IT Doesn’t Matter, Does It

Ping Wang: In a recent conversation, the CIO of an automobile company told me that his company is cutting IT spending “across the board.” However, the marketing department really needs to buy a CRM package to obtain the online customer interfacing capability. When his IT department proposed this purchase to the board, it was rejected because the purchase was considered unnecessary IT spending. A few weeks later, when the marketing department proposed the very same software purchase, emphasizing this was not IT spending but marketing spending, it was approved. In much frustration, the CIO asked “IT, not IT, what’s in a name?”