Are IT the new powerbrokers in the business world?

MANY moons ago I used to volunteer at a hospital radio station. I had a blast spending a couple of nights a week and every Sunday afternoon working at the hospital, visiting the wards to chat to the patients and collecting record requests, as well as stealing sweets off the nurses.

The highlight for me was hosting a bingo show on the radio every Sunday afternoon when patients – even the big biker types with broken legs in traction in orthopaedic - would play the game from their beds in the hope of winning absolute tat – the sort of plaster of Paris garbage you win at fairgrounds. They loved it since it was a fun half hour, switched off from the tedium of the hospital routine, with the radio station volunteers mixing in the wards and then running to a phone to call the studio once someone shouted “house”.

We had a guy at the radio station called Phil. He was Mr Indispendible; a geekish sort of character, big into IT, who was a fixer. If anything went wrong with the technology in the studio, Phil would be there with his soldering iron and his box of tricks to rustle up an answer. This guy even had a state-of-the-art studio in his bedroom back home in Greenford, West London.

There was a certain amount of humility about him. His world was one I knew nothing about – I’m creative, he’s technology, but the two of us worked well together. He was a "can do" guy. Above all, we got things done to ensure the radio station ran smoothly.

I think of the humility of IT guys like Phil when I think of the world we endure today. Who are the most powerful people in business? No, it’s not necessarily the chairman or chief executives, it’s the guys in IT who, as we saw with the banks whose computer systems crashed this week, can bring a business almost to its knees if the systems don’t work.

I am wary of IT because too many of these Gods know they have this amazing power and boy do they let you know it.

Once there were IT folk on site to help if you had problems with your PC. Guys like Phil who knew the various tricks of the trade and would not only help you instantly, but would probably throw in an upgrade or two. All it would cost you would be a coffee from the office machine and a couple of Bourbons! Now, somewhat laboriously you have to put in a ticket to a helpdesk, track its path and your ability to work is dependent on their desire to help.

Theirs is a complex world of permissions, unyielding doctrines of protocols and policy. Common sense is not always on the radar. They just shut things down tight as can be and sod the practicality or common sense. Of prime importance to them is the integrity of the system and its security. And yet the truth of the matter is that with the various newspapers I have worked for over 30 years, I’ve not worked for one which, despite all these claustrophobic protocols, has a computer system that is reliable and works. It would be lovely if there was one because then there would be less need to deal with IT!

At one paper I worked with a guy we nicknamed Semtex because of his potential to explode whenever the system crashed when he would take out his aggression on the nearest waste paper bucket. You can have your Sarbanes Oxley and all the rigorous security procedures in the world, but give us a system that works and can handle the ever-increasing demands of the media platforms journalists work to.

Of course, all this comes from a guy who’s had his Twitter and Facebook accounts hacked into several times this year to allow some pre-pubescent, specky geek send shedloads of spam to my friends. I’ve got heaps of anti-virus software installed, but still the morons get through.

I blame my computer woes on all the constant changing of passwords! I don’t know about you, but I lose track of mine – I’ve gone through my complete list of past girlfriends!! It might have to be pets next.

At one former place of work, the IT guys went from being very hands-on and extremely helpful, to running the place like a bank, posting opening hours on the door of their room which had a password lock on it. Woe betide you if you had an IT issue before 9am, they would be sitting there on their Facebook and MSN accounts, tapping away, while you were trying to decode a warning which had flashed up on your screen. It was so juvenile and pathetic, so much so that one of the reporters put up a similar sign to the newsroom in response with the words “Open all hours – unlike IT!”

Oh yes, the powerbrokers in business today, not just in newspapers but business generally are IT, and woe betide anyone who should cross their steely paths.

How I wish there were more IT people like Phil who just got on with their job where you didn’t need to put in a ticket first!