Comparison to Mature Industries:
Rapid technology advancements have changed the way business operates and many facets of personal life. Mr. Carr compares the electric industry to Information Technology (IT). In parallel to electricity, IT is abundantly available to all businesses today at lower costs than ever. Further, the wide availability does not allow companies to achieve a sustainable advantage because a competitor can easily integrate the same technology. His analysis falls short in a couple of areas. First, electricity regulated by government agencies and is uniform in delivery. Information Technology is delivered by endless numbers of vendors and channels including the internet. The multiple options and ever changing developments require companies to strategically plan for how they can utilize technology to improve their operations and increase competitiveness. I agree the competitive advantages are not sustainable in long-term due to rapid technology advancements and continued lower costs. However, the risk of a competitor implementing a technology that negatively impacts another company’s business model is tremendous. Proactive IT management is a requirement of businesses today as much as an accounting department. Mr. Carr actually supports this argument assessing risks are more important than strategy. The risks he indicates are computer glitches, etc. A break in IT service can be devastating to a company’s operations. In addition, the risk of falling behind a competitor by not strategically integrating available technology could destroy a company’s business model.

Cost Implications:
Information Technology services are becoming more available and less expensive with internet delivery. Further, assessing the costs and expected advantages is crucial to deciding on what IT applications are needed. I agree with Mr. Carr’s assessment that businesses should not be leaders in use of technology and only purchase applications needed. A company supplying computers to thousands of employees only using minimal functions for their jobs would be wasting capital assets to spend for software and applications the employees do not need to complete their job duties.


Proprietary and Infrastructural Technologies:
Per Mr. Carr, proprietary technologies are controlled by a single company and provide significant competitive advantages, such as a patent. Infrastructural technologies are shared with many and the gains are shared by all. If a company can maintain control and ownership the gains are significant and similar to a monopoly. A good IT example is the Microsoft Windows operating software infrastructure by majority of computer users. Microsoft has been able to maintain this control but the internet is decreasing to opportunity for other companies to create future infrastructure platforms for IT delivery. The internet has become the delivery channel and rapid advancements continually replace state of the art technology.

Does IT Matter?

In my opinion IT is vital to the long term success most all businesses today.