We left off with some amazing insights on change and how Information Technology is adapting to meet these changes. Next, we’ll discuss more about technology as Tushar explains CLIC and the future of IT. Here’s part 2 of my interview with Tushar Shah, VP of Engineering at ARGI.

ENRIQUE: CLIC. That’s new. Can you talk about CLIC and how it ties into audience interactions?

TUSHAR: Audience Interactions relate to those functions associated with serving your readers and are built on ARGI's patent-pending CLIC (pronounced CLICK) technology. CLIC's are Code-Less Interactive Controls. These are a convenient web-based application which can be embedded into your web sites allowing you to quickly and easily manage audience interactions. They enable content access control, personalization and monetization. CLIC's are one of the key ingredients of Acuity and provide the ability to deliver real-time audience interactions that help grow revenue. It is this configure-not-code integration that helps improve your operating velocity and agility, and significantly reduce cost.


ENRIQUE: Let’s look into the future a bit. Where do you see the technology industry shifting in 5 OR 10 years?

TUSHAR: This question would get a much different answer several years ago. All the Gurus assured us that the future was Windows based client server computing. And if you were not deep into it, you were simply headed for death.

Today, Client Server is nearly dead and many radical trends are glaringly obvious. Here is a number of them.

1. The Internet is the center of the known universe and its importance will continue to increase rapidly. Its performance and security flaws are painfully obvious, so we have to work on improving them.
2. The PC era is over. For general computing, the PC is too complex, too fragile, too expensive to support and it limits mobility too much (even notebooks). It will be around a long time, but its use will increasingly be limited to only those who really need one. The Internet is the computer now, and it can use a cell phone like device as a terminal, or a supercomputer, or anything in between.
3. The Web browser is the application platform. A person will be able to sit down at any Web capable device anywhere in the world, log onto the Internet, and call up their own familiar environment and programs, and work with their own data.
4. Company internal networks are rapidly extending onto the Internet - they have no choice. It is extend or be left behind.
5. XML based open Internet protocols like UDDI and SOAP will transform company to company communications. EDI will suffer a slow, lingering death.
6. Wireless communications devices will continue to become more important. Broadband satellite will become an important service for mobile users and where wired service is inadequate.
7. With the Internet as the company's data system, businesses will find they can't afford offices (once their competitors start dropping them). A critical scarcity of time (and coming scarcity of gasoline) will make today's long commutes impractical. New ways to measure employee effectiveness will have to be evolved. This will precipitate a crisis for middle managers.
8. This is a magical transition time. Nobody can predict how it will shake out, but it isn't going to be easy and isn't going to go away. Business fatalities will be very high, but that's how evolution works. The survivors will rule, and those that didn't play will fade to the background.
9. It means you must carefully evaluate if technologies you are considering will tie you into a corner that maybe isn't going to be there in a while. Look at everything as a communications issue, because communications is now the dominant factor in our business society - in many cases the only factor.

ENRIQUE: Communication is a key component to a healthy organization. Join us next time as we wrap up my interview with Tushar when we discuss the topic of teams.