A Critique: It Doesn't Matter

In his much debated article ‘IT Doesn’t Matter’, Nicholas Carr claims that IT has become a commodity like steam engines or electricity and it does not offer competitive advantage anymore and makes people ask “Does IT still matter?” (Carr, 2003). In this debate, scholars and interested parties raised valid arguments to both support and criticize Carr’s arguments. Some people claim that Carr is right, what makes a difference today is company’s culture and its understanding of business and not its IT. Some people argue that IT is on its way of being commodity but it still needs some time to get there. Yet some others stress that IT can offer strategic advantage if companies can utilize it in an effective way. In addition, some says that Carr is looking only part of the picture and not to the whole, thus his statements are not accurate.

One of the arguments for Carr’s article supports his claim that IT is commoditized and does not offer strategic advantage; what makes the difference is a company’s culture and understanding of its business. Today companies can invest on IT and develop unique applications to gain strategic advantage however they will only find out that their unique application is already available in the market. Theodore argues that the projects companies develop are already done years ago or will be copied easily by the competitors. Thus, it is not enough for companies to have latest technology. To be successful, they should understand their core business and competitors. For instance, Theodore says that some leaders of logistics industry has developed IT systems, some has very old and outdated systems but they are all able to compete with each other; it is their ‘knowledge and culture’ that gives them their strategic advantage (Theodore, 2010).

On the ‘for’ side, there are also arguments stating that Carr is right, IT will be a commodity but not yet. Gapper believes that someday applications might be rented like electricity or water and...