Recommend changes to improve computer or information systems
Part of the output can be produced by software today.
Software drafts well and sends at volume, and vertical support agents now resolve a large share of inbound questions end to end. What does not transfer is the relationship, and the judgment about when a message should not be sent at all.
| How automatable | Partly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Routine communication and explanation |
| Jobs that do it | 14 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Vertical agents, Builders |
| O*NET activity | Providing Consultation and Advice to Others (4.A.4.b.6) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 14 occupations that perform it.
- Evaluate new emerging media or technologies and make recommendations for their application within Internet marketing or search marketing campaigns.
- Prepare evaluations of software or hardware, and recommend improvements or upgrades.
- Develop or recommend network security measures, such as firewalls, network security audits, or automated security probes.
- Recommend changes to improve systems and network configurations, and determine hardware or software requirements related to such changes.
- Provide feedback and recommendations to developers on software usability and functionality.
- Recommend and implement performance improvements.
- Recommend Web site improvements, and develop budgets to support recommendations.
- Make recommendations regarding upgrades, considering implications of new or revised Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, equipment, or applications.
- Propose recommendations for improving content management system capabilities.
- Recommend information security enhancements to management.
- Recommend cyber defense software or hardware to support responses to cyber incidents.
- Provide advice on project costs, design concepts, or design changes.
- Evaluate processes and technologies, and suggest revisions to increase productivity and efficiency.
- Evaluate and recommend upgrades or improvements to existing computerized healthcare systems.
- Research new technologies by attending seminars, reading trade articles, or taking classes, and implement or recommend the implementation of new technologies.
- Collaborate with field staff or customers to evaluate or diagnose problems and recommend possible solutions.
- Correct testing-identified problems, or recommend actions for their resolution.
- Recommend procedures, equipment, or software upgrades to increase data accessibility or ease of use.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for routine communication and explanation, and what it costs.
Drafting replies costs nothing beyond the assistant you already pay for. Only move to a support agent billed per resolution once the inbound volume is large enough that the per-resolution price beats the hour it takes you.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
14 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Clinical Data Managers
- Computer Network Architects
- Computer Systems Engineers/Architects
- Computer User Support Specialists
- Digital Forensics Analysts
- Document Management Specialists
- Geographic Information Systems Technologists and Technicians
- Health Information Technologists and Medical Registrars
- Information Security Engineers
- Network and Computer Systems Administrators
- Search Marketing Strategists
- Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers
- Web Administrators
- Web Developers
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Advise others on the design or use of technologies”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.