Comment Articles

Does it matter if IT matters? Yes and no

Kevin Francis ZDNet.com

Published: 31 Oct 2003 13:20 GMT

The irresistible gravity of capitalism is beginning to pull down the temples built to the gods of IT. The baptistery has been spilled out, and grass is growing in the nave. Good business sense is beginning to look at IT as a simple "make, buy or lease" decision rather than a complex staffing requirement. CFOs, and even some CIOs, understand there simply isn't a competitive upside to having a legion of engineers figuring out how to patch 4,000 computers with MS03-039, but there is considerable downside if they don't.

Good technology combined with a good idea can be a force-multiplier and create economies of scale. For example, once a critical patch has been issued and IT engineers have devised a way to administer that patch, there isn't any appreciable difference between patching 1,000 or 100,000 personal computers using today's automated tools. In theory, a company could leverage that economy of scale across multiple businesses. In theory, those multiple businesses would benefit from that single company achieving that economy of scale.

In practice, that's exactly what's happening.

IT infrastructure-outsourcing companies are using to their advantage brilliant IT engineers and modern IT automation and management tools, and have created state-of-the-art IT management services that are being steadily scaled throughout North America. The success of these companies validates Carr's thesis: IT infrastructure is becoming just another utility for business. And just as it doesn't make any sense for businesses to build, staff and maintain their own electrical generation plants, it doesn't make any sense to build, staff and maintain their own plants to generate datatricity.

IT doesn't really matter, and IT really does matter. F Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." As we watch the mentally vapour-locked IT pundits continue to splutter and fume and blast Carr's article, it's painfully clear they are unable to pass Fitzgerald's test.

Kevin Francis is president and chief executive of CentreBeam, an IT outsourcing company in California. Before joining CentreBeam, he was president and chief executive of Accelio and Xerox Canada.