Very nice piece and I think it raises all kinds of interesting questions that are even now being discussed on the A&O boards here...

Here is an interesting thought/comment/question. How many of you feel that I.T. is in many ways coming full-circle? What was once a massively centralized and controlled mainframe Data Center had migrated over the last 40 years to massively decentralized Data Systems (at each user’s desktop) back to massively centralized Data Centers again. Yes much as changed over the years such as grid computing vs. mainframes, real-time data links over gigabit WAN connections and power at a users fingertips vs. only at their office cubicle. But the fundamental concept of what Information Management (or MIS) was in the 60’s and 70’s, which was to manage and compile corporate data in a central location to be distributed out to end-users in a fashion that was determined “by the Business” (and not I.T. or a CIO) is in so many ways returning into today’s operations.

One of the things that I did when we launched a new Data Center this year was to frame I.T. ads for the last 25 years throughout the Center. A striking one is a 1965 ad for an NCR 321 Data Communications Controller and it’s pitch was “would it speed up your business to have your San Francisco, Chicago & New York operations in the same building?” Isn’t that what so many I.T. departments are trying to do today? (google this if people want to see the actual ad)

So what makes todays integration concepts fundementally new? Anything?

Let me take what you have written here Abbie and toss a heretical thought out. Maybe the whole “I.T.” concept that so many of us have gotten used to over the last 2 or more decades is just an illusion, along with great myths such as “the new economy”. Maybe businesses are waking up this and are realizing that Information is nothing more than a tool to provide your operation an advantage over the competition and that I.T. is just a component of that no different than manufacturing, financials, marketing, research, etc…. This doesn’t mean that I.T. should be starved or treated like a financial sinkhole but just like those other components of a business entity it will not (and should not) be treated as somehow on a higher plane than any of the those pieces.

This is also not to say that the CIO does not and will not play an important role at the leadership table (if he/she is smart). But it has been no real surprise to me that we are seeing what is something of a surge in the CIO's whose core is not or was not in the I.T. trenches. I expect that many businesses moving forward will continue looking for and placing CIO’s that are excelling at “BT”, not “IT”

The main activity that businesses will be doing in the years ahead is learning, I think.

As MEK says, information technology is/was about generating information -whose value, in the normal scheme of daily human living, is still less than that of physical materials. Businesses have enjoyed information technology as it let them focus on honing their competitive advantages in the material sphere.

With the advances and ensuing commodification of material technology the competitive advantage for a business will have to come from its know-hows. Information technology will graduate to knowledge technology.

But not sure if binary-logic is geared to help businesses generate knowledge.

I was reading an interesting tidbit in 'The future of technology' (from The Economist) that a hundred years back when electricity was in its infancy, the infrastructure required inside each factory that consumed electricity was so clunky and difficult to manage, that there was a designated V.P (Electricity) to keep the whole show running. The article goes on to wonder whether the CIO role will not go the same way as the V.P (Electricity). I strongly believe that it indeed will ; I am not foolish enough to hazard a guess as to 'when' but give or take a couple of decades, I believe that it is just a question of time before this happens. The fact is that IT's metabolism is way too inefficient today - on an average, 75% of IT budgets is spent on maintenance (in other words, just staying alive). This is the primary reason why you need a CIO and a huge army of people to keep IT running. This is also the reason why IT outsourcing is a mega, mega industry and why countries like India (where I live and work) have benefitted. We are all waiting for the day when IT is so embedded into business that you can get what you want by turning on a tap ....while that may be wishful thinking, business folks cannot help wondering as to why writing software that matches accounts or ships goods should take months and years. The nexy big thing after the internet will be software that anyone in an organization can use like a coffee machine or an ATM. Seems incredulous now but just wait for a few decades. So, the term business technology is the right step forward in that direction.....

While I agree with most points made by the author and the posted comments, an increasing number of businesses base their business model on information and on technology. These companies are main stream healthcare, insurance, direct to consumers, and business to business enterprises.

For these organizations, "Information" and "Technology" is their ?product?, how they make money, and is the main enabler for their earnings and for their growth.

So, while I like the example of the VP/IT becoming like the "VP/Electricity" in the not too distant future, the IT "factory" will still have to exist in the organizations that owe their existence to their primary product(s), information, powered by some technology. This factory however will increasingly use components and raw materials from other factories, as is the case today.

Terrific post, Abbie! Web 2.0 as revenge for SOA is for real.

Gone are the days when we can afford to a buy a piece of technology that comes with an army of technologists to get it to work and the missed market opportunity that "enables"

The "nontechs" are hungrier to leverage technology than most techs because globalisation has every "Joe VP of Sales" losing customers to those companies who are just saying "yes, we can do that".

A week after dozens of nontech CEOs came to my CEO conference on Leadership, Technology & Innovation I was on a flight to CA sitting beside a CIO enroute to his Oracle web 2.0 conference. He replied 'My Line of Business owners are demanding we use web 2.0, so I need to learn more about it'.

Software as a service, outsourcing of iterative processes and web 2.0 is the business owners answer to missed expectations of failed ERP and other IT projects and IT execs lose more credibility everyday these projects continue to underdeliver.

But virtualization, now that it's at the application layer is about to change everything! It gives CIOs the chance to deliver what CEOs are looking for, new revenues from new customer apps.

Looking forward to your bolg!

Jackie Bassett
CEO BT Industrials, Inc
www.btind.com