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No Nerds – RIP Corporate Coders

The brave new world
It’s a brave new world with apologies to Alduous Huxley and his lurid look into the future of ‘alpha’ and ‘beta’ societies. No, this brave new world is one that only shares Mr. Huxley’s sentiment of “over, not mend” in his recourse to things that break. ERP. Data warehouses. flash websites. silver light. windows whatever. iPad, iPod, iLimited because iLefthanded when using the iPhone These are some of the things that break and make business users stop screaming, err, screeching (or both).

History has fueled a world that not only appears smaller and faster, but far more sophisticated in what you expect as technology evolves in its own generational leaps. Think about it: in 1995, how many people carried laptops and cell phones? Cubicles and offices were occupied by users working in green screen environments, just monitors and keyboards. The word ‘desk’ actually meant the top of a desk and a ‘live meeting’ would at least involve two or more people face to face.
Now, laptops have made it possible to reduce office space and virtualize the worker. Mobile phones can carry editable documents and spreadsheets, presentation materials, recording and playback of audiovisual media, and browsers that receive web access through the carrier’s network or the device’s Wi-Fi connections. We no longer call first; We usually text, email or ‘Facebook’ as a means of not only talking to our friends/family, but also to our customers.

Applications? It’s no longer just finance, publishing or supply chain. It is now a business framework with modules that will ultimately enable companies to be more vertically and geographically diverse in both market and people. Reports replace queries. Guided AD Hoc has surpassed OLAP. The business user is the ultimate provider and consumer of data and wants accessibility to drive productivity. SOA is the modernization of legacy applications. If they can be launched as a web service, then there will be no more client installations: updates can be done in an end-to-end way, without having to worry about the client. Even data is being structured in new and more efficient ways: DB2 is a prime example of this, as version 9 introduces the ability to store as XML, opening up efficiency and application options.

It’s not personal, it’s just business.
Like the features of the aforementioned iPhone (and its competitors, Droid, Blackberry), social networking and the web 2.0 world in general have been rapidly integrated, even becoming entangled in the user community that blends the personal with the business. The expectation of being functionally self-sufficient is as expected in the world of enterprise applications as it is in using eBay. The virtual office worker is mobile and needs the power to ask questions about data, understand it, and strategize. The question is not where the cap will be in their requirements, but rather how skilled they want to be in achieving the vision for their next steps. The user will not stop at the guided ad hoc reports… but will connect with the development of ad hoc applications. And Brave, New World has built the framework to make it happen.

That’s how it was (and still is… for now)
Do you remember the trip back to 1995? While the recall is still fresh, envision corporate America’s IT departments: Baby Boomer management and Gen X staff. Large help desk groups with some developers and code assurance staff formed the core support of applications and desktop. As ’95 moved into ’96 and into the century that followed, application developers grew and a new focus on data emerged: interoperability and integration were the underlying buzz in a world focused on more fast through increased bandwidth. The average IT department headcount would triple in size between 1995 and 2005. W2 would be replaced by 1099, pushed by senior management’s need to set schedules for application delivery while mitigating their own operating cost exposure through elements less obvious line numbers for contract services rather than more ‘personal’ related ones. Eventually, the 1099s were virtualized and moved abroad due to lower fees than those that were domestic and visa-sponsored.

The result? Applications that would take 18, 24, or 36 months to deliver, were initial budgets exceeded, and the 1099 that were going to disappear once the project was delivered? They lingered even longer, either supporting code as bugs were discovered (even when user acceptance had been validated) or evolving version 1.0 upward as the technical landscape or user requirements changed. A volatile decade leading up to the 21st century would end in a recession, leaving the business landscape in a zero-growth, zero-development mode due to drastic cuts in IT budgets. The 1099s and some W2s would be left on an open market, fighting for jobs but honing their skills. And collaborating.

It’s GUI, not Gooey!
Browser development is easy to understand, but the database? How can a user create their own repository that also contains the extensibility of the changes? That’s not complicated, really. Oracle and Microsoft have introduced wizards and connections to app builders for a decade. Newer companies with database agnostic relationships such as Ironspeed, Out Systems, and Caspio connect the app builder to the database of the user’s choice. In general, the extensibility of the data warehouse is key. If the app builder can’t help the repository on periodic changes
What about taking the data from the new application and putting it in a data store? Wherescape has made the rapid development of data warehouses a reality. While this will still require a technologist, it almost eliminates the need for outside consulting or resources.

Each cloud has a silver lining… this one actually turns out to be gold
So what does an unemployed developer or architect do with their time between job searches and interviews? They get involved in collaborative development communities – open source. Many entered these communities as collaborators, hoping to network and develop their technical repertoire. But they did much more: they built, debugged, modernized and stabilized. For the most part, they delivered agnostic solutions that had low acquisition and maintenance cost and reasonable customization and ongoing support, provided by the very involved developers of course.
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) conducted a survey of CIOs in 2009 and found that 30% of respondents have changed or plan to change IT policies to allow the use of open source applications in test or production environments. This represents a 300% increase over similar survey responses from 2006. Not surprisingly, technology leaders cited two elements that influenced the new policy shift: economics and product quality.

So why not nerds?
Web 2.0, Dynamic HTML, Ajax, Bindows, HTML5 – they all provide the power to build the browser, under the control of a mouse. Drag and drop is no longer the movement of items on the desktop, but now means building. Developers and architects created the functionality for users to organize their application components on their terms + more open source collaboration + Web 2.0 + quality solutions + lower cost of ownership = satisfied customer. AD Hoc telephone requests remain a standard, as business users convey their wants and needs to the IT department. The constant validation of the vision transmitted by the business becomes a long and expensive process, since IT departments have outsourced many of their staff positions and / or applications, creating an unwanted barrier between the user and the technologists .

Companies like Digg and Awareim have brought the power of Web 2.0 and application building to business visionaries, allowing them to create the applications, the data warehouse, and even apply the style of their choice. In that scenario, IT becomes more refined, focusing on the management and development of existing applications and systems, while extending application development capability and usability to users, without the need for coding. Now the user application vision evolves rapidly without the additional expense of IT staff time or contractor cost.

No nerds doesn’t mean there isn’t LOVE from nerds. Simply put, No Nerds means organizations become more agile and profitable while meeting the ever-changing needs of their current and future customers. So where do the nerds go? There will always be a place for technology expertise. The ‘No Nerd’ approach extends the capabilities of technology to small and medium-sized businesses without the cost of expensive IT staff. By providing that type of blueprint, the experienced technologist will find opportunities with technology providers or even entrepreneurial opportunities to start their technology company. Win-win for everyone.

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