We have all read and debated Nick Carr's book, Does IT Matter.  As I look at some of the initiatives that IT shops are taking on these days I'd have to say that IT is trying to prove Mr. Carr wrong.  This is the golden age of technology.  I haven't seen a time so exciting since the Internet started catching on or since the .Com days.

Look at some of the top innovative initiatives that are grabbing the headlines today.

1. Business Process Management (BPM)
2. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
3. Enterprise 2.0
4. Virtualization
5. Green IT

BPM.  I wrote this article (How did we become a Dilbert cartoon?) a few months back that discusses how IT has become unaligned with the business over the years preoccupying itself with hardware upgrades and OS patches.  BPM is allowing IT to make a comeback by once again aligning with the business to help the business become more productive and cost effective.

SOA.  This is another hot area where IT is finally starting to invest in architecture to allow the sharing of services between applications both internally to the company and externally with partners and customers.  If done right, SOA can provide huge improvements in speed to market and major reductions in maintenance and support. 

Enterprise 2.0.  Enterprise 2.0 is all about leveraging the improved Web 2.0 collaboration tools in the work place.  As the baby boomer's move on and the younger generations enter the work place, never have we had so many Internet savvy users in the work place.  The younger generation has taught us the value of social networking, collective intelligence, tagging, blogs, RSS feeds, and many other collaboration tools.  These technologies are drastically changing the way the world collaborates and moves collaboration beyond the walls of one's own corporation.  Companies that invest in Enterprise 2.0 technologies will reap the benefits of allowing the workforce to bubble up great ideas from the trenches while making their employees more productive.

Virtualization.  Talk about exciting.  Now with products like VMware, companies can drastically reduce the amount of servers they need to buy and maintain.  Less servers means reduced heat, electricity, and floor space which leads to lower costs.  Gone are the long procurement cycles where it may take several weeks

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