We live in an era of unprecedented global economic expansion.
Continuing gains in productivity and the ever-faster flow of goods
and information have combined to bring new levels of prosperity to
millions of people around the world. The result, as The Economist
noted not too long ago, is that "the first decade of the 21st
century could see the fastest growth in average world income in the
whole of history."
One of the most interesting and important debates in the
business world concerns the role that IT plays in creating economic
opportunities and business success. There are almost as many
positions in this debate as there are participants, ranging from
those who claim that IT is the essential engine of progress at one
end of the spectrum to those who insist that IT does not matter at
the other end.
At Microsoft, we believe that IT does matter, but that it is a
company's employees who ultimately determine whether a business
thrives or fails. We have built our company and our products on an
approach that recognizes that business success depends on the
thousands of decisions employees make every day. Our business
software is designed specifically to enable employees to use their
knowledge of customers, markets, and operations to make informed
decisions that create strategic business advantage.
A recent study by the Economist
Intelligence Unit (EIU), the business research and advisory
organization founded by The Economist more than 60 years ago,
provides new validation for this approach. Based on a survey of
1,351 senior executives from around the world, the study offers
compelling evidence that there is a positive correlation between
business success and the use of IT to enable employees to optimize
decision-making and act autonomously.
Sponsored by Microsoft, the study set out to determine how
"enablement" - which the Economist Business Unit defines as the
"organizational structures, informational technologies, and other
resources that let employees make decisions" - contributes to
profitable growth.
In "Ready, Willing, and Enabled: A Formula for Performance," the
report that summarizes the study's findings, the EIU concludes that
"firms which embrace information technology to allow rapid
collaboration can benefit from their employees' collective
knowledge, improving the performance of individuals as well as that
of the organization overall. For example, 58% of respondents who
use collaborative software work for firms with revenue growth
stronger than that of their competitors."
Although nearly two-thirds of the business executive surveyed
reported that their organizations have a high degree of enablement,
only 53% said they have the IT tools they need less than half have
the information they require and only one-third make use of tools
such as collaborative software.
I believe these numbers mean that we are really still in the
early stages of the IT revolution. During the last 30 years, wave
after wave of technology innovation has truly transformed the world
of business. From e-mail to productivity software, enterprise
resource planning systems, supply chain management software, and
much more, business technology has provided new ways for companies
and their employees to communicate, create and share information,
manage operations, and respond to changing markets and new
opportunities.
In many ways, we are just now beginning to unleash the real
transformational power of information technology in the workplace.
A new generation of software is making computing more powerful,
more affordable, and much easier to use. At the same time
businesses are improving their ability to use technology tools to
make it easier for employees to use information to create business
success. This will unleash new ideas that will create exciting new
business and social opportunities for businesses and communities
around the world.
For more information on how to create new opportunity for your
business, visit
www.microsoft.com/uk/peopleready.