IBM's CEO Lou Gerstner, speaking at last month's E-Business Expo in New York, told business and technology executives that the privacy and security issues we're dealing with today are trivial compared with what lies ahead. We recommend that the best minds in government and private industry team up to develop standards and enforcement policies that will protect national security, global competitiveness, and consumer privacy.
Another major area of ongoing concern to business leaders is the shortage of qualified technology workers. Increases in H-1B visa allotments have had little more than a palliative effect. Without a well-trained IT workforce, more and more jobs will go offshore.
Training American workers is just one part of the solution. Our education system needs an overhaul to include computer literacy as a core competency. Efforts must go beyond solving the IT labor shortage to the heart of the matter: the so-called digital divide. Today, technological literacy is as basic to society's advancement as the ability to read was in the early 20th century.
Encouraging students and giving them the tools they need to become computer literate has the power to turn the digital divide into digital opportunity. We applaud programs such as the federal initiative to grant $100 million over five years to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America to bring IT training to kids in rural communities and inner cities. On a smaller and no-less-important scale, a $750,000 grant from the Department of Education that will set up several community-based technology centers where families can drop in, use computers, and get technology training, is also commendable. But computer literacy for every boy and girl must be a national mandate.
To address these concerns, we urge you to consider a recommendation raised at a roundtable discussion among technology managers sponsored by InformationWeek: creating a Secretary of Technology or similar cabinet-level position that would report directly to you and carry the authority and oversight in technology strategy and policy that other secretaries do. It took years for business to understand the strategic importance and revenue potential IT delivers. Most chief executives now turn to their top technology managers as trusted advisers and strategists. We urge you to do the same.
Technology is the great enabler: It has moved companies forward; it has moved the economy forward; it holds the promise to move the nation forward. It's time for this nation and its leaders to realize IT's importance in the 21st century and bring technology front-and-center.
Respectfully,
The editors of Informationweek
Illustration by Ellen Weinstein
continue on to IT Execs Speak Out On Technology
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