Your IT department won't exist in five years!!!!

Taken from:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9239815/IT_departments_won_t_exist_in_five_years

What an interesting article and approach (especially for bigger businesses - with huge IT departments).  

[...]they are not sure how to address a growing generation gap between young and veteran workers, each of whom are comfortable with different technologies.

"Interns coming in for the summer are asked if they're familiar with Google Apps. They say, 'Of course we are,'" said Nathan McBride, vice president of IT & chief cloud architect at AMAG Pharmaceuticals. "Then we have other employees coming in who worked for other companies who say, 'I need Outlook.' We have to say we don't use that anymore."

McBride said 75 Fortune 100 companies now use Google Apps along with most Ivy League schools, meaning that the next generation of workers won't be users of Microsoft Exchange or Office.

In five years, McBride said, companies will have to ensure they're matching their enabling technology to the demographic of that time.

Kathleen Schaub, vice president of research firm IDC's CMO Advisory Practice, said many corporate IT organizations now report to the head of the business unit it's assigned to."

The article suggests that some functions (maybe legacy systems and systems analysis and design and back end mainframe processing) will be lead by the older generation, but the new tablet / smartphone / apps will be done by the new generation.

While I am definitely in the older generation, being a professor does keep me current with the new technologies.  I might be able to bridge the generation gap!!!