Does IT Really Matter?

Did IT (information technology) really matter for you in the past year, in 2007?
Will IT matter for you in 2008?

Did it matter to you, for example, that Microsoft (above left) came out with Vista, its latest operating system, aimed at improving system security?

Did it or might it matter to you that Intel (above right) came out with a replacement for silicon, the metal hafnium, aimed at improving its processor performance?

If you have read the book Does IT Matter?: Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage, you'd know that former editor of the Harvard Business Review, Nicholas G. Carr believes that IT does not matter; it's just a commodity.

What really matters, according to authors Howard Smith & Peter Fingar, is not so much information technology as Business Process Management.

This site takes the view that, although both IT and business process management matter a lot, what really matters, in using IT to achieve satisfaction, value and purpose in business, are people, organisation and management.

And what matters most of all is that mystical thing called Synergy.

Synergy, in the present context, is where you get:
1. People
2. Organisation
3. Management
4. Business Process
5. Information & Communications Technology
6. Development, acquisition & support of information systems
7. Data

- All combining emergently to provide Information Net-Value
to people, the organisation, and customers.

In other words, it's a holistic, or systemic approach that's needed.

At least, that's what they say in the book Making the Invisible Visible: How Companies Win with the Right Information, People and IT, by Donald Marchand et al.

For example, how do People think about IT:
- Problem oriented or customer-value oriented?
- In the box or out of the box?
- Cutting costs or getting value?
- Their problem or our problem?
- Wants or needs?
- Tactical tool or strategic resource?

In terms of Organisation, what kind of barriers are there between business managers and IT advisors, and how is the organisation set up to get real value from IT?

And what are the causes in the sensational security failures we read about, is it the Information Technology (which it might be), or is it Business Process Management?

So, yes, IT does matter, as has been shown in a number of studies.

However, people, organisation and management, in using IT to achieve satisfaction, value and purpose in business, would seem to be more critical than IT itself. These are the things that really matter.

What do you think; what matters most,
in achieving satisfaction, value and purpose with IT?