Early desktop device

As the new year starts, as well as a time for planning, it is also  good for a spot of reflection on the past.   For me it is the realisation that I started working in computing almost 35 years ago, and thinking, where did that go!  It makes me realise that although I can’t claim to have been working in since the dawn of computing, I have witnessed most of the biggest changes that computing has made to our working lives and increasingly out leasure time too.  In the very early days the effect of computing was mainly on academics, scientists and IT departments in large businesses that could afford the cost of the computers then.

When I started in IT all those years ago, we were using IBM mainframes – it was  the only computer the firm I worked for used.  It was the UK’s largest cement manufacturing firm, operating around the world in many different countries, with dozens of quarries and manufacturing plants,  hundreds of depots, operating the biggest lorry fleet in the UK, many thousands of employees and manufacturing millions of tonnes of cement…..and just one computer. At the time we thought we were quite cutting edge!  Indeed it was in many ways, the cost of this computer was estimated to be £1m, which in todays terms would be closer to £10m.

Nearly all computing was what was known as “batch processing”, as opposed to the on-line, interactive experience of today.  You put all the data, keyed in by a team of operators much like an old typing pool, into the computer and then some hours later, usually overnight, a whole forest of reports were printed.  These were then distributed by the internal mail service to the appropriate department.  (Is Cloud computing a return to mainframes, some people ask?  Clearly, it isn’t.)

The information produced was pretty basic compared with today, mainly fairly raw accounting and sales information. There was none of the graphics or comparisons of trends and key performance indicators we have now to make the mass of figures easier to understand and act upon  (although this was balanced by there being far less information available for people to wade through).

Since then we have seen all the developments in computing come and go, and the changes they have had on businesses over the years.  Generally the trend has been about putting more computers closer to the people that were using them.   Some years after I started I worked on a project putting “mini” computers out to each of the depots arounds the country – still only one per depot but still fairly revoloutionary at the time.  Interestingly the purpose of this was mainly to collect data than be used by the depot for their own use.  The data was sent to the central mainframe to be processed as usual for reporting, and distributed via internal “snail” mail.

Computer screens began to appear on peoples desks, but usually only in administrative areas and in the IT department itself.  Management and those in business who consumed the information such as sales and marketing and finance, still relied on the printed reports on the whole.  In fact most of them would abhor the idea of actually using a computer.

Work in most industries for the majority of people was still largely affected by computers, and this was particularly true for those in smaller businesses.  In particular mail still used paper and was delivered by the Royal or internal mail, or both.  If you received more than a dozen of these it was considered a busy day!

The greatest change since the mainframe was undoubtedly the advent of the PC, and with it the fulfilment of Bill Gate’s vision (read, business plan) of a PC on every desk. This began to bring computing to virtually everyone working in a business office, and the subsequent advent of the graphical user interface (GUI)  finally made it accessible to non administrative and IT staff.

This was not a smooth process though.  Many business people did not take to the idea.  By this time, in the late 80s and 90s, I was in the City implementing financial systems for big investment firms and one project I managed had the goal of getting around 200 very well paid and (usually) busy dealers and fund managers to forgo the pleasures of pen, paper, telephone or meeting down the nearest wine bar, and start the processing of orders and deals through computers.  A vocal and influential number of these said they would  rather leave than be forced to use a computer.  Now we have  gone the full circle and it is probably the computers, which their complex mathematical trading algorithms that can do without the humans!

I said earlier that the greatest change in the use of IT in business was the advent of the PC.  This was true up until around the turn of the century.  But since then we have been through the second great revolution in IT – the Internet.

It with the Internet that the real impact on us in our everyday, and not just our working, lives has arisen.  Prior to this, computers outside work had been restricted, outside hobbyists, to providing a few games, and glorified (albeit very useful) typewriters and calculators.

But since the Internet became a regular feature of our lives we have seen the growth of search with Google, online social networks like Facebook, mobile phones and now smartphones, online shopping, to name just some of the major developments.  And  the amazing thing to remember is that this has only been in the  mainsteam for a little over 10 years, but in that time it has had such an impact on most of our lives and we could not imagine how we could survive without it.

The question that leaves is, with the seemingly exponential rate of technological progress, what developments are there going to be in technology over the next year, and in 10 year’s time?  And what will the world and our lives look like as a result?