New information technologies bring new business challenges: threats from new competitors and opportunities to change focus and practices. The business impact of new technology usually receives the most attention —appropriately — but managers shouldn’t overlook the rippling effects on the company’s IT function. IT departments not only must respond to the newly perceived business needs, but, as technologies change, they must adapt their procedures and practices. In the 1990s, for example, companies had to cope with new business drivers (such as business-process reengineering and globalization) while addressing new technologies and techniques (such as client-server computing and IT outsourcing). That forced the IT function to adopt new agendas and practices and to reassess its core purpose and capabilities.1
As companies exploit the Internet, another such transformation is appearing. E-business gurus suggest two key goals for the e-commerce era. The first is a robust and comprehensive IT infrastructure. If the business is online, the technology must be reliable and scalable. The second is the ability to rapidly develop and implement new e-business applications.2 Companies not only must seek early-mover advantages in e-commerce, but also must speed up their capabilities in product innovation and imitation. How can they do that using traditional models of the IT function?
To answer that question, we surveyed 24 companies whose IT departments were engaged solely in e-commerce... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.
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