Ebusiness Despatches: Technologists' personalities and a low-tech health service

Having left IPC Media in January 2000, I have desperately avoided taking on a real job. I spend my time doing things that I really enjoy, on occasion being paid for my services. This presents me with the opportunity to work for short spurts in different businesses at senior levels.

I am still getting into strange and at times exciting places, where I am picking up both nuggets and turds. Here are some recent highlights...

Thursday
Sat on a panel at the Eurostorage conference in Prague. Technologists are the same no matter where they come from. This was a pan-European conference, yet although I was in the presence of great intellect and ultra process skills, I still felt I was in a personality free zone.

The panel was asked: "Are we in a technology recession?" I was stunned when all the European panellists said things have never been better. They dismissed troubles at industry stalwarts in telecoms and technology as being down to poor management! This is perhaps true, but sounds like living in denial to me.

On the way home it was comforting to read a familiar UK press. They were delightfully cynical and talking us straight into recession. Perhaps our European friends are on to something after all.

Tuesday
Gave a talk at The Economist's CIO and IT Director's conference. What an excellent gig!

However, I had forgotten what it was like to present to my former peers - deathly quiet, cerebral, contemplative, and reflective. I could hear my heart beating and feel my pulse slowing. Good job it wasn't a leadership conference!

Wednesday
Negotiated a deal to have a website developed for my book. You know that strange feeling where you don't not want to say, "You gotta be kidding."

In short, prices have collapsed. Doing some simple arithmetic, I was left wondering what margins they are delivering to their business. Talking to some clients, this is certainly the current norm. Has the pendulum swung a little too far in the last six months?

Sunday
Played a cracking game of squash in the simmering heat of our sparkling summer. (Yes, if you weren't around, you've missed it.) After two hours, where the ball just would not die, my Achilles tendon decided to go AWOL. I ended up in a sparkling private hospital in St John's Wood, having seen my GP and a Harley Street consultant first.

The services were delivered in a superbly professional manner. However, all diaries were low-tech. Some letters and memos were handwritten. All information gleaned from me was hand recorded on clipboards. My address (yes, as a frequent visitor to the gym and squash player I'm one of the best customers of this establishment) was two years out of date!

Obviously, this human intervention is error prone and time consuming. Information technology is still seen as a cost in the health industry. It is time to swallow hard and make the necessary investments that streamline essential care. The government really does need to invest in the NHS, and the private sector should also take some of this medicine. Think investment, not just cost!

Friday
I noticed that technology was hardly mentioned, if at all, during the recent election campaigns. Is this good news? Has technology penetrated our collective subconscious? Or is this just another example of flagrant ignorance and neglect? You can guess what I think.

I'll be bringing you more tales and posing more questions next month.