IT Matters Again

A recent paper by Deloitte entitled 'IT Matters Again' makes for compelling reading. It argues that the turmoil in the economy and wider business environment in the last few years has made IT more rather than less important (as many had expected). In support of this observation it quotes a report by the Confederation of British Industry that indicates that firms are planning to increase their investment in technology over the next few years, in large part at the cost of investments in buildings, vehicles, plants and machinery etc.

The reason they are doing this is that business leaders see technology as being critical to differentiating themselves from their competitors.

Technology in itself is not achieving this but rather it is underpinning the success of business transformation projects and the delivery of innovative product offerings and customer service.

In making these investments the paper argues that organisations should consider the investment in the light of the class of technology that is involved.

Three classes of technology are identified:

• Commodity IT, in which it interestingly categories cloud computing, provides the infrastructural technologies that underpin IT - computing power, storage, networks etc.



• Differentiated IT delivers the technology capabilities required to support business transformation projects and


• Innovative IT which supports innovations in the business through technology agility and responsiveness.

Business value is delivered through differentiated and innovative IT. IT organisations should therefore focus their investments and efforts in these areas rather than commodity and lower level differentiated IT which may be seen as more 'business as usual' IT.

By focusing investments in these areas IT Leaders and IT departments can change the perception of them as cost centre (a perception that Deloitte's CIO survey results indicates organisations in Ireland are continuing to struggle with) to one of a value adding partner who cannot only support the business in transforming and innovating today but which can also position it for the recovery.

We just need to seize the opportunity.

The paper can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/7xzeelw
Deloitte's CIO Survey results can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/7shh7zc