IT Industry Predicts Shift From Security To Enhancement
IT Industry Predicts Shift From Security To Enhancement
July 18th, 2006: A Gathering of US computer vendors and service businesses have forecast a shift from the current ‘defend’ mentality of computer service people to one of ‘enhancement’.
At the annual Computer Trouble Shooters Conference, held in Chicago, June 2006, numerous speakers pointed out that the industry was going through a ‘defend’ era where customers were paying for services they did not want but saw as necessary evils such as spyware, firewalls and security system maintenance. Conference attendees included Level Platforms, HyBlue, Microsoft, Dell, LogMeIn and Roaring Pine.
One keynote speaker, Computer Trouble Shooters national director, Chip Reaves, stated, “As service people we are passing through a ‘Defend’ era. Customers are being forced to pay for services they do not want, and still see declining productivity and usability as a result. That is, nobody wants to get viruses & spyware. Nobody wants to have to get a firewall either. Technology Services have become more a necessary evil than a business enhancement”.
Wilson McOrist, the Managing Director of Australian Computer Troubleshooters, attended the conference and says, “I see that computers will be more reliable and more disposable. There will be less hardware repair. Windows computers have better protection, but non-Windows Internet terminals will be more common, so there will be less virus & spyware defence and clean ups. More work will be done online and hence there will be less need for tune-ups and backups since no critical data is stored locally. Telephone technical support with remote control will be cheap and effective, hence a slow down in the need for on-site service”.
Feedback presented at the conference, taken from the user’s perspective, showed a number of recurring concerns. Customers were not happy to pay large unexpected bills just to get their computers back to the same condition of a week before, or to pay idle staff while the network is down and waiting for a technician to arrive. Some were said to be wondering if their computer guy is ‘really’ fixing their equipment since it continues to have problems. Some customers even went as far as indicating they were suspicious about whether technicians were leaving some problems so that they would continue to have more work to come back to.