IT-Alternative - for those at sea

or, "there must be a better way than this??"

Nick Daisley, Oxford, UK

The philosophy of this site, and of the business, is one of helping and encouraging people to use the computing skills and resources they have to the best possible advantage, rather than proselytising one particular way of doing things.

Computing is no longer a 'young industry', yet it very often functions like one. There is still a phenomenal amount of time being wasted by people being forced into the use of inappropriate technologies which cost too much and with which they are completely uncomfortable - and too many people selling the goods and then running away from their responsibilities.

Meanwhile many of the people who are, in their own quiet way, using IT to its fullest extent, are being left behind by the process of designing 'the perfect system' on a trickle-down theory of technology, without consultation.

If you are using Apple Mac equipment, have developed skills in working with it and feel comfortable with it, why should you change to Windows XP just because 'everyone else is doing it'? Or indeed, if all of your systems work fine on Windows Networking on a little network, why should you be pushed in the direction of some Open Systems Unix which promises miracles?

Will the solution being presented to you, really impact the fundamental problems which slow down the work which goes on in your company? And in any case, shouldn't someone be asking opinions of your staff?

A Brief Example

It was not very long ago that we happened upon a highly-trained graduate employee in a major UK retail company's office, re-typing a vast music-ruled mainframe printout into an Excel spreadsheet to analyse it (and of course I stuck my nose in to see what was going on, and why).

Nobody had ever thought to explore ways of converting the data into another format for this monthly process; nobody had even run a network or serial line from the mainframe into the back of the PC to enable a cut-and-paste from a terminal emulator. So each month, a day and a half of a valuable person's time was wasted with a boring, error-prone and fundamentally unnecessary job.

Nobody had ever asked that person how they used IT, how they would prefer to use IT, or what elements of IT wasted their time. Those are the questions which need asking.

Our Primary Computing Skills

• Database design, installation, migration, management and interfacing.
• Website design and marketing.
• Hardware analysis, installation, and troubleshooting.
• Getting disparate systems to connect and work together.
• Noticing how people use systems - and not leaving vital people out of the loop.
• Effective use of technologies in offices - avoiding the waste of time and energy consequent upon the re-invention of wheels.

 Email: Nick Daisley