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`Information Technology is over-hyped'

By Anand Parthasarathy

SINGAPORE, JUNE 14. Nicholas Carr, who stirred the world of Information Technology exactly a year ago, with his controversial premise: "IT doesn't matter", is unrepentant but nowhe qualifies his `mantra' by aiming it at the enterprise end of the business.

In a keynote speech at the third regional Infocomm Conference (iX2004), which opened here today, the former Executive Editor of the Harvard Business Review, Mr. Carr, stuck to his contention that IT had become a commodity and the competitive edge that it had given early exploiters was fast withering away. Soon it would end up as just another infrastructure and the huge investments in IT, made by corporates could not be justified.

In a lively discussion that followed his provocative remarks, Mr. Carr acknowledged that in a country like India, the business argument did not necessarily hold good. While the electorate in States such as Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, may have sent a message to their elected leaders that IT did not matter to them when weighed against bread and butter issues, the opposite was true. "If they had the best infrastructure and services, they might not need IT. But precisely because there is some way to go, they need IT to get there" he added.

Mr. Carr's latest book "Does IT Matter?" (Harvard Business Press, $ 26.95) was released during the event.

While fewspeakers agreed with Mr. Carr's hypothesis of the declining importance of IT, his warning that its advantages were being over-hyped drew sustained applause, particularly from the strong Indian contingent.

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