Countries with large ratios of landmass to population tend to be good at telecommunications and are often ahead of the digital curve. Finnish mobile phone manufacturers Nokia are at the forefront of a global market and Finland has just introduced a citizen's right to broadband, giving everyone the right to a one-megabit broadband connection. By Helen Beckett [Published 08/07/2010]
Near neighbour Scotland is also recognising the value of digital communications and networking and plans to develop a Digital Scotland strategy. According to the strategy documents, "The digital economy is a great thing. It benefits the social economy by eliminating distance, clearly something the Highlands and Islands could really benefit from."
Digital connection means that Scottish IT professionals no longer have to travel to, say, Motherwell to find out how to obtain their board’s buy-in for information management governance: instead, they can reach out online to their colleagues for tips and advice.
This kind of sharing and caring with peers - and even competitors - will be of huge value to the current generation of IT managers everywhere as they face a new set of challenges. According to John Harris, the new chairman of the Corporate IT Forum (Tif), their role will be less about techie trouble shooting and more about influencing and persuading.
"IT is maturing, and IT professionals will finally get the chance to be what we have always wanted to be - business people who understand technology well. If you can see the wave of change coming, you can give customers what they need," he said. The forum cites an example of how virtual brainstorming helped one member.
"A member of one of the Forum's petrochemical organisations emailed us directly for help regarding his company’s current manufacturing systems. He wanted to talk to some other companies manufacturing in the chemical and non-chemical industry. He wanted a general meeting to discuss how manufacturing systems are organised, pitfalls to avoid and lessons learned.
"He was working to a tight schedule and needed input from peers as quickly as possible. The Forum responded by putting him in touch with another petrochemical organisation and a retail organisation. Discussions have already taken place."
Scotland will continue to maximise all forms of digital communication to compensate for its geographical separation.
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