The Opportunity Cost of IT

I read two columns today which prompt this post.

The first is from Ben Pring where he invokes the Japanese art of decluttering as applied to IT. 

There has never been a culture in “big boy IT” of throwing things away when they’re past their sell by date. There have never been any brownie points for people to question the value of old systems or for dealing with the often complicated and uncomfortable (potentially career limiting) political issues around “Fred commissioned that app; I don’t want to tell him, an executive VP, that the system’s no good anymore”.

Oh there are plenty of vendors who promise “simplification” but only if you buy more of what they want to sell. Many come with monikers like “ageless” and “unlimited” – the systems which have found the eternal Fountain of Youth.

The second was by Steve Case where he describes web 1.0 he helped shaped as founder of AOL. Google and other Silicon Valley firms influenced web 2.0.

He says we are about to move to web 3.0

These third-wave companies will take on some of the economy’s largest sectors: health care, education, transportation, energy, financial services, food and government services. These third-wave sectors — all now ripe for disruption — represent more than half of the U.S. economy.

and

last year, 75 percent of venture capital went to just three states: California, Massachusetts and New York. But 75 percent of our Fortune 500 companies are located in the 47 other states, and many of them will play a pivotal role in the third wave, as a new generation of partner-friendly entrepreneurs seeks strategic alliances to gain credibility and accelerate growth.

So if you  are part of that Fortune 500, every technology dollar should be going into making your products, services and business models digital and prepared for a new wave of competition. It’s GE with smarter wind farms. It’s BMW with its I series of electric cars and UX. Its Progressive Insurance with its Snapshot telematics.

Every IT dollar decluttered could help your colleagues in R&D, channels and pricing strategy invest more in those areas.

Invest in technology in YOUR products and services – you have invested enough in technology in IT vendor products and services.  Time to virtualize more than your servers – get ruthless about tidying up and freeing up resources.