| Since the second edition of this book appeared in 1996, we have seen
Information Technology (IT) become an increasingly integral component
of everyone’s working life and personal environment. IT is now
ubiquitous and enables a degree of connectivity that was difficult to
envisage even 10 years ago. The technology has evolved rapidly, producing
significant advances in its capabilities and hence the business
options and opportunities now available. Without doubt, the Internet
has evolved into a significant business opportunity—when the second
edition was published, Amazon.com, the doyen of the Internet, had
only just come into being. Indeed, since the second edition the socalled
‘dot.com bubble’ has inflated and burst leaving much in its
wake. Apart from the spectacular failures, many companies are now
downgrading their forays into the world of cyberspace; many online
ventures are even dropping their dot.com names. Despite this, there is
no doubt that we have still only scratched the surface of the possibilities.
Interactive digital television (iDTV) offers great promise in bringing the
Internet and new broadcast services directly into the homes of consumers.
Wireless technologies are poised to provide further opportunities to
organizations as both employees and customers become less dependent
on location in carrying out their jobs and conducting business.
In the six years since the last edition, the language of information
systems and technology (IS/IT) has also changed. E-commerce and ebusiness
have come into common business parlance and even entered
the home via TV advertising! While e is largely a relabelling of what
was previously known as IS/IT, there are a number of new dimensions
in the use of IT implied by e. These are considered in this edition. Perhaps,
most importantly, the introduction of these new terms attracted increasing
senior management interest in IS/IT and its importance to their organiza-
tions. Unfortunately, the over-hyped promises have left many senior
executives more uncertain than ever before about what can actually be
achieved through IT use. One IT director summed up the dramatic
changes in sentiment by saying, ‘in 2000 you could get any amount of
money by putting an e in front; but in 2001 anything with an e had no
chance of funding!’ |
