Information Technology started to boom and take over the business industries during the early 20th centuries. This development has highly alleviated the status of commerce in the society. This has also been the reason why many companies worldwide choose to invest so much on IT processes for their businesses. Mainly to ensure their company’s capability of remaining in existence, they tend to put so much attention to how their firm keeps up with the fast-paced changing world of technology.
Introduction: Investing in a company’s Information Technology sector has long been a source of argument from the very beginning of time when IT was introduced to the business industry. Many owners of big company’s would of course like to have an edge against other business venture to be able to attain leadership in their own fields of commercial business. This is why these companies tent to invest so much along with the fast paced changing systems of technology. Indeed, they view information technology as one source of insurance for their company’s lengthened existence.
However, is this claim really true? Especially when it comes to the efficiency and accuracy of information processing and data security that Information Technology promises to ensure each business company of? This is what Nicholas Carr argues with in his articles, “IT Doesn’t Matter” and “The end of corporate computing”. In these articles, Carr enlists the ways in which IT cannot sufficiently provide the companies with the competitive advantage it aims to have against other business firms by outlining several reasons on the said topic.
In the paragraphs to follow, these reasons shall be discussed as well as to the Pros and Cons of Carr’s arguments. The Pros of Carr’s Arguments on Information Technology Nicholas Carr’s articles, which were mentioned earlier, mainly points out how the fast changing world of technology makes it hard for companies worldwide to consider IT as a measure of competitive advantage against others. This is because Information Does IT Matter? Page 2 Technology programs could be easily copied, changed and re-distributed due to the advanced technology itself.
In this way, no company could be considered at an edge when it comes to IT. However, the question is, how does IT really affect the business activities of a certain company? The act of generating information usually belongs to the management. However, through the integration of new technologies to this task, things could be done in a lot more easier way. The said information generated by the management through IT includes the flow of money in the company, the business operations and current market updates. These kinds of information are vital for a company’s growth.
This is also the reason why IT is considered to be among the most important sector of a certain company. On the other hand, the real task of generating or using these informations still belongs to the management. This is why Nicholas Carr argues that the IT sector is for no use at all. Indeed, the labor force from the management is the key vital element in making the informations obtained by a company useful for the business. In addition, with the fast changing Information systems recreated through the new technologies, old IT systems may even be considered obsolete after a matter of time.
In addition, since IT is already available for corruption or recopying through the net, Carr considers it useless to actually invest on this sector of any company. Instead, he reiterates that the intellectual ability of the management is still the most important factor in making company informations work for the benefit of the business itself. Does IT Matter? Page 3 The Cons of the Arguments of Carr on Information Technology The article “The End of Corporate Computing” mainly depicts the situation of information technology in today’s business industries.
He then claims that because of the similarities and the common characteristics of each IT systems within every company, IT can never be considered as an edge to being highly competitive against others. Yes, this is true, but then saying that IT itself does not matter at all could be considered as an exaggeration of the matter. As said earlier, IT has alleviated the business industries so much. Today, the data of companies as well as their market could be viewed through the Internet making it possible to attract more customers at that.
In this way companies who are able to catch up with the latest IT systems available for their company gains an edge against those who cannot have even an access to the said IT systems. True, with the fast-paced life of people today, the idea of being left behind because of lack of necessary IT systems for the business may prove to be a fatal situation for a certain business venture. This then thus conclude that both the IT systems of a company along with the intellectual abilities of its management sector should work together to attain the aimed development for any growing business firm.
However, there bare still some business individuals who are not able to recognize the fact that too much of everything is also dangerous. As for example, McAfee’s “Do you have too much IT” pinpoints that the existence of too much computer or electronic drive systems in the business industries have also caused problems especially with Does IT Matter? Page 4 regards to the security of different matters that are displayed by the company through the Internet.
This is mainly because of the fact that there are a lot of people that are able to visit the Internet freely and are not bounded by any certain hindrances. Thus, making it possible for some computer experts to perform illegal theft activities, which could be incurred through the Internet applications provided too by the worldwide web. Certainly, there is a big reason why there are still many experts who are not amiable to making full use of IT as a generator for business transactions especially with regards to money matters.
However, it should always be considered by the said experts that with ample control, security measures and other points of consideration that could be carried on through by the companies operating within the Internet systems, an expected good result could still be predicted in the future. Hence, this means that IT does matter, although there are some measures of concern that should be considered during its operation. Conclusion Living in a high tech society requires of so much advancement especially in the field of commerce.
Being able to market ones products or services to a bigger number of customers might mean that a company must be able to obtain the most advanced technology there is. Indeed, taking advantage of what technology has to offer, such as Information Technology, is a vital part of a company’s growth in today’s globalized industries. Remember though that it must also be always taken into account that these IT systems would never work without the efficiency and effort of human labor such as the Does IT Matter?
The integration of these two sectors in a business firm would surely bring a company to its peak state. No, Information technology is not yet dead. In the business industry, it is still and will continuously be a part of any emerging company’s growth in the globalization of the business industries.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Nicholas G. Carr. (2004). IT Doesn’t Matter. http://www. nicholasgcarr. com/articles/matter. html. (October 26, 2006). Visionary Marketing. com. (2005). A summary of Carr’s “IT Doesn’t matter” article By Yann Gourvennec. http://visionarymarketing. om/articles/it-doesnt-matter. html. (October 26, 2006). Nicholas G. Carr. (2004). An Amazon. com Business Bestseller. http://www. nicholasgcarr. com/doesitmatter. html. (October 26, 2006). Nicholas G. Carr. (2004). The End of Corporate Computing. http://www. nicholasgcarr. com/articlesmt/archives/endofcorporatecomputing. shtml. (October 26, 2006). Nicholas Carr and CIO Editor in Chief Abbie Lundberg go toe-to-toe on the strategic value of IT. (2004). The Argument Over IT. http://www. cio. com/archive/050104/carr. html. (October 26, 2006).
Working Knowledge. (2004). Nicholas Carr: Spend Less on IT. http://hbswk. hbs. edu/archive/4137. html. (October 26, 2006). Kathleen Melymuka. (2005). The End of Corporate IT. http://www. computerworld. com/managementtopics/management/story/0,10801,101573,00. html? source=NLT_PM&nid=101573. (October 26, 2006). Sun Microsystems. (2005). Press Center: Executive Bios: Nicholas Carr. http://www. sun. com/aboutsun/media/bios/bios-carr. html. (October 26, 2006). McAffe, A. (2004) Do You Have Too Much It? MIT Sloan Management Review. Vol. 45, 3, pp. 18-22.
