Friday, October 24, 2003

IT Doesn't Matter - Smith & Fingar

I look forward to reading this one. I really enjoyed his last work.



A new book by Howard Smith and Peter Fingar

From the authors of the bestselling Business Process Management: The Third Wave, read Howard Smith and Peter Fingar's critical analysis of Nicholas Carr's infamous IT article in the Harvard Business Review.

Smith and Fingar have been busy expanding on the BPM breakthrough through a number of articles and this new book. What prompted the book was an article in the Harvard Business Review in May that triggered a flurry of debate in business and high-tech circles, and even some calls from Harvard's business school to sever its links to the venerable Business Review. The sensationally titled article, "IT Doesn't Matter," declared that information technology has matured to the point where it no longer gives companies competitive advantages. Now comes the in-depth monograph that debunks the underlying assumptions and conclusions of the article. A Washington Post feature provides an apt summary of the new book, "In IT Doesn't Matter-- Business Processes Do," Smith and Fingar, draw the opposite conclusion: "The strategic importance of IT is actually increasing as the recent 'business process rEvolution' allows companies to innovate the way they do business." As you pursue your work and spread the word about BPM to your current and future business customers, you'll no doubt be confronted with the IT doesn't matter way of thinking--but now you you have a concise resource to explain how value is linked to IT by basing IT on BPM principles.


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