Businesses are putting approximately one-third of their annual fixed asset spending toward IT, but to what end? Andrew McAfee, a scientist at MIT's Center for Digital Business, has an interesting opinion. In McAfee's view, companies are making this level of investment in IT to promote the three objectives of becoming more scientific, more orchestrated and more self-organizing.

IT-enabled science is being put to use for marketing, product development and design purposes, McAfee writes in a post at HarvardBusinessReview. Computers are being used in more decision-making tasks, and just about any job could benefit from a more scientific approach, he writes

IT is also helping companies design and manage improved work processes, a phenomenon McAfee calls orchestration. Without IT tools, it is very difficult to make sure employees comply with re-engineered processes. But when these processes are part of enterprise IT systems, such as ERP, it becomes easier. "Applications for CRM, sales force automation, supply chain management, procurement, and so on have brought tight orchestration to every part of the company, and pushed it down to almost microscopic levels," he writes.

The most recent IT-enable business change is the trend toward self-organization, which means using IT to allow employees to work as they want with little hierarchy or rules. This idea forms the basis of crowdsourcing, collective intelligence and open innovation.

For more:
- see Andrew McAfee's post at HarvardBusinessReview

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