Re: Is IT growth slowing?

["Lurker writer" <lurker_writer -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

Hello All:

I'm not sure IT is to blame 100 percent. The IT industry has devoted more 
than a decade trying to develop a valuation model that shows IT as a 
revenue-generating operation rather than an overheard operation. (Yes, 10 
years ago, asking what your IT ROI is would have brought a chuckle to many 
management execs). Depending on your flavor of voodoo accounting, IT revenue 
generation could just be a euphemism for "cost avoidance" but it nonetheless 
has received special dispensation across corporate America (there are 
industries outside of computer software and hardware) as a bottom-line 
contributing function.

Too many people place too much trust in IT to be the magic bullet. Knowledge 
management (KM), eBusiness (B2B), customer resource management (CRM), 
eCommerce (B2C) all claim that IT is the facilitator of these disciplines, 
not the core of them. But half-baked business plans and faulty business 
models are more the culprit in many instances than IT.

Take CRM for example..one of the buzzwords du jour. CRM is supposed to 
wonders for market penetration and solidify customer loyalty, but may 
require a complete business process re-engineering. The technology requires 
coordination across multiple communication channels that have to be 
integrated with back-office and e-commerce apps. That alone is quite a load 
for IT. Companies now are struggling with the realities of CRM that the hype 
never mentioned...particularly extensive technology requirements.

But I think the IT hiccup is also partly just a reflection of the speedbump 
the economy took over the past few months (and certainly the next few as the 
rear axle clears it). Yes, I'm disheartened to see the hit my portfolio 
took, but am encouraged that the B2C and to a lesser degree the B2B 
shakeouts are returning the markets to more realistic and less inflated 
levels.

According to the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) 2001 
Workforce Report (released in early April), there's a 44% decline in demand 
for IT workers from 2000 to 2001, but of the 900,000 IT jobs available in 
2001, only 425,000 will be filled (leaving 475,000 unfilled).

While it is dangerous to prognosticate, I don't think there's much cause for 
concern across IT. If you're having a problem getting the support you need 
from your IT department, well, that's a local issue that can't be 
extrapolated across the industry with any degree of reliability. Take away 
your IT backbone and see how well you can complete.

As bad as it may seem, just think how much worse it would be "in the good 
old days..."






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