As Ian points out, salaries and fee rates may need to drop. In the first few
decades of any new technology, the purveyors of that technology and the
practitioners of the operation have always charged a premium.
There was a day when wheelwrights could name their fee - when your cart had
a broken spoke, you didn't have much choice. Nowadays, my 17 year old
high-school dropout nephew earns less than £4 an hour at the Kwik-Fit
repairing wheels on broken chariots. Not quite the elite trade it once was!
Information Technology has to be the same. We work in a skilled profession,
but it is no longer a 'protected' profession. Competition will come quick,
and hit us hard. We in the UK must be competitive - and accept the fact that
we still must deliver a quality product even though we're driving Volvo S40s
instead of Ferrari 355s. Let's face it, a lot of IT practitioners in the
developing world are quite happy pottering around on Lambretta 50cc's, and
so of course they'll be able to undercut us.
In academia, I still believe we're countries ahead... but in the commercial
world I fear we've become lax.
Internet communications are not secure and therefore the Barclays Group
does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this message.
Although the Barclays Group operates anti-virus programmes, it does not
accept responsibility for any damage whatsoever that is caused by
viruses being passed. Any views or opinions presented are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Barclays
Group. Replies to this email may be monitored by the Barclays Group
for operational or business reasons.
|