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June 27, 2005 (Computerworld) -- The great nemesis of the IT profession, Nicholas Carr, is back with more scary and controversial things to say . I'm amused to see us all rush to refute his pronouncements. But, to paraphrase a famous quote, methinks we doth protest too much.
Carr is right about a number of things, and many of us know it. A big chunk of what we do in the IT business -- stuff like running networks and application systems, and installing and supporting packaged software -- is necessary but no longer strategic to most organizations. Ironically, because we have gotten so good at these things, they have become commoditized. Now it often does make sense to outsource them to an IT utility, just as we outsource the production and delivery of electricity to an electric utility.
There is a great divide in the IT business between people who deliver services based on their knowledge of IT products, and people who deliver services based on their knowledge of the core IT techniques . This is because the practice of IT is actually reaching a new level of maturity.
Up until about 1980, technology didn't change that quickly, and practitioners tended to identify themselves by the programming language, operating system or hardware they knew.
The pace of change accelerated in the client/server world of the 1990s. Popular languages came and went every three or four years (remember dBase and PowerBuilder?). Hardware and operating systems got better and more powerful every year.
This forced people to take one of two paths. The first was to devote themselves full time to learning new languages and staying current with the newest release of an operating system. The other was to learn to apply a set of techniques that could be employed in a range of business situations regardless of the specific technology being used.
Since hardware and software vendors are consolidating rapidly, there are only a few dominant software packages, operating systems and hardware platforms left. Use of an ERP, CRM or office automation system no longer confers a competitive advantage. The installation and operation of these systems by a few large service providers -- utilities -- is rapidly becoming a very cost-effective way to go. Organizations are reaching a point where they no longer need to have people skilled in operating such systems on their own payrolls.
IT practitioners whose skills are largely based on detailed knowledge of a certain software package, programming language or operating system are heading for a future in an outsourced utility. Practitioners who apply a set of core techniques to design and build systems enabling organizations to accomplish their unique goals are the ones who will define the future of the IT profession. These practitioners will be indispensable to the way organizations deliver products and services to their customers.
Precisely because software packages are so common, the level of competition is increasing and the opportunities for growth and profit are shifting to new areas. Profit no longer lies in pumping out masses of commodity products to as large an audience as possible. Profit now lies in wrapping commodity products in a blanket of customized, value-added services that make them uniquely attractive to each customer. And since all value-added services are information-based, companies urgently need IT professionals who know how to use technology to deliver this value.
Michael H. Hugos is CIO at Network Services Co., a distribution cooperative in Mount Prospect, Ill., that sells food-service and janitorial supplies. He is the author of Building the Real-Time Enterprise: An Executive Briefing (John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2004). He can be reached at mhugos@nsconline.com.
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