Over the last decade, and even since the bursting of the technology bubble, pundits, consultants, and thought leaders have argued that information technology provides the edge necessary for business success.

IT expert Nicholas G. Carr offers a radically different view in this eloquent and explosive book. As IT's power and presence have grown, he argues, its strategic relevance has actually decreased. IT has been transformed from a source of advantage into a commoditized "cost of doing business"-with huge implications for business management.

Expanding on Carr's seminal Harvard Business Review article that generated a storm of controversy, Does IT Matter? provides a truly compelling-and unsettling-account of IT's changing business role and its leveling influence on competition.

Through astute analysis of historical and contemporary examples, Carr shows that the evolution of IT closely parallels that of earlier technologies such as railroads and electric power. He goes on to lay out a new agenda for IT management, stressing cost control and risk management over innovation and investment. And he examines the broader implications for business strategy and organization as well as for the technology industry.

A frame-changing statement on one of the most important business phenomena of our time, Does IT Matter? marks a crucial milepost in the debate about IT's future.

Has IT has reached the Winter of its life as an enabler of competitive advantage? Or is it Springtime, the season of growth for forward-thinking companies like GE, Dell, Wal-Mart and others determined to dominate their industries in the decade ahead? Read Smith & Fingar's critical analysis, and you decide.

Smith & Fingar are authors of the landmark book, Business Process Management: The Third Wave. They posit that a new approach to business automation centered on business process management, instead of the data-centric world of the past fifty years that Carr describes, portends the greatest growth opportunity companies have ever seen.

Over the last decade, and even since the bursting of the technology bubble, pundits, consultants, and thought leaders have argued that information technology provides the edge necessary for business success.

IT expert Nicholas G. Carr offers a radically different view in this eloquent and explosive book. As IT's power and presence have grown, he argues, its strategic relevance has actually decreased. IT has been transformed from a source of advantage into a commoditized "cost of doing business"-with huge implications for business management.

Expanding on Carr's seminal Harvard Business Review article that generated a storm of controversy, Does IT Matter? provides a truly compelling-and unsettling-account of IT's changing business role and its leveling influence on competition.

Through astute analysis of historical and contemporary examples, Carr shows that the evolution of IT closely parallels that of earlier technologies such as railroads and electric power. He goes on to lay out a new agenda for IT management, stressing cost control and risk management over innovation and investment. And he examines the broader implications for business strategy and organization as well as for the technology industry.

A frame-changing statement on one of the most important business phenomena of our time, Does IT Matter? marks a crucial milepost in the debate about IT's future.

Edited by the Review's executive editor, Nicholas G. Carr, this book "explores the form and economics of the new digital infrastructure and considers its influence over the day-to-day decisions executives and entrepreneurs need to make" through writings of such authoritative sources as John Hagel III, Adrian J. Slywotzky, Gary Hamel, and some 18 others.

Divided into three parts, The Digital Enterprise offers a close look at ways technology is "Remodeling Business" (including "how the value chain is constructed, how individual companies determine their positioning and scope, and how interactions between companies are carried out); "Remaking Markets" (by "altering the buying process, both in consumer and in business-to-business markets"); and "Reimagining Management" (through "operational implications of the Internet and... practical advice on how to organize and motivate people"). Individually, the 13 articles cover the current spectrum of thought on the Internet and business. Collectively, they offer as astute a picture of the overall relationship and where it might be headed as today's curious businessperson is likely to find. --Howard Rothman