Summarize the main points of Carrs paper. How did Brown and Hagel II argue against these points?

Key Ideas For Carrs Paper 1) IT generally viewed as the backbone of commerce and regarded to be critical for an organizations success and assumed to give them some form of competitive advantage in their industry 2) Advantages from an infrastructural technology are only short-lived due to increasing competition, falling prices, and greater capacity. It eventually renders the technology accessible and affordable 3) Even the ways technology is used becomes standardized and best practices are widely understood and used. The strategic potential that an organization hope to gain to stand out from others is lost which the ubiquity of the technology. 4) The only advantage that could be gain is a cost advantage which is short lived too. However companies do benefit by improving brand recognition or scale economics which provides their competitive advantages that are more durable that the technology edge itself. 5) IT capabilities are homogenizing as increasing companies buy generic applications because they hare cost saving and are interoperable( benefits). 6) IT buildout is closer as business needs are basically fulfilled, IT prices basically affordable and IT vendors are positioning themselves as commodity suppliers 7) The importance of analyzing the usefulness of the IT on the organization before investing and potentially overspending on Technology Class Discussion: Carrs Paper - IT becomes ubiquitous - Slow down the IT investment - Price of IT cheaper - Proprietary vs Infrastructural Technology (Carrs opinion) - Commoditization of IT - Offense to Defense (Manage well IT cost ) o Cost/Risk management Brown and Hagels Paper - How to use IT strategically - Incremental innovations (producing more waves IT innovations) - Adapt business strategy around IT - Increase profit in long term - The need to find right people with capabilities to leverage IT

Do you agree with Carr that IT is an infrastructural technology? Why or why not? Infrastructural Technology is one that offers more value when shared than using in isolation.

IT is an infrastructural technology One of its main advantages include it being accessible anywhere. Looking at the internet for example, the reason why IT remains so popular to consumers is that it can be easily used and accessed anywhere in the world and its services is not limited within a certain region. With a large network of consumers, the value of the Internet and IT increases, from more information being transmitted to the ease of communications between regions. It mainly benefits the user-end populations as with the sharing of IT, we can see the new kinds of IT services and products being produced more rapidly than when it is isolated. However on the other hand, it would mean that upon organizations would not have any competitive edge for long. Class Discussion: For Infrastructural Technology - Transport mechanism tool - Rapid Price Deflation of Technology - Shared use pp benefit - Highly Replicable Not an Infrastructural Technology - it doesnt analyze data , its person who analyze - Continuous improvement - in-house software used to gain advantage over others

Do you think a company can achieve strategic advantage in using IT? If so, how can this strategic advantage be achieved? A company can use IT as a strategic advantage but it requires a company to continue to introduce and accumulate significant IT innovations in their business to preserve that strategic advantage obtained. This is because as Nicolas Carr mentioned, the strategic value that benefits an organization tends to be short lived from the increasing competitors in the market, newcomers and other factors. It is important to note that achieving strategic advantage rest not on the technology itself, but more of how IT is being used in business to make strategies. For example, companies need to align their long and short term business strategies along with IT to see how much value can be created from its use and also note down the opportunities and challenges brought about by the IT. Class Discussion: New opportunities Differentiate Improve biz processes e.g. CRM (customer relationship management) + ERP (eEnterprise resource system)

E-government

In conclusion, do you think IT matters? If so, in what ways does it matter? IT does matter. It can be and should be used by business to gain a competitive advantage. However such competitive edge should not be expected to last long term. Effective innovative IT strategies should be continuing to be implemented by the business, to maintain such competitive advantage. In Class Diccussion Automation potential scarcity remote communication first mover (first party that fits the market gains larger share?)