History of the use of IT in business.
The Wal-Mart experience was repeated in industry after industry. General Electric, Frito-Lay, Dell, Charles Schwab, American Airlines, Lands" End, Capital One, FedEx, Cisco, UPS, Amazon.Com represent just a few, though highly visible, examples of firms that harvested the benefits of investments in tightly integrated IT infrastructures, new electronic distribution channels, heightened business event visibility, greater operating efficiency, new information-based products, etc. .
It is commonly accepted2 that we are now in the fifth wave of structural change in capitalism. The first wave focused on agriculture, water, and iron; the second on railways, steam, and.
mechanization; the third on steel, engineering, and electricity; and the fourth on oil, automobiles, motors, and mass produced goods. This fifth wave is named the digital or knowledge economy. In the fifth wave, preparation in information technology is essential, as noted by Freeman and Louca.
"It would be irresponsible for a business school to graduate anyone without this.
fundamental preparation. Furthermore, we can anticipate an increasing need for.
executives who will create and manage knowledge and information systems in.
organizations and skills and technologies necessary to make them effective.".
While processing power, storage capacity, and bandwidth all continue to at least double every 18 months4 for at least the next fifteen years, there is no end in site for the information revolution. Advances in networking, particularly wireless, will further fuel IT-driven innovation. The introduction of passive Radio Frequency ID technology (i.e., e-tags or smart labels5) raises the reality of making every physical object involved in the creation of products/services capable of some degree of intelligence, with implications that far transcend elimination of scanners at the grocery store (e.g., smart refrigerators, smart warehouses, self-healing machinery).
