Are Investments in Information Systems Worthwhile?

Article 1

This document seek provide a summary and critical review of the article titled “IT doesn’t matter”. Nicholas Carr Authored the article which was first published in May 2003 edition of the Harvard Business Review and now published on his blog.

Mr Carr in is his article seeks to create a comparative relationship to compare “infrastructural technologies” such as railroads and electric power to the use of Information Technology(IT) in our current era(2003). In which he alluded to the suggestion that during their initial phase of development or implementation provided business a strategic opportunity for the business who were “forward-looking” to gain a competitive advantage. However, as the technology or Infrastructure become more mature and widely available and the cost of accruing or the use of such per unit of measurement become more available and affordable to the masses. This would overtime reduce the competitive advantage previously gain by their initial investment if other opportunities or strategies are not develop during the aging of the industry. He mention as the industry mature these advantages become “invisible from a business Strategic standpoint but more essential to the economy and society” framework. Mr Carr group his though put forward under the following category throughout the article “Vanishing advantage”, “The Commoditization of IT”, “What about the vendors” and “From offense to defense”

Throughout the article Mr Carr sited examples where IT could be seen first as a “transportation mechanism” where digital information is been transmitted like a railroad carry goods and power grids transmit electricity. In doing so he advance the idea that with introduction of the internet and various networking capabilities the siloes of major companies advantages related to storage, processing power and speed, software and hardware, transmission availability decrease and are now easily replicated and shared. He also cite the correlation to Moore’s law that suggest devise speeds double every 2 years while the size and cost are reduce as per unit. He was also able cited companies that he considered forwarded looking during the 1970s to 1980s such as American Hospital Supply (AHS) innovative system called Analytic Systems Automated Purchasing (ASPA), American Airlines with its Sabre reservation system, Federal Express with its package-tracking system, and Mobil Oil with its automated Speedpass payment system. In support of his arguments, he also cited were some of the hardware and software used by these companies are more readily available to other companies at a more reliable and cost effective and my include other industry best practice that would not necessarily be available. Hence the reduction of that “particular” competitive advantage.

Mr Carr also took a seat at the vendors table and suggested that they also have to modify their strategic to adopt to IT as commodity that is largely available to the masses. In doing so he identify some entities such as Microsoft and Dell who have modify their IT strategies in forward-looking.

He then conclude his argument by suggesting that when an organization resources become inconsequential to their strategy it may create a risk that is more important than the advantages it provides. Again he made the comparison to the availability of electricity versus the operational risks associated with IT such as security breaches, technical glitches and even terrorism. He went on to suggest that organization that uses IT infrastructure should delay various upgrade due to the rapid change in the industry, hence benefit from others who has time tested the system.

Critique

The article “IT doesn’t matter” played on the word “it” and can be justified in titled the article as a method to grab the intended reader attention. Although not having an abstract, the preamble before the article gave an idea of what the article would be addressing. I find the introduction of the article to be lengthy and provide more of a background to the evolution of the electricity and computing. I however, find it relevant to the staging of his arguments. The used of relevant similes throughout his article was a creative mechanism to supports his argument of comparing IT and electricity as an “infrastructural technology”.

The author throughout his article cite examples to most of his premise put forward however, he fails to cite appropriate sources of this information. The use of simple and coherent language allows the reader to follow the lengthy article. Which also beg the question of his intended audience was it for IT personnel or just general public. If this article was coined for the IT professional I think if fails to look at Information Technology as a hole from an IT practitioner. It can be argued however, from anone IT practitioner who see IT as just a medium “for storing, retrieving, and sending information via computer” as a though process.

In general I find the limited concepts put forward to be relevant even in our present situation were organization have been using IT however, have to continue modify their IT strategies to accommodate the change in technology and the raw abundance of user requirements, devices, high availability of shared software and the high requirement of storages with and organization.

Case 1

This document seek provide a summary and critical review of the article titled “Examining the Strategic Benefits of Information Systems: A Global Case Study”. This case was written by both Abdullah Basahel, and Zahir Irani. Abdullah Basahel is a Researcher from Brunel Business School, Brunel University, UK while Zahir Irani is from Information Systems Evaluation and Integration Group (ISEing), Brunel Business School, Brunel University, UK. This case was published European, Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems 2010, on April 12-13 2010, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The article in the context of emerging evaluation of Information System (IS) as a strategic enabler focuses its attention on reviewing literature relating to the strategic benefits of IS. Throughout the paper the author acknowledge the various IS benefits which can be significant in developing strategy, with understanding that organization operates in varying environment, hence the opportunity for diverse benefit for their decision makers. The paper then provided a taxonomy of IS benefits in the strategic focus of IS, using Y bank as a case study.

The authors in the article suggested that other researches see IS as part of a firm strategy with accordance with IS roles. These roles includes administrative, operational, and competitive