2/10

I think the argument about the enterprise application is a little more nuanced than was presented in class. I think that there are problems at both extremes and the best value for a company is how to balance those extremes and fit exactly what the needs of the company are. I think that having one enterprise-wide system can be very efficient and good if the different groups within the company work together. On the other hand, there can be situations where the groups within a company should not be integrated and the independence creates benefits in that business mode. Said in another way, centralized systems work well for some, but decentralized systems work well for others. I think the same is true for technology solutions. We talked about intimacy and knowing the customer in class and I think that whether the technology is an enterprise-wide integration or buying the “best of breed” for each function, it really depends on the needs of the company. I think that when applications fail, it is really about culture. However, it is not always about an inability to adopt the technology. A new technology could cause a company to have to change its culture and that culture might be the source of their competitive advantage.

Another aspect of the technology that was briefly mentioned is the inability of many works to actually use the technology available to them. Technology has increased the capacity beyond the practical business application because many workers cannot use the technology. Also, the computing capacity of most computers is way beyond what most people would do in a given day, even if they know how to use it. Yet, computer companies are constantly upgrading and making new features. Granted, there are people that might need this increase, but for the most part, our tools greatly exceed our needs. I think that much of this innovation is because of matching the business needs, but the technology is only as good as the person who uses it. The theme of the class is that the intersection of business and technology drives innovation. It’s interesting because I would perceive almost all of the innovation being made only at the margin or the high-intensity users of technology.