Currently Reading: Does IT Matter?

I found this book last weekend at the local Half-Price Books and thought I’d give it a read.

This well known book, and its author Nicholas Carr, has been at the center of a debate in the IT academic world for some time and I figure I should peruse it to see what the hubbub is all about.

Carr started a firestorm with his original 2003 article titled “IT Doesn’t Matter” in Harvard Business Review (see some rebuttal arguments here) and this book (written in 2004) takes the argument further by comparing IT to the railroad, telegraph and other technological innovations in years past.

Carr’s main argument seems to be that IT is a commodity…which I agree with somewhat. Services such as Email and Web hosting are exactly that…a commodity. The problem is that most organizations treat IT as a whole as a commodity instead of viewing it as a way to gain strategic advantage.

Once I finish the book, I’ll post my thoughts.

[tags] IT, Does IT Matter, IT Strategy [/tags]