P2P

4 P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | F A L L 2 0 2 2 F R O M T H E C E O C an you believe there is only one more Peer to Peer in calendar year 2022? I can't. I just got the hang of writing 2022 for the year, and soon I will be transitioning to 2023! (Now wasn't that a clear way to transition to a discussion of – well – transition!) This issue of Peer to Peer is all about transition, specifically how hard it can be. As technologists, change management is what we do. Sometimes I feel as though it's all we do. What makes change especially hard now is that even the way we change has changed. We are transitioning to new change management tools and methodologies. I daresay most if not all of us had to find new ways simply to deploy technology when everyone was working from home. We once had a tried and true methodology for IT change. Gather requirements, select a solution, build a test environment, pilot, etc. Now, by the time we do all that, our favorite cloud app will have come out with 10 new versions, each one with new features and maybe even an updated interface. Our friend Matt Homann of Filament is fond of saying (and forgive my paraphrase) that the speed of change has never been as fast as it is today and will never be this slow again. The acceleration is relentless. So what does this all mean for transition? First, we have to accept that 2019 is gone and will never come back. This is an opportunity as well as a challenge. So our software distribution tools are different. Maybe now they are both more powerful and more flexible. Second, we have to be more circumspect about customization (not so much with configuration). This also means even closer communication with our providers of products and services about what feature and functions need to be available natively or be fully configurable. This is easier said than done without question. However, our business partners want to be of assistance and add value. Help them help you! Third, change has to occur where our users are. Many of our member organizations have much of their personnel in the office at least three days a week. That means some of their folks are out of the office 40% of the time. This affects how we distribute new technology, as well as how we train and support it. As much as I hate to say it, in some ways all remote was easier. Joy Heath Rush joy@iltanet.org

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