Technology is addictive especially observed in millennials and IT employees – This is a serious, costly and frustrating problem
IT leaders and CIOs face technology addiction issues that can be cured with some preventive measures and realization from negative effects of excessive use of technology on organizations
IT leaders and CIOs are continuously influenced by advancing technology that results in some side effects on them and on their organization. If these habits are not controlled in a timely manner, it can create problems and losses to the organization. When a person is highly tech-savvy the organization can be effected either on infrastructure, data, networking or control perspective. It can affect productivity, exceed budget, hinder innovation and abstain improvement processes within the organization. Advancement in artificial intelligence is impacting IT leaders as they get inspired by development. They want to incorporate AI in every IT change in the organizations which some situations cannot be a suitable option. It is important for IT leaders to realize and admit this kind of addictions and take corrective actions.
Some of the common forms of technological addictions and solutions are the following:
Data
Data is an asset to an organization. It is important for IT leaders to have effective procedures to obtain important data that can assist in making strategic business decisions. The data collection needs to carry out with a proper mechanism and plan for effective data transformations. If not it can be damaging for the organization. The data collected and analyzed should be used by the organization. It should depict the behavioral changes that provide predictions and helps higher management in decision making. The data collected can be structured, unstructured and semi-structured which is a challenge for professionals handling the data transformation process. IT leaders should be selective about the data that must be kept and evaluating which data is important. This will enable understanding the process of getting benefits from data, storing it and abandoning it when not required.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence is commonly used for helping the analyst with the prediction, classifications, associations and pattern recognition from the data using machine learning and deep learning algorithms to provide deep insight for the business but it is not beneficial for every problem. AI and machine learning require a huge amount of data, either in any format, for task automation as well. It is essential for an IT leader to analyze the problem run the pilot test in case of AI especially.
Infrastructure
CIO’s job responsibility includes the management of data centers. For CIOs infrastructure can be addictive because it gives a sense of power and control. More hardware and its management makes them feel accomplished and powerful. Cloud computing is a modern solution for a hardware less company, easy remote resource management, cost reduction of hardware. One solution for hardware addiction is cloud migration providing the companies to focus on being application-centric rather than hardware-centric. The main advantage of different cloud services is that they lower the burden from CIOs and give the opportunity for CIOs to focus on their role in strategic problem-solving. They need to focus on different data programs, skill development, and training to keep up with the changing environment.
Enterprise Communication Tools and Controls
Total dependence on IT and AI tools is a compulsion and people use different communication tools for enterprise communication. A major side effect of these tools is, they lower the productivity and concentration of employees. It is so much addictive that the first choice of employees in any problem is these tools. It is important to have some restrictions regarding these services. Some of the restrictions can be maintaining focus on problems when communicating, lesser members in communication, short conversations and can’t be used for every problem. Technology has provided CIOs and IT manager’s control of major operations and control for enabling business operations runs successfully. IT managers have become addicted to having control due to their area of expertise. It is high time to realize that every department and business components are meshed with each other and have to work as one unit for success.
Notification Lights and Sounds
Smart gadgets produce sounds and a constantly blinking light as an indication of notification, this makes a person addicted to technology. It also makes a person to constantly check their gadgets. Major side effects from these gadgets are lesser productivity and lower concentration power. It totally depends on an individual on how much he keeps himself from spending their time productively and stop wasting time. It is important to check in case of only important notification.
New Gadgets
Customers are addicted to new smart gadgets that they look up for the new releases, even though the new releases don’t have much of a difference from the previous release. New smart gadgets are commonly marketed by the phrase of making things easier or better from the previous version etc. which make customer desire for a new one. The same is the case with technology for organizations. Instead of focusing on technology up-gradation, efforts should also be utilized on employee training. In the case of a technology shift, it should be done with a strong reason.