Microsoft: IT does matter
ZDNet | at | by Mike
A recent article in the Harvard Business Review stirred unusual interest within the senior ranks of the computer industry by contending that the broad availability of information technology has dulled IT's effectiveness as a competitive weapon.
Since then the piece, "IT Doesn't Matter," has been endlessly dissected--as much as for what it suggested as for what it reported. Indeed, if the central thesis of the article proves true, the implications for an IT industry struggling to recover from nearly three fallow years are grave.
Like most tech companies, Microsoft has more than an academic interest in how all this turns out. The company, which has sold billions of dollars of software over the years, would suffer the effects of yet another slowdown in customer buying.