The Cistek Group Newsletter Volume 2004, Issue 2:

Subscribe to The Cistek Group Newsletter
Send this issue to a friend
Send us your feedback

Newsletter Volume 2004, Issue 4, September 2004

Article

Who Invented Six Sigma?
By Tom Cissell
A lot of people think it was invented at GE, perhaps by Jack Welch himself. Others believe it was Juran, and still others think if was their favorite consultant, who by the way, doesn’t work very hard to correct that myth. In fact “Six Sigma” is a federally registered trademark of the company that started it all. { <more>
Book Review
Does IT Matter? Author: Nicholas G. Carr, Harvard Business School Press

In May 2003, Harvard Business Review published an article by Nicholas G. Carr entitled "IT Doesn't Matter". Carr's underlying premise is that as IT becomes more commoditized it looses its strategic value and can no longer be justified as an investment. Carr explores this concept in depth in his recently published book of a slightly different title "Does IT Matter?". The very things that CIOs and techies alike have been pressing for - standards and lower costs, have eroded the unique benefits that fewer adoptors might realize from a proprietary solution. High cost, complexity, and the proprietary nature of solutions are all barriers to entry which allow their possessors to gain strategic advantage.
Carr's original article stirred controversy and I would expect the book to do the same. The CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer's response to the article was "Hogwash". However, based on Cistek's client base, Microsoft has had a much harder time convincing customers to upgrade to Office 2003 than with past versions and has enlisted the aid of consultants to explain and quantify the value of the upgrade. So, maybe IT advantage is vanishing as Carr claims. As far as to whether or not IT can any longer be "justified" as an investment, CFOs don't give away money for infrastructure projects. Cistek has assisted many clients justify infrastructure projects because high costs or long cycle times were the cause of lost orders. IT may have become commoditized as part of the corporate infrastructure, but it still insn't cheap enough not to be considered an investment to upgrade or replace.
"Does IT Matter?" is worth reading. If you are in the IT business it will make you think about the value of your offerings. At the very least, it will keep you abreast of at topic your customers might be reading about.

Click here to be removed from newsletter distribution list

The Cistek Group

www.cistekgroup.com

614-771-0378