NOT so long ago the stately homes of Europe employed full-time staff including artisans and engineers. The progressive mechanisation of kitchens, bathrooms, water, gas, heating, electricity, gardens, elevators and transport required lots of maintenance. This was also true of the fabrication and manufacturing plants during the industrial revolution.

Today we do not pay for engineers and technicians to reside in our offices and homes to keep copiers, TV, hi-fi, PCs and printers operational. Why not? Because we have achieved incredible advances in the reliability of our technologies of manufacture, transport, networking and control.

The march of improving reliability is now reaching out to large production operations so that all maintenance and installation effort can be outsourced. When I came into the electronic world it was the norm for broadcast transmitters, mainframe computers and telephone switches, repeater stations, and production plants to employ full-time maintenance crews. But the progressive advance of electronics saw these people displaced to the point where they ultimately became one man in a van.

The leading telephone companies, Internet providers, PC suppliers, and software producers in America no longer employ technical support or maintenance people; in outsourcing they have significantly reduced their operating costs while creating new business opportunities. We ought not to be amazed that ultimately whole companies will abandon all technical support and treat the area like food, gardening and transport. If someone else can do it better, more efficiently and economically, why not?

In a recent public debate I was asked how many people had been displaced by new technology in the telecoms sector. That was the wrong question. Much more pertinent is how many new jobs and opportunities have been realised? There are now more people working in IT, and the related support, service and production operations, than 20 years ago. And the indications are that increasing numbers will be required in future.

Many of the new players entering IT and the networking arena start by sub-contracting the physical processes of digging up roads, installing ducts and cables, radio transmitters, electronic terminals, switches, routers and software. They also sub-contract equipment and software maintenance. Some even outsource their network design and operational functions such as billing. They did not start as vertically integrated Fordist organisations and they have no need to; it is a historical condition that they can side-step.

This process is not without a downside. The biggest risk probably lies in the lack of any holistic appreciation of the relationships between the individual elements making up the entire operation. An optimisation of one area or grouping can work against the whole. There is also the risk of non-availability of support in a crisis. But all the practical evidence to date suggests that the downside is smaller than the upside of reduced costs and improved operational agility.

Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is:
http://cochrane.org.uk