IT, Does it Matter?

**disclaimer** the position of this article is not necessarily the viewpoint of the blog host.
The position of our debate team (Tim, Joe, Brandon, Ted) is that IT doesn’t Matter. Nicholas Carr is initially taking a “devil’s advocate” pose but upon closer examination he actually has several valid points which logically support his position. Here are those key points:

>IT is expensive:
>In 1965 IT overhead was 5%, today it runs over 50% of a company’s resource cost. It is difficult to say that profitability has grown in proportion in credit to IT.
>IT stifles creativity.
>IT doesn’t challenge personal development or creativity. IT provides the “easy way out” solution rather than causing a desire to find efficiency. IT promotes the idea of “hey, let’s just throw a bigger server at it and that will give us the advantage” rather than “hey, let’s brainstorm and find a smarter way to do this”.
>IT removes competitive advantage.
>Carr calls it the “Corrosiveness” of IT. His viewpoint is that the same IT is available to all (keep in mind that it is hardware, software, and network) thus the first to buy the hardware only has an advantage for a little while until the next competitor buys it. Now, everyone is equal. It’s like a phrase from the Incredibles movie…. “Once everyone has the weapons to make them a Super(human), then suddenly, no one is a Super(human)”.
>IT is misunderstood
>This is perhaps the biggest argument poised by Carr. He says that too many hear him say “IT doesn’t matter” and in misconception they interpret that to be “IT can be eliminated”. Actually, Carr proposes a reduction in the reliance of IT. A reduction in IT being the top concern and factor of success. Once people understand what Carr is promoting (less dependency on IT) then they will become more acceptable to the concept.

Summary: IT is a factor of a business, but it shouldn’t be the dominant factor. IT is a means to an end, not the driving force. There is a misconceived mindset that IT will make the difference between success & failure of a business when in fact IT may be as much of a constraint as a contributor. Proper balance of IT’s role is needed for a company’s growth and success.