Lets start at the very beginning

I did that start a few months back, and then stopped. I got completely embroiled in the hurly burly of the business, and this business called life.

In the meanwhile, during the intervening months, the boom has gone bust, the economy is reeling the way it had'nt for years and years, the business outlook is much worse than one had ever imagined - and some. Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, AIG - the underwriters to the worlds insurance has to be underwritten by the US government, the stock markets lost more money in weeks than they had made in several years, the stock markets in India more than halved, pink slips rather than job hops are getting discussed over coffee, the US got a new prez - Phew - its been a very momentous few months! No wonder I could not catch my breath and blog!!

Ok, so lets begin again. At the beginning.

What has business got to do with IT?

It is amazing that even now, when the entire business landscape is awash with technology, and technology has made an impact on business far greater than what the earlier technology pioneers has dreamt in their wildest dreams - even now, this questions gets asked, every so often, on every wave, for every new front that technology opens.

And it is right that it should. There is so much change around us that just figuring what it means and what it could mean, and what it could'nt mean is an extremely difficult task, and even the best can sometimes miss it by a mile.

So, here goes my take on the question. IT is the plumbing of the business. And the new brave thing quivering on the horizon for the business - and it is both simultenously. It is boring - and it is spectacularly exciting.

As soon as we IT to run efficiently within the company, it turns into the plumbing of the business, and then, it needs to be treated the way plumbing is. How important can plumbing be, you ask? Let your toilet plumbing break down for a day!!

And if new, all new, completely new technology, this quivering, yet-to-be-stabilised technology is not offered to the new hordes of customers, for all you know, you may be out of business - or you have a whole new business created by some cheeky enterprenuer, right under your feet, without you even realizing it was happening. Yes, it used to happen to businesses earlier also, but increasingly it is happening quite a lot due to information technology reasons, and you can ignore it only at your peril.

Business must take technology very seriously, and mostly it does. It is only with the new technology it really dithers about - to do, or not to do. To run or not to run....

In the current conditions, businesses must look at ways of leveraging technology like never before. Use technology to collaborate like never before. Reach for younger consumers who have grown up on the staple diet of technology like never before, build technology based community like never before..... the list goes on.

Why this blog

It got created because of two things.

First, one of my co-speakers at a Web 2.0 conference had his talk titled as "Whats law got to do with it" - and that got the song worm embedded in my head. Its been ages since I heard that Tina Turner song, I mean, the one thats got the love word, but it is a powerful song, and the song worm kind of settled in my brain.

Second, I met this CIO friend of mine, someone whom I worked with in the my previous avatar as a IT manager, and while I was gushing about web 2.0, I noticed a glazed look come into his eyes - and he wondered aloud - "But whats that got to do with me?" . Plenty, I thought, as I tried to answer him.

And I thought, he is so right. There are so many times when technology comes along, bursting at the horizon, and there are many of us who are caught wondering. Will this effect me? Should I know about it? Should I care? Where do I begin?

Its for times like this that I would like to blog about. Of course, I can only write about stuff I know, or I think I know, and I will learn as a I blog, but hopefully, some of you would do too with me - and some of you would teach me.

-Sangeeta