The IT world: A continuous chain of development

There I was; sitting in the first meeting of 2016 at a table discussing the agenda items for future plans what we wanted to achieve. Due to a recent change within our organization certain departments have been split up in their own separate section in order to optimize their work. The points that were discussed shared some light on certain topics that I was unfamiliar with as I had only started working for our department at the beginning of December '15. It was quite clear to me then, and still is now, that IT is continuously changing and at a more rapid speed than I could ever imagine.

It almost feels like when someone works on a particular type of project within the IT world that this project needs to be kept up-to-date after implementation. In order to best illustrate my point I'll use an example out of my own work experience. A registration tool which many IT specialists are familiar with is "TOPDesk". This is a clear, coherent tool that many service desks use because it's world known and has a quality product. This product, however, is subject to change so often that multiple versions are released on a yearly basis. 

Even though the above is an example of a software program that changes often (which can have a variety of reasons such as security updates, new software features, etc.) there are also non-software related changes on-going in the IT world. Specifically processes and methods of teaching are rapidly adapting to the new technologies that are reaching us on a daily basis. The question one must ask themselves at this particular point in time is: 

- How do we, efficiently, stay ahead of the curve and anticipate any changes that we may stumble across?

Well, quite frankly, I don't think this question has a direct answer but only has a best practice scenario.  Bringing about a change within the IT world isn't necessarily a bad thing but one must always be aware of the consequences. In order to anticipate what may be needed in the future and to stay ahead of your competitors can be done in several ways:

1. Stay close to the consumer/customer: 

This is, perhaps, the most important factor in making sure you know what is coming. By talking to customers/consumers of IT products you can get good insight as to what they (the users) may want to see in the near future.

2. Embrace technology:

In this ever changing world you can safely say that humans have become so dependent upon technology that this will be around forever and, thus, it is best to embrace technology and try and encourage the use thereof. 

Now if the primary business focus of a company is Information Technology then we can safely assume these companies would be aware of the above mentioned points. Yet there are many companies that use IT in their daily operations but, perhaps, aren't focused too much on the ever changing IT environment. Our goal as an IT organization is to assist companies in these matters and making sure all their IT needs are met. This leaves more time for the company to keep emphasis on their primary business needs while, at the same time, have a worry-free IT environment that stands out above the rest.