I started in IT consultancy in 1996, two years before Google.  In trying to get to the heart of what the value of IT is to business, it is important to review its contribution to the establishment and then ask if IT can still deliver value today. To get to the bottom i selected two companies that re-invented the standard business through clever use of technology; Dell and Google.

DELL

Dell asked themselves, how do we solve a critical business issue of expanding without spending capital on inventory and storage. The quest for this led Dell to develop the now famous 'built to order' model. But Dell went further and invested in a sophisticated supply chain technology. The key differentiator was that with Dell’s system, Customers could access this software directly through Dell’s website. Accessing the website opened a whole new world, clients were no longer constrained by the magazine options, they could customize their computer inside-out.

In simple terms, Dell only built computers when ordered and needed. Customers got efficiency, convenience and choice, Dell got cost savings. Building only when needed meant Dell inventory (components, etc) was so low that the cost of storing inventory became even lower. The real strength of this model was demonstrated in 1995 when Dell upgraded its entire product line to the Pentium technology. Its competitors, with larger inventory could not change as fast.

GOOGLE

These days its almost impossible to imagine a world without Google. This was not always so; At one time Yahoo was the undisputed leader (http://timelines.com/topics/dot-com-bubble). Many agree that two important strategic choices effectively won the day for Google. For a start, the industry standard for search engines used to be category searches. These category searches however were a great challenge for people new to the internet. The interface was too busy and took some time to load (especially on dialup). Google understood this and launched with a simple interface. All you had to do was type in your query. It turns out, what the search public wanted was simplicity.

The second thing Google did very well was provide for email space nobody needs. And this turned out to be a real winner. Google’s competitors could not keep up. By keeping ahead of demand, Gmail users are more likely to stay with the platform since they know that the space will increase more than their requirements (http://www.almostsmart.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15297). You didn’t have to delete your mail anymore.  To achieve this Google, understood that over time, the price of computer memory reduces, amazingly, the capacity increases. In essence what this means is, you can maintain the same budget, but buy a new, bigger, faster computer each year.

What about your organization?

The value of technology for Dell was digitizing the process and allowing clients the choice and convenience. For Google, the role of technology was in simplifying a complicated search algorithm into a no-frill page. Further, by applying an understanding of the fundamentals of computers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law), Google was able to provide its clients a premium service, for free.

In your organization, the proper application of technology could seriously improve your performance. New markets, new clients, cost savings, performance improvements etc. all are impacted by an improvement in technology capacity.