So what's this "IT" thing anyway?
I have to say that I (Vincent) am a little baffled by the amount of effort that goes into IT or ICT. I thought we had these discussions some years ago and the general consensus was: IT is not the source of sustainable competitive advantage.
Yet, when I opened my Economist from two weeks ago (I’m always a few weeks behind), an article mentioned that with this credit crunch, mergers and acquisitions are going down, and with that a major cash-cow for consultants: IT systems consolidation.
I guess I’m wondering why companies, particularly those young babies being acquired, are still working with proprietary systems? Is there some kind of competitive advantage to doing it “your own way?” Or is that simply a myth that people believe in?
For myself, I’ve whined a-plenty about how Excel sucks and Powerpoint sucks, and how I’d like to have software work in my “right-brained way.” But I still believe that Excel and Powerpoint works fine for 95% of the population and for 95% of the time, and that there is no need for a custom-built solution on that—the administrative—end.
There is of course multiple sides to IT, particularly if you are an IT-company or one where IT plays a leading role. Let’s take Amazon, which won’t be acquired anytime soon, which relies heavily on its proprietary technologies, being so specialised that it decided to become an IT-service-provider. Or Lucas Arts, which develops effects for films, also 3rd party, and will certainly use custom-built software.
But when I think IT-consolidation, I think databases, and I’m wondering if one database is better than the other. And I’m wondering, why there isn’t a standard for this yet, as the Amazon’s of this world are clearly pushing for it.
What am I missing here? Why do we need consultants again? Why aren’t we doing everything in the cloud?
Vincent
(give me smart answers, and I may write a smarter post about it 
)
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Well, the traditional wisdom is that you need consultants to customize enterprise solutions to fit a company’s strategies and business processes. I think this wisdom is kept alive by consultants themselves.
The reason everything is not done in the cloud is simple, companies’ data is one of the most valuable or is the most valuable assets. They will not want to put that up to the cloud.
Oh, and the other reason is that the only way to defend your IT business in the long run is to lock your customers in. It just doesn’t make any sense for enterprise solution providers to commoditize their products.