The 10th Anniversary issue provides an opportunity to reflect on the continuous evolution of information technology both the changes of the past and the challenges of the future. Of course, it would take a book to do the subject justice, but herewith is my abridged version. While many major technological innovations commanded our attention during the past decade, in my view, the most important changes were in management. Clearly, the most significant improvements involved aligning information technology objectives with business objectives. Ten years ago, some executives at J.C. Penney felt IT was something done to them rather than for them.
Most companies now recognize IT as a strategic resource.
Today s CIOs are considered partners in setting strategic objectives and determining the role information can play in their organizations. Greater acceptance of outsourcing affected all companies, including J.C. Penney. Outsourcing has made IT respond to market forces by giving the organization an alternative when internal costs become too high. At J.C. Penney, we have learned to manage multiple vendors for virtually all IT functions including mainframes and telecommunications to achieve the maximum leverage in cost management. Impact V arious technological innovations during the past decade had a major impact on the services we provided our users.