delisle worrell : challenges to increase it efficiency address by dr delisle worrell, governor of the central bank of barbados, to the information society of barbados ( isb ), barbados hilton, bridgetown, 2 july 2010. * * * this dinner is an opportunity to revive the isb, at a time when there are important challenges facing us, which can be addressed only by an organization which is structured like the isb, bringing together it professionals and users. when we started the isb we were at the dawn of the era of personal computing, and today every adult and most children use sophisticated electronic communications devices as a matter of course. the simplest cell phone nowadays is capable of text messaging, and can be used for banking and financial transactions. so we are now past the stage we were at when isb started, when the main concern was to introduce users to the potential of the latest it products and services. the new challenge is to make it work for us as a tool to increase the efficiency with which we work, and to increase our productivity and effectiveness. this is a major challenge, and in order to meet it we must have effective interaction between it professionals who provide services, and the rest of us who consume them. going forward, i want to urge us all, through active participation in the society ’ s activities, to contribute actively and fully to this dialogue. i can best illustrate the problem by telling you about my recent experience as executive director of the ccmf. soon after i joined the centre we made the decision to deliver all our data and information services online, and to publish all our books and economics papers electronically. the ccmf publishes an academic journal, the jbf3e. as some of you will know, the publication of any journal or magazine is an onerous process, involving the collection, review and editing of all the material, written by several contributors. a huge problem in meeting publications deadlines is that you have to get all the material together, cleaned up and checked, before you can send the completed issue to the printers. a single tardy contributor can wreck your entire schedule, and prevent you from bringing the publication out on time. i ’ ve been in this business for decades, and this was the reality i ’ d always faced. it was only when we went to electronic publishing that it suddenly dawned on me that we didn ’ t have to wait until the last paper was ready to put out the issue of the journal

, and to take advantage of its possibilities we must be flexible enough to allow ourselves to go down the unexpected pathways that the new technologies reveal. that is the new challenge for the it professional. you have organized your work to give the user what he asked for. you need to go further, to empower the user to change his mind, to go off in directions he hadn ’ t thought of before, and to change the ways in which he organizes his work and his use of it services. we are embarked on a voyage of discovery, in this age of it, and we must work together, it specialists and the consumers of their product, to rewrite the maps and charts that guide us, as we go along. we must avoid beating up on each other when we occasionally run aground because the charts we were working with failed to reveal dangerous shoals in our way. we must be able to recognize when what we had thought to be a safe harbor turns out to be an iron bound coastline, and change course accordingly. by sharing stories and experiences, and seeking advice among ourselves and colleagues at home and abroad, the isb members can make it a more productive journey for everyone.