Technology Paradise Lost: Why Companies Will Spend Less to Get More from Information Technology

Keller, Erik

ISBN 10: 1932394133 / ISBN 13: 9781932394139

Published by Manning Publications, 2004

About this Item

A nearly-new copy in a nearly-new dustjacket: firm, clean, square and tight with no underlining or splits. Seller Inventory # 023250

Bibliographic Details

Title: Technology Paradise Lost: Why Companies Will...

Publisher: Manning Publications

Publication Date: 2004

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Like New

Dust Jacket Condition: Like New

Edition: First Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

An engine of the world economy―the computer industry―is sputtering. What happened? Will it regain its power and again drive economic growth as in the past? No.

That’s the surprising conclusion reached by Erik Keller, a central player in the booming IT world of the 1990s. Driven by fear of being left behind, American corporations let IT grow until it reached one half of all corporate capital spending by the year 2000. Now, chastened by their spending failures, IT managers are converging on a new consensus: to exploit IT competitively they must use their smarts over big money.

This shift in thinking comes just as free, open-source software, low-cost international programming labor, and new technologies combine to make the new approach possible. A former Research Fellow at Gartner, Keller had an insider’s view of the irrational spending at many Fortune 500 companies, personally influencing billions of dollars of technology acquisitions.

In Technology Paradise Lost Keller describes how the new thinking is working inside some of the country’s most complex and successful organizations―including Merrill Lynch, JetBlue, Harrah’s, and Motorola―which have cut IT spending to gain a competitive edge, and experienced marked gains to their bottom lines. As it advances, the new IT think will cause further massive disruptions in the computer business, with fundamental changes in the ways software is developed, sold, and used. Efficiency of IT investment will grow as excess fat is squeezed out of IT salaries, software system costs, and consultants’ fees.

In an unexpected twist, Keller argues that even as IT spending is reduced its importance for competitiveness will grow. Reduced spending does not mean IT has become a commodity. Counterintuitively, companies that spend less in order to get more from information technology will likely be the big winners.

Review:

"A sober account of the high-tech binge." -- The Wall Street Journal

"A thoughtful view from an expert on IT in the commercial world." -- CVu Journal

"Has a higher intelligence-per-dollar quota than anything we’ve come across in a long time." -- SoftwareCEO.com

"[The author’s] cynicism seems entirely apropos." -- MSI magazine