What's to Become of IT?

• Position: Brief Article

"Global 2,500 companies are reinventing themselves to participate in emerging e-business models -- requiring an emphasis on processes, not management," says a Forrester Research Report, The Death of IT. "But the demands of e-business create a technology management gap IT can't bridge. Separated from business process teams and isolated from external constituents and technology sources, the IT organization as we know it will die."

But if the IT organization will disappear in successful e-businesses, what -- if anything -- will fill the void? "To support complex, fast-changing business processes that span multiple companies, firms will disperse technology management across an exT (external technology) environment," the report notes.

Thus, it says, "Each member of the executive team must play a key...