Competitive Advantage: IT As a Business Partner

by Christine Davis

IT has been a critical part of the production of running a business since the early days of the IBM 360. IT supports every aspect of the business from human resources to operations -- yet it has primarily been perceived to be a part of the backstage crew. IT has been extremely important to the success of the show, but it is not seen as a key actor who is center stage and critical to determining the final outcome. In fact, some have gone so far as to declare that IT doesn't really matter anymore [1]. Of course, we were reminded of its importance during the Y2K frenzy when, for the first time, IT found itself on the agendas of the boards of directors in many corporations around the world, giving play-by-play reports on their coding problems. Around the same time, IT became a key player in the dot-com bubble, giving rise to the need for speed as dot-com businesses created their Web sites. However, IT organizations have been mostly perceived as one of many business support functions, just like finance, manufacturing, or HR. Until recently, IT has typically not been recognized as a determining factor in a business's ability to gain or lose market share or as the driver of the competitive dynamics of entire industries.