Does IT Really Matter Anymore - Book Report/Review Example

Does IT really matter anymore? Does IT really matter anymore? Nicholas Carr says no in his controversial article, IT doesn’t matter. In part one of his articles; he opposes the widely accepted opinion that incorporation of IT into business operations gives firms an edge over the others in the highly competitive world. He argues that what really gives a firm an advantage over the others is the ability to offer a service or produce a product that the other firms in the market cannot produce. He compares IT to ancient inventions that have been adopted the world over. Perfect examples that he gives are the steam engine, telegraph, railroad, electric generators and the internal combustion engines. These inventions offered visionary companies a way to improve their production. Over a short period of time these technologies became ubiquitous and therefore invincible (Springer, 206) In part two a distinction between proprietary technologies and infrastructural technologies is made. He argues that proprietary technologies can actually be owned by a single firm and patented. The patent protects the company against exploitation of their technology by rival firms. Such technologies can therefore give a firm a competitive edge in the market. On the other hand, infrastructural technologies are only beneficial and economical when shared. IT being an infrastructural technology, it can only be beneficial when shared and therefore cannot give a firm a competitive edge. Part three talks about commoditization and replication of IT. As pertains to commoditization, IT is a transport mechanism as it transfers digital information. This factor therefore makes more valuable if shared rather than when used in isolation. The byte being the basic form of data transfer, it is almost impossible to think of another way. This makes it easily reproducible with minimal effort and cost. Gordon Moore’s case clearly illustrates the high rate of inflation that affects technological advancement in IT. He predicted that a computer chip would improve to contain a double circuit at intervals of two years. Despite such improvements, the price labeled on computer functionality would drastically drop (Springer, 139) In part seven, the author concentrates on the challenges that can come in following adoption of IT. In the present times, the world almost completely relies on IT and therefore so much money goes into protecting it. Companies have put so much into protecting vital information about their operations. Some of the threats are terrorism, security breaches, technical glitches and unreliable partners or vendors. The end result of all these is overspending even though profits may be realized. (Springer, 83) As for me I disagree with the article and agree too to some extent. IT doesn’t matter in the context of competing multinational corporations. Such businesses have equal access to IT, since it is ubiquitous in the present age. Therefore, what really matters are the missions and management of an organization. People around the world continue to embrace technology and there are predictions that a time will come when everyone will have complete access to IT. This implies that IT is become a basic need in the world today. IT comes with additional expense to the businesses. This is fueled by its vulnerable nature. IT is under constant threats, both from within and without the firms. The most deadly and catastrophic threats are hacking and terrorism, which can result in leakage of critical information to rivals. To protect people from such occurrences, measures have been put in place, both at the individual firm level and by the various governments. An example of such bodies is the ant cyber-crime unit in the United States of America. This brings additional expenses to the individual firms hence decreasing their profit margins. As for the governments, the additional expenses are transferred to the citizens in the form of taxes. This is as far as I agree with the article (Springer, 39). I disagree with the article based on so many grounds. First of all IT has brought so many improvements in the commercial sector. Accounting has become a lot easier as compared to the voluminous paperwork that was there previously. For example, with the appropriate soft wares and programs, one can be able to access the sales records with the press of a button. In the banking sector the benefits of IT cannot be underestimated. There are automated teller machines which are very efficient when withdrawing money. As a result a lot of time is saved as people no longer have to line in the banking halls to withdraw cash. People are now able to control their bank accounts from their phones or laptops at the comfort of their offices or homes. IT has made communication faster, comfortable and very efficient. Using a mobile phone one is able to communicate with people across the world. There also social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram and many others that enables people to keep in touch with friends, family and business partners. The most sophisticated and beneficial is teleconferencing. Teleconferencing enables people who are miles apart to hold meetings, real time, while watching one another on screens. This is time saving and allows critical and life-saving decisions to be made very fast. In the present world that is full of terrorism and theft, IT has been an important tool in the fight against terror. There are CCTV cameras that are used to monitor movement of people and vehicles and send the information to central control and command centers. Any acts of terror can therefore be detected early and appropriate measures taken. There are also voice recognition soft wares that can be used to detect and trace the source of any terrorist activities. There are trackers that are installed on mobile phones, laptops and cars. Incase such are stolen, they can be easily traced and recovered. This prevents the loss of property and money which is directed to others sectors of the economy. There are tremendous benefits of IT in the educational sector. With Google, information about different subjects and disciplines can be obtained within microseconds. This saves a lot of time during research as opposed to manually looking for information in huge text books. This is more so important for medical school students who do a lot of research. The internet also allows for sharing of information with other students in learning institutions around the world. This makes learning more interactive and integrated. As a result professional can practice anywhere in the world with a lot of ease and convenience. There are now online courses being offered by various universities and other learning institutions. People are therefore able to undertake such courses at the comfort of their homes hence saving on transport and accommodation costs. Despite the tremendous benefits that come with IT, there are social and ethical issues that come up from time to time. First there are sites in the internet that display sexual content without proper measures to keep the underage population from accessing such information. This has deleterious repercussions on their morals. It is found that children who get exposed to pornographic content are likely to engage in sexual violence or become addicted to pornography. Some engage in sexual intercourse at an early age and get unwanted pregnancies. Due to sexual activities, some may end up contracting sexually transmitted diseases and spread them. Another major problem with IT is hacking. There are professional hackers who can gain access to a person’s information data bases without their consent. There are instances where students can be attempted to hack into school’s grading systems to change their grades. Such students end up graduating with degrees that they never worked for and when they go to the job market, they perform miserably. The end result is manpower that is underperforming. There are reported cases where nude photos have been leaked into the internet. This is more so when one saves their photos in the internet, where they are highly vulnerable to hackers. When such photos are released anyone can see them hence tarnishing the reputations of the victims and their families. Business secrets can also be leaked out by malicious people or competitors so as to sink them. Another challenge is posed by the social media. School going children have been able to open accounts in the various social media sites, where they spend most of their time. These addictive habits eat into their study time resulting in poor performance in school. Some of the social sites like Facebook, have adult sexual content that also impacts negatively on the morals of the teenagers. Even though the article is controversial, there are some interesting bits of information embedded in it. One very interesting one is that, IT increases the cost of operation instead of decreasing it. Secondly, IT is an infrastructural technology and is only beneficial when used by the larger public. Thirdly, IT is just like any of the other inventions, like the steam engines, that becomes ubiquitous over time and therefore cannot give a firm a market advantage over the others. Another fact is that IT cannot be patented since patenting makes it uneconomical. Lastly, it is what a firm does with IT that is important, not IT itself. Work sited IT-Strategie Optimale Ausrichtung Der IT an Das Business in 7 Schritten. Aufl. 2014 ed. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2014. Print. Read More