Doesn't IT matter?

IT doesn’t matter. IT is becoming a commodity and general-purpose technology as the articles mentioned. These two articles give us a good perspective about the future of IT. It is meaningful that those analogies give us some insight and preparation for the coming change. Particularly,utility providers can reduce service cost through economies of scale by eliminating the overinvestment of most companies.

In fact,there were a few symptoms of possibility of utilization and comoditization of IT in Korean SI industries.Let me take two examples. First, SI industries has been restructured naturally according to the principle of free market economy without any loud sound and without M&A.Most conglomerates has their own SI companies up to now. But from 5 years ago, many people have forecasted that only three to four major SI companies can survive in Korean SI industries in the long run. It is because most medium-sized and small-sized SI companies are losing their competitive edge due to failures in taking large-scale and profitable orders. Second, IBM strove to take order of information system management of POSCO in 1996. The trial failed in the end,but IBM continues to suggest the outsourcing of SM(system management) to several conglo-merates.

IT can become commodity or utility in the long run,but there are many obstacles. IT also still does matter. IT is not the same as the railroad or electricity, as the articles recognize the limit of generalization of IT. Electricity or railroad is public social capital which is not so related and independent of business contents and characteristics of individual companies. But IT is not a mere utility or commodity in that it contains and closely relates to important business contents such as secret sales information and business processes and sources codes of core programs which enable companies to keep their sustainable growth. Secret information can be leaked out or attacked by hackers.Generalization can be not so easy for the time being if security from hacking may not be guaran-
teed and if information and knowledge cannot be protected.And IT has enhanced competitive edge in many companies till now by supporting business technologically and at the right time.So,utility providers should be able to in
crease the value and benefits through timely support or enhancement of competitive edge of IT. Can utility providers do so even after consolidation? They seem to have a long way to go.