Electricity, the telephone, the steam engine, the telegraph, the railroad and
..IT? In his HBR article, "IT Doesn't Matter," Nicholas Carr has stirred up quite a bit of controversy around IT's role as strategic business differentiator. He examines the evolution of IT and argues that it follows a pattern very similar to that of earlier technologies like railroads and electricity. At the beginning of their evolution, these technologies provided opportunities for competitive advantage. However, as they become more and more available as they become ubiquitous they transform into "commodity inputs," and lose their strategic differentiation capabilities. From a strategic viewpoint, they essentially become "invisible."
Carr
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First, IT is a "transport mechanism" that carries digital information much the same way that railroads carry goods and power grids transport electricity. And just like these commodities, IT is "far more valuable when shared than when used in isolation." Secondly, IT is highly replicable. With the economic efficiency of off-the-shelf software and the generic business processes that are inherently available within them, the costs savings and interoperability benefits make the sacrifices of "distinctiveness" unavoidable. And, finally, IT is "subject to rapid price deflation." As the cost of processing power, data storage and data transmission has declined, so has one of the most important barriers to commoditization cost. Again, as cost declines, availability increases, which fuels the case for the commoditization of IT. Although Carr does agree that a myriad
Next Level Transition Center will be in tune with the changes of worldwide industries when it comes to information technology. Developments in digitization of information and advances in computing and telecommunications have created higher levels of mobilization and unbundling of intelligence, which in turn have altered how valued is created in the economy (Sawhney and Parikh 2001). As Sawhney and Parikh (2001, p.80) summarized, economic value is now linked to improving the utility of information: “where intelligence resides, so too does value.” To measure business and
The novel Don't Care High was written by Gordan Korman. This novel, as well as other novels he wrote were based partly on his experiences in high school, where he says, "the only way to get through high school alive was by laughing". This novel relates to teenagers about high school and how their high school is different. Korman wrote his first novel at age 12, This Can't Be Happening at McDonald Hall. Korman graduated from New York University's Dramatic Writing Program. He now lives in New York City with his wife and children. <br><br>This novel is based in various High Schools in New York City. One of the main characters Paul, just moved to New York from Saskatoon, Alberta. This novel takes place in the mid 1980's. At this high school,
Harvard’s Professor of Business Administration, Shoshana Zuboff, has remarked, “Technology makes the world a new place.” This statement not only applies to our ever-changing technology, but also for older technology that was developed in the past. The Outcasts of Poker Flat is a short story that is set back in olden times when there was not much technology developed, or at least technology in the sense that we think of it today. Today, we categorize modern technology as smartphones, computers, the Internet, and other things that require electricity. However, in the times of The Outcasts of Poker Flat, the modern technology consisted of the telegraph, repeating rifle, and oil pipelines to transfer oil easily. There was such a meager amount
In Simon Young’s essay “Universities, Governments and Industry: Can the Essential Nature of Universities Survive the Drive to Commercialize?” Young implies many universities increase their focus on commercializing rather than focusing to increase a higher branch of learning for university students. Throughout the essay Young voices his concern for this issue through the use of statistics, concrete facts, research and by acknowledging the issue Young is able to inform his readers about the increase rate of commercialization from universities which he believes is a universities purpose. Young notes 40 years of his life were spent at Universities and this allows the gain of credibility. Young’s audience are members of psychiatry and
The mini-case starts with “IT is a pain in the neck,” which is a wrong notion that most of the business managers have in an organization. The history of IT-business relationships in most of the organizations shows that there is a huge gap between both sides which is getting better over a period of time. Today, managers know the fact that it is the people, technology and information that realizes the value of a company and everytime IT cannot be blamed for everything. The days have gone when IT was looked at as the sole responsibility for a company’s growth or downfall. IT processes along with the
The years or labor and natural resources comes along helping the United states grow and develop and greatest economy in the world was missing one thing the inventions of technology. “In1849 the phone was invented By 1900 there were nearly 600,000 phones in Bell's telephone system; that number shot up to 2.2 million phones by 1905, and 5.8 million by
The software business is a natural monopoly because average total costs continually drop with increase input. The market for computer software presented several problems in relation to antitrust enforcement. American Department of Justice (DOJ) made its complaint against Microsoft in 1994. “DOJ estimated that Microsoft operating systems were to be found on over 120 million PCs, constituting 79% of the operating systems sold to PC manufacturers” (Furse, pg.101). First issue in relation to antitrust enforcement was about the quick market growth. “If markets are continually shifting as technology advances, it may be neither practical nor desirable to subject that market to the strictures of antitrust law” (Furse, pg.100). Second issue was the market in which the desire for product differentiation must be carefully balanced against the need for adjustment. The costs to the consumer of switching from one standard to another can be considerable not because of buying a new software but in difficulties in properly using the new item. So “consumers switch to a technically superior, but poorly adopted spreadsheet that has a different command set and a macro programming language will find it harder,” and therefore more costly, to find assistance. Third
There are some benefits that comes with technology. It helps businesses get their work done on a quicker, larger scale and helps take out the guess work in calculations. However,
Imagine a world where electricity is free and available to everyone. In the modern fast-paced world, high speed internet and quality computer is vital to proceed in the business world. Shifting from a manual to automatic society, it is thanks to innovation that the earth transforms toward the future. Running on electricity, the Information Age is a result of innovation by inventors. Both improving the global standard of power transmission, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison were rivals in the feud over electricity and innovation to create the modern world.
Smith (2001) compared the influential power of the telegraph and more modern inventions, stating that “The same phenomena is easily seen in the relatively recent proliferation of computers and electronic communication technology” (p. 279).
History is full of reputable individuals. The stories of their lives will forever live in our history books. Whether being remembered for their strength, courage, or honor, or even for their treachery, we remember those who came before us. If one character could stand out in Egyptian history, none other would be so worthy as Cleopatra would.
“In the earliest phases of its build out; however, an infrastructural technology can take the form of a proprietary technology. As long as access to the technology is restricted—through physical limitations, intellectual property rights, high costs, or a lack of standards—a company can use it to gain advantages over rivals.” As Laura Acevedo notates in her article Business Benefits of Information Technology, “Companies using a first-movers strategy can use information technology to create new products, distance their products from the existing market or enhance their customer services. Companies that follow a low-cost product strategy can look to information technology solutions to reduce their costs through increased productivity and reduced need for employee overhead.” The contention is that once a technology has evolved from being considered a proprietary technology into an infrastructural technology then the differentiation from one company to the next is inevitably lost.
The case study of “Disruptive Innovation” is a studying that concentrated and described an innovation as the affordable price products for people in the entire world to use. This research indicated about certain disruptive innovations such as the laptops, the routers, smartphones or desktop photocopier that are the substitutions for other companies’ commodities. Furthermore, Porter five forces strategy is a structure to examine the level of competition in today’s market and to make an improvement for the business strategy. Likewise, these forces are including: the threat of new entrants, when suppliers have power, when customers have power, the threats of substitutes and intensity of competitive rivalry. Therefore, this report was assigned to analyze Porter’s five forces strategy for applying toward the case of disruptive innovations and demonstrating on how it affects or relates to most of the companies worldwide.
Businesses are discovering the Internet as the most powerful and cost effective tool in history. The Net provides a faster, more efficient way to work colleagues, customers, vendors and business partners- irrespective of location or operating system harnessing this powerful resource gives companies strategic advantages by leveraging information into essential business asset. The "technology of the future" here today. This is a fact. Businesses making the transition will, and are prospering; however those that do not will most certainly suffer the consequences.
I do not agree with Carr when he states that organizations such as IBM and Microsoft recognize this trend and have position themselves as IT utilities companies as more companies replace customized application with generic ones. That the internet has increased the commoditization of IT by providing a perfect delivery channel for generic applications and more and more organization will obtain their IT requirement by purchasing fee-based web services