After Y2K a Year 2020 Problem ??

We all have seen the Y2K problem when we realized that computers may not be able to respond correctly in year 2000 due to date related problem. Now we are entering in a decade long problem that may not be solved by computers or computer programmers only. After year 2000 we have seen significant amount of work going out of US. But employers are not so worried about IT work only, they are also worried about the shortage of work force in other business process areas.

From 2010 US is entering in a decade long problem of retiring work force. Look at this graphics given. Significant amount of work force entering into retirement and post retirement age. This is a wide spread problem and not only an IT problem. 2.3 Million teachers will retire during this period. Many of doctors and nurses will also come into this group of people. That will further put stress on health care system.

With aging people prefer to do office work than the work that requires physical stress. This was one of those driving factor to move the production facilities out of US. And US has seen a growth in service industry during this period. Now the next decade pose a significant amount of challenges for US corporates as well as young generation.

Though some of the corporates have supplemented their workforce by outsourcing their IT and business processes but there are still many organizations that are not yet prepared. The transfer of knowledge and preparation of second layer of leadership and management are the challenges of today.

Managing a more global team requires a little different management skills, a deep understanding of different cultures, and socioeconomic status of various countries.

Outsourcing is one possible solution to supplement the workforce that it will also have significant amount of long lasting negative effects on society in terms of lower buying power, poor motivation among the younger generation.

Virtual Reality - An emerging Technolgy

Virtual reality is a technology that allows users to interact with a computers simulated environment. In the past few years we have seen certain games based on this technology. But all this were based on visuals. But how about interacting with computers when you see, hear, feel, speak, taste and smell together.

Yes now technologies have made possible to interact with computer with all five senses. Though there are still some challenges in terms of feel and smell but many researches are taking place that may make a lot possible. Some devices have already been designed that can simulate a smell electronically if you wear them while operating computers.

With this technology possible it will help schools and institutes to create more interactive, virtually real learning environment. Consider you are learning to cook something on computer and you can virtually smell and taste the food. Many of you may argue that it is not going to happen.

This research has recently shown some hope and promise and will give a new era in Web. This can be used in education, training, tourism, medicines and gaming and recreation industry.

Some of the challenges at present are the size of the equipment people to wear to get this experience. Those challenges are being addressed by the companies that are producing them.

We are still some years away before we can see these technologies being available commercially. Though the solution is still in research labs but we can hope some positive results in coming years and we can see certain products and solutions in market.

Cordless Electricity - A possible future

An old idea that electricity needs wire to travel. That is going to change in near future. The idea of cordless electricity is not a new concept. It was tried century ago. The researches are going on and few companies claim that we are only 3 to 5 years behind when solution will be commercially available.

You may be surprised that to use your computer or laptop or even kitchen appliances, you may not need wires to connect to electrical outlets. You can power your laptops with magnetic field.

Actually the idea was tested by Pittsburgh based company in 2003 on a LED 1.5 miles away from the electrical outlet. Though there are some unanswered questions are still there like effect of magnetic field on human body exposed for a longer duration of time. But hope with time we will have a solution for this also.

If the solution is successful it will force changes to many businesses including electric cars to look into their products and redesign.

Present IT Job Market

In present economy there have been many job losses not only in IT but in other sectors also. IT industry in US has reached to its maturity. It may not see any more exponential growth in US market. Now the organizations are looking for the most optimized use of IT in their business.

10 years ago the people who supported the idea of offshore/outsourcing are now arguing aginst this. Though outsourcing has definitely given various advantages to many of the corporations not only in terms of IT cost but with the growth in the sale of their products overseas.

If you look at the CocaCola revenue contribution only 20% comes from US. GM and Ford have lost its market share in US but have gained in India and China. It is mainly because of IT outsourcing. It was a win-win situation for the business.

With the current economic crisis, the companies are forced to further reduce the IT cost. Now there is trend when companies are talking about the gain upfront before they outsource. This is called as outcome based outsourcing. In the latest news articles India's Wipro and Infosys have accepted that their 30% of oursourcing contracts are not only based on service level agreement but also on outcome based agreements such as increase in sales and profit margins.

This will force even the India and China based companies to find alternative cost saving measurements either in terms of lower wages or improved performances.

In coming years US may see more IT job losses and this time it may be not be only in programming and operations but in high value like Architects and software designers.