Over two
decades ago, most executives despised computers and depicted them as
proletarian tools (especially calculators and typewriters). These devices were
best relegated for the low-level employees such as technicians, secretaries,
and analysts. Executives would rarely touch a keyboard; much less accommodate
IT into their strategic thinking. Today, this aspect has completely changed,
and chief executives routinely incorporate IT and utilize its strategic value
to gain a competitive edge especially about the “digitization†of their
business models. Most companies in the contemporary world have gained
significant advantages through the innovative deployment of IT (Carr,
2003).
Having
worked before in the food service sector, I couldn’t help but notice how IT was
utilized in a myriad of ways to enhance services and maximize productivity. IT
has helped the sector run more efficiently in so many ways that range from
information access and storage to ordering and inventory. In fact, studies show
that 78% of schools strongly agree that IT has made the job of employees easier
while 92% of school operators strongly agree that IT has a positive impact on
their food service departments ("The impact of technology on
foodservice", 2014).
Nicholas
Carr in his article “IT doesn’t matter†reveals certain concepts that I can
relate to on issues regarding IT in the organization I worked for. These
include;
- IT contains all
the hallmarks of an infrastructural technology despite the fact that it’s
more malleable and sophisticated than its predecessors. IT’s mix of
characteristics guarantees rapid commoditization. Moreover, it’s a
transport mechanism since it can carry and relay digital information i.e.
Domino’s Pizza mobile ordering app that will convey information on orders
and bills (Tice, 2012)
- IT is highly
replicable. A byte of data is a perfect commodity that can be reproduced
perpetually at virtually no cost. The near-infinite scalability of most IT
functions, when integrated with technical standardization, propels most
proprietary applications to economic obsolescence. Instead of an
organization developing their own applications, they can as well purchase
ready-made world-class applications for a fraction of the cost
- There are
numerous operational risks associated with IT in the food service sector
among others. These include; service outages, technical glitches,
unreliable partners, obsolescence, security breaches and even terrorism.
These impediments can easily paralyze an organization not to mention
ruining its reputation, and therefore there’s need for companies to come
up with measures to mitigate these risks.
It’s
apparent that most organizations today can identify with Carr’s ideas than the
time he first wrote it in 2003. The reason for this would be that currently,
the ubiquity and potency, as well as its strategic value of IT, have
intensified and organizations are experiencing the “future†of IT that was
promised to them.
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