A plea to Mother IS

The biggest challenge we face with some of our larger corporate clients is no longer persuading sales or marketing to 'go digital' and use new technologies to improve their competitive advantage - they're all well aware of the need and the benefit - it's negotiating our way through the strict rulings laid down by their IS departments.

Can we provide the sales team with a new bells and whistles way to present their wares to prospects? Of course we can... will IS allow them to download the required software onto their laptops? Nope. It could lead to viruses. No problem, we can give them an online solution. Sorry, we can't allow them to access unapproved websites... it might be porn for all we know. OK, we'll provide them with CDs. Disabled their CD drives. USBs? Same. Pen and paper? We're happy from an IS point of view, but not sure what health and safety with think.

Grrrrrrrrr

Security is a big issue, of course it is. But surely so is the need to take advantage of the digital age to streamline company operations and ensure growth.

So please, Mother IS. We're not children anymore in need of protecting from the dangers of the digital world. Sever those apron strings (or at least loosen them).