Harvard Business Review
1 Hopelessly out of date
Although I am a fan of HBR collections in general, this one is now out of date. Most of the articals are from the early 1990's, and in IT, 10+ years is an eternity.
2 Nice collection of articles
I really liked the article on Enterprise Systems, it gives a good understanding of what you are getting into when buying solutions like SAP.
3 Value on IT valuation
The IT heavy hitters weigh in here in this neat little volume of "classics" in IT management from the 1990's. Starting with the rallying call from guru Tom Davenport on the limits of IT, this collection of essays and insights ponders not only the new challenges of the internet age, but also, the more fundamental issues and problems that have plagued the IT arena for decades. The role of the CEO, management alternatives for the IT infrastructure, and how to manage IT as a connected, strategic resource all recieve good attention here. The book is a bit heavy on outsourcing, devoting 3 of its 8 chapters to this one management option. There is also the constant and somewhat prosaic refrain centered on speed and flexibilty as the corporate challenge for which IT can step in and create value. The final chapter on the Y2K problem is today, out of date, and not so valuable as other chapters. It lacks a connecting transition to the next decade in IT and fails to present lessons learned from dealing with the problem. But for general managers, business students, and for those aspiring to understand what all the shouting is about, this volume from the Harvard Business School is a fine treatise on what we have learned about using and managing IT in our organizations, and on our expectiations for this technology to be the one best answer to all the ills that plague organizations.
