Crisis or no crisis – a company’s ability to maintain its performance level is determined by two factors: maximum cost efficiency and differentiation from the competition. Both dimensions are significantly affected by the specific use of information technology. So the management elements used by the CIO must be correspondingly diversified in a way that the demands made on the IT department can be met.

The use of information technology as leverage on cost and ­value drivers is already well established on cut-throat markets: the first no-frills airline has announced that it will be ­discontinuing the check-in procedure at the counter and rely solely on online procedures. At the same time, the company is installing technology in its fleet which will allow passengers to use their cell phones on board the aircrafts to make calls and send text messages.    

Following the disappointment of expectations regarding the innovative power of the first Internet wave, IT first lost its status as a factor of strategic significance, then suffered the ­degradation of being outsourced as an infrastructure service to a service ­provider at the lowest possible cost. But now companies are rediscovering the potential of having their own technology strategy as a way to create competitive advantages on their specific market. The objective being pursued here is to be able to operate from a superior starting position at the moment the economic upswing begins.

Another example from the present breaks with a tradition which has been established worldwide for more than one hundred fifty years: Send the word “Card” as a text message to 22122 and receive – well, what? A stamp? Postage is more accurate. The twelve-digit number code in the reply takes over the function of the colorful snips of paper with the perforated edges which were previously used to pay the costs of sending the picture postcard. While this may appear barbaric in the eyes of the philatelists, it represents potential savings and the development of younger target groups for the logistics company.    

The growing merger of the value chain with IT procedures and applications simultaneously means an accelerated increase in expenditures for information technology. In the stock exchange segment, expenditures for development and operation of the trading platforms frequently make up more than ten percent of turnover.

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