Information Technology

BSNS 106 ASSIGNMENT 3

Since the advent of the Information age, people and organisations have been inundated with boundless volumes of data, which when unprocessed and regurgitated can remain as just that, data. The challenge that lies with people and organisations alike is to transform and process raw data into useful qualities that can be used to make informed decisions effectively and efficiently thus making use of the information acquired from the raw data. The challenge for people and organisations is to provide fast, reliable high quality information for superior decision making.

In the May 2003 edition of the Harvard Business Review, Nicholas G. Carr wrote a article entitled "IT Doesn’t Matter" where he argued that like transportation and electricity before it information and communications technology (ICT) has become a commodity within modern organisations; trying to gain competitive advantage through the use of ICT and information systems offers little reward and will most likely be a futile endeavour. Therefore, investment in innovation within information systems should be stopped, spending in ICT should be cut to a minimum, and companies should "focus on vulnerabilities, not opportunities." (Carr, p48). The title of article alone might appear to be nonsensical, a thorough understanding of the article is essential to ascertain what Nicholas Carr is arguing about.

He has distinguished the difference in importance of Information Systems at different platforms in organisations. He agrees that at the regional and industry level where economies of scale still exist, IT infrastructure is still critical to competitiveness. However, at the firm level, it is no longer a source of advantage as because at this level Information Systems have become ubiquitous and there is no clear way that firms can distinguish themselves in a clear way from their competitors. This has made Infrastructure Systems a commodity.

The key is to understand the main use of...