Asking the tough questions

Last week saw three challenging questions cross my desk – “What on earth is cloud computing?”, “Can you explain the National Broadband Network?” and “Why does the internet matter?”

All the questions ended up being rolled into an article that was picked up by radio and television. Which in itself is an interesting study on how Twitter and blogs drive other media channels.

That these three questions had to be asked shows how poor those of us in the technology sector have been in explaining the great opportunities the digital era offers businesses and communities.

For too long we technologists have been locked into talking about gigabytes and megabits, HTML and XML while not explaining what these tools deliver.

In most of the tech industries, it’s assumed that if something is shinier and has more features then it’s better for the customers.

This is best seen in the social media circles, where most experts are blinded by the fun of using Twitter or Facebook and struggle to explain what they can deliver to business.

Bizarrely this has resulted in a whole tribe of social media experts who claim there is no way we can apply business measures to their blind recommendations that your organisation should be tweeting out status updates every hour.

A blind acceptance that newer or cheaper is better has locked many big and small customers into – at best – dysfunctional deals. Worse still, is the “we’ll save a fortune with this new widget” mentality I discussed in last week’s column that is nothing but a trap for people who should know better.

Promising cheap, new and shiny has allowed many technology vendors to lock ill-informed buyers into upgrade cycles that have delivered increased costs for little benefit. Internet providers, telephone companies and outsourcing multinationals have exploited customer ignorance to deliver massive profits over the years.

This isn’t to say there aren’t cost savings to be had by adopting new methods and technology, there clearly are. But it relies on the customer – in this case your business – to understand how the new ideas will benefit their workplace.

It comes down to the user to ask the tough questions, if you don’t understand what the computer tech, web designer or social media expert is talking about, stop them and ask.

Tough questions are good for the experts and gurus. It forces the good ones to think about the solutions they recommend and gives the poor ones the hint that other industries might offer better prospects for selling snake oil.

Most importantly, it’s about allowing you to understand what’s going on without jargon and verbiage. Having a clear, concise view allows you to make better, informed choices.

With a changing business environment, it’s too important to be bluffed or ignorant about what these tools mean for you and your industry. Ask the hard questions so you can make the right decisions.

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Paul Wallbank is a writer, speaker and broadcaster on technology issues. He founded national support organisation PC Rescue in 1995 and has spent over 14 years helping businesses get the most from their IT investment. His PC Rescue and IT Queries websites provide free advice to business computer users and his monthly newsletter has over 3,000 subscribers.