It's time to face the facts: IT does matter, but not necessarily in the way you think, and the biggest issue isn't technology -- it's people. Most recently Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer and Sun Microsystems chief executive Scott McNealy made their cases that IT matters greatly, and that business success and technology innovation go hand-in-hand.
Ballmer called the notion that technology no longer has the potential to transform lives and make people more productive "hogwash." McNealy believes IT is critical to competitive advantage: "To get an advantage, I need to know more about what happened in the last six hours than my competitor. It won't happen through smoke signals. IT is critical to make that happen."
Carr contends that companies can no longer gain much competitive advantage from IT investments. "Companies have to make the investments to maintain competitive parity, but if you think that you can innovate your way using technology to a competitive advantage that will be lasting, I think you're fooling yourself," Carr said at a recent conference.
After listening to both sides for the last few months, and weighing in with my own analysis, I can only conclude that the two sides are more alike than different in their perspectives.
Rather than focus on the inflammatory "IT doesn't matter" headline, the real question is whether IT is becoming more of a commodity, and the implications of that trend. Of course, IT matters. It's like saying access to water or the sun don't matter to living beings. It's an essential part and cost of doing business in the 21st century.
Does IT matter as a tool for competitive advantage? It depends on how you use it. For Amazon, Wal-Mart, Dell, and almost any other company, the application of technology is a key success factor. Leveraging technology -- such as a superior customer relationship solution, more efficient supply chain management, or a datawarehousing implementation -- can allow a company to outperform competitors. It is only a part of the success formula, but it is an integral part of the ongoing investment to be an industry leader. For example, an inefficient supply chain can destroy companies that live on thin margins and large-scale distribution. Or, achieving a lower cost infrastructure can deliver more profit or fodder for R&D than a less efficient competitor.
Talkback
Sounds like an age old problem this.
Not enough education and communication going on here as per usual.
IT & Business do not speak the same language and never have. This is because both sets of people usually come from different work cultures, have different goals and agendas.
Establishing opportunities that are frequent and often for education and communication will soon take down barriers.
It works in other industries so why are we an exception? It is because IT is naive to think that it is inventing the wheel as far as business/ technology relations are concerned?
The education angle is correct, too many IT professionals focus on the technology rather than the business needs.
But then its what we are taught at university, or have been trained from the metaphorical shop floor.
Its time IT changed, not to just concentrating on the tech but on how it affects people. IT does matter but not the way it did in the old days, perhaps we should rename it Information Management again instead of IT and ICT.
And alot of people forget IT automation works for larger companies, but not for small businesses and it is certainly at the mercy of human misunderstanding, we need to support the business in terms of information needs, not just provide technology and fix it.
It is high time that IT practitioners became better informed with regard to the goals and attitudes of business management, (and of course vise-versa).
For too long the two sides have travelled divergent paths each convinced that their sphere of influence is of greater importance than the other.
We should not be forcing businesses to fit around our networks, nor should we reinforce dated and inefficient business practice by making technology fit aound it.
The way forward is to form a partnership between the administrators and managers to take advantage of technology to improve practices and efficiency at the same time keeping an eye formly on the business objectives and not implementing something new for the wrong reasons.