Commoditized IT? Don't Believe It

摘要

Twenty years ago, I got my first IT management position, not because I was knowledgeable about the role information could play in transforming organizational processes, but because I had front-line experience in network and distributed systems management, both of which were considered strategic. In those days, IT management was the domain of technocrats—programming and protocol geeks who could carry on a conversation and balance their checkbooks. Many of today's analysts appear to dismiss technical aptitude as a requirement for IT management. Gartner's John Mahoney recently predicted that within five years, "design and management of business processes and relationships will supersede management of technology as the leading value proposition" for most enterprise IT organizations. This emphasis on process and partnering has merit, but it would be a mistake to conclude that technology chops don't matter.