How far have we got in 22 years

Started in a new job lately.  We are working on a large program, which is marketed as a "renewal of e-services".  When diving into the subject I have realized that developing a project model and implemting project culture actually starts from strategic planning and educating what does "thinking strategically" actually means for us and for an individual. We'll that's an another story and most likely I will get back to that.

The organization has been a forerunner utilizing IT in its own field. I got hold on to a project report from 1999 and I read about those revolutionary ideas at that time.  The thing that caught my eye was the lessons learnt part - here are just the highlights:

• Installation
• Unharmonized desktop environment (IBM and Mac; 5 1/4 and 3.5 floppy disk drives; different monitors) caused severe problems
• Programs shall be so simple that installation can be done with a Install comman. In addition we need better instructions.
• Applications (can't name them here...)
• Solution is very IT oriented with complicated protocols. The solution has been made compliant with the lowest level hardware, which scopes out some more advanced functionalities like the use of mouse.
• Suppliers
• Support from the primary suppliers has been poor. In the future supplier negotiations we will focus on that.

So, does this sound familiar to anyone? What have we learnt in 22 years? Maybe we are doing better what comes to the desk and laptops, but the range of devices has grown a lot and Bring Your Own Device is there already. We still face those incompatibility topics frequently, but of course in this area things in general have proceeded a lot and e.g. different management systems help with that "Install command"

I still tend to see and hear those IT oriented solution comments. There has been a lot of progress in the area how the user needs are taken into account, but amazingly some suppliers still provide solutions which do not really fit to the purpose.

Suppliers - oh dear, I have worked with excellent people and I have leart a lot working with excellent people, but
a) there are suppliers who have not understood the customer oriented approach
b) organizations need to understand that purchasing is a difficult area and requires skilled people and own expertiese as well

In the market - suppliers want to sell, organizations have need to solve their challenges with solutions, but a lots of education needs to be done to constantly succeed in that area.