How does IT matter for strategy?

Résumé du document

Essay discussing the following questions: (1) IT - everybody can buy it? (2) Is it a commodity? Is IT the same as trains or telephone or electricity? (3) Is it only IT that counts? 1,000 words essay.

Extraits

[...] Is IT the same as trains or telephone or electricity? A commodity is per definition a good that can be easily bought on the markets by anyone who has the financial means to do so. A commodity is largely homogenous and provides the same or a similar use to the buyers. Let's look at IT: if a company has access to the right distribution channels, IT can be bought easily, if someone disposes of the financial means. So far, IT is a commodity. [...]

[...] Is it only IT that counts? IT doesn't matter and It's only IT that counts are two extreme ways of perceiving the importance of IT for strategy. The truth lies as in most cases between those two extremes. The text from the book Corporate Information Systems Management mentions the following: The shift from the industrial economy, where effective deployment of capital was the key to success, to the information economy, where information is the key This statement reflects a large misunderstanding of economic principles by the authors of this article. [...]

[...] On the other hand there are IT-Systems which are developed for a specific end in a specific company. In this case, the systems are not homogenous and don't provide a similar use to the buyer and there use can't be standardized. In conclusion, IT-Systems are surely not comparable with commodities such as trains, telephones or electricity, which provide all the same use and which, except for the design in case of telephones and trains, function all the same way. Despite of the fact that IT-Systems are used commonly by everyone in nowadays business world IT-Systems are still very different from commodities. [...]

[...] The answer to the question if it is only IT that counts lies thus between those two very theoretical concepts. As explained before, it is surely not only IT that counts, but on the other hand it is also unlikely that doesn't matter”. IT sure plays a more and more important role in nowadays business-world and it can still help to gather competitive advantages if properly implemented and used. Moreover, if everybody possesses a certain level of IT, it becomes a competitive disadvantage not to dispose of it. [...]

[...] On the other hand the article IT doesn't matter expresses the following opinion: IT doesn't matter because nowadays everybody disposes of the same access to the information technology, since IT is becoming cost of doing business that must be paid by all but provide[s] distinction to none That is mainly due to the fact that infrastructural technologies like IT-Systems offer far more value when they are shared than when used in isolation The author concludes out of that that it is not possible anymore to gather a competitive advantage with IT since everybody has it already. As mentioned before, it is true that each company has more or less the same access to information technology, but still it stays very difficult to implement and to effectively use IT-resources. Thus the profit companies are gathering from their IT-System is very different, and so is the competitive advantage. [...]