Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Time to Change the IT Name

IT or Information Technology has evolved into the standard for what businesses are calling their computer systems department today.  It is fascinating to note that the term "Information Technology" was coined by Harold Leavitt and Thomas Whisler in their 1958 Harvard Business Review article entitled “Management in the 1980’s”  which was a prediction of what things might be like in business management 30 years into the future.  

Isn't it ironic that we use a 54 year old term to refer to today's 2012 organizations that manage computer systems for today's business enterprise?

Maybe its not so inappropriate considering the people working for the IT organizations of many business enterprises today.  Many of your IT staff have been working for nearly as many years!  I think it is time to modernize the name however and perhaps use something realistic like "Computer Systems".