| | Dec - Jan, 20188In My OpinionNearly fifteen years ago Nicholas G. Carr proclaimed Information Technology inconsequential. Boldly, the title of his article, published in 2003 by Harvard Business Review, declared IT Doesn't Matter. "IT is best seen as the latest in a series of broadly adopted technologies that have reshaped industry over the past two centuries--from the steam engine and the railroad to the telegraph and the telephone to the electric generator and the internal combustion engine," Carr proclaimed.As their popularity grew, he wrote, the competitive advantage that caused companies to invest heavily in information technologies had been all but erased. "From a strategic standpoint, they became invisible; they no longer mattered." Carr was speaking to the rapid growth and investment in information technologies from the advent of the microprocessor through the 1990s and the "intuitive" assumption of business leaders that the ubiquity of information technologies signaled their strategic value. As Carr pointed out, the assumption failed to acknowledge that information technologies were, and are, infrastructural. During early stages, infrastructure technologies assume characteristics of proprietary technologies as they catalyze structural change and become integral to market strategy. But over time, the proprietary characteristics of infrastructure technologies fade and their value is no different than any other commodity. Among the most illustrative and omniscient of Carr's comment was his belief that, "more and more companies will fulfill their IT requirements simply by purchasing fee-based `Web services' from third parties--similar to the way they currently buy electric power or telecommunication services." Indeed, many did. Yet, Carr was speaking to competitive advantages in competitive markets, where early entry and adoption of information technologies can create advantage. In competitive markets, as Carr wrote, a resource like information technology eventually, "becomes essential to competition but inconsequential to strategy."Despite Carr's controversial stance and the passage of time, his article is still relevant for Chief Information Officers and other IT professionals in non-competitive markets. Unlike competitive markets, increasing investment in information technologies in non-competitive markets, especially in elementary and secondary education, may actually position IT IT Does Matter in EducationBy Rich Valerga, COO, Acero Charter Schools Inc,Rich Valerga
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