What do people usually mean?

It actually has three levels: the first level is hardware, which mainly refers to the host computer and network communication equipment used for data storage, processing and transmission; The second layer refers to software, including all kinds of software that can be used to collect, store, retrieve, analyze, apply and evaluate information. Including ERP (enterprise resource planning), CRM (customer relationship management), SCM (supply chain management) and other business management software, as well as WF (workflow) management software to strengthen process management and DW/DM (data warehouse and data mining) to assist analysis. The third layer refers to the application, which refers to the collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, application, evaluation and use of all kinds of information, including the application of ERP, CRM, SCM and other software to directly assist decision-making, and also including the use of other decision-making analysis models or the use of DW/DM and other technical means to further improve the analysis quality and assist decision-makers to make decisions (to emphasize one point, it only assists rather than replaces people's decisions). Some people understand that it combines the first two layers into one, which refers to the storage, processing and transmission of information, while the latter refers to the application of information; Some people combine the last two layers into one, which is divided into hard front and soft back. Usually, the third layer has not been paid enough attention, but in fact, only when information is effectively applied can its value be fully exerted and the goal of informatization be truly realized. Informatization is not an end in itself, but a better means to achieve the goal in the current era background.

Carl's. What does that mean? In that article, he didn't make it clear, but he mentioned the core functions of information technology-data storage, processing and transmission. From the logic of his reasoning, that is, from the infrastructure construction such as steam engine, railway, telegraph and telephone, electric power, Moore's law has also been used to prove the development of mainframe and optical fiber. If he stops here, only from this point, his logical argument is very rigorous. Those who comment that "it is no longer important" basically agree with this (except those hardware and network vendors), and the author also agrees with this. In the whole article, he paid a lot of attention to the materialized IT infrastructure construction, and basically did not pay attention to the application level. But later, when he talked about the trend of popularization, he also mentioned that "information technology is easy to be copied", which pushed it to commercial software, which has taken a "dangerous" step. In 2004, when he published the book of the same name, he defined the IT he studied and compared. "When I use' IT', I mean all the hardware and software used to store, process and transmit information in digital form. It is particularly emphasized that I only refer to the technology itself, and the' it' I refer to does not include the information flowing in the technology and the skills of the talents who use the technology ",so he refers to its first two layers. If we stop here, there may not be much controversy (this time plus those uncomfortable software vendors). Objectively analyzing the characteristics of software itself does not have three of the four criteria of core competitiveness, namely scarcity, difficulty in copying and difficulty in substitution. Carl himself does not deny that he has the fourth criterion of core competitiveness, namely value. But he just decided that the topic was "It doesn't matter anymore" and wanted to kill it with a stick!

Unfortunately, he often confuses the concept of IT: one refers to the host network and the other refers to the software. In his later books, he even "accidentally" went to the third floor, which completely violated the IT scope defined by him at the beginning of the book, such as discussing the application of information technology and questioning CIO. Many readers, including the editor of Harvard Business Review, pointed this out at that time. Many people attacked him for it, and some even said that Carl didn't understand it at all, which may be true because he didn't do it after all. This also gives us researchers great enlightenment and vigilance, and we should be especially careful when applying other methods in areas we are not familiar with, otherwise many jokes will be made.

Here, I want to emphasize that software vendors (both at home and abroad) often claim that they can strengthen the core competitiveness of enterprises through informationization (anyway, they just follow the popular things and "keep pace with the times"). I don't know whether they are intentional or unintentional, nor do they infer according to the four standards of core competitiveness. Try to ask a few simple questions: what will happen if they go informatization? How many de-informatized enterprises have lost money or even closed down? Especially those software companies that claim that hundreds of thousands of customers use their software should ask themselves. What if it's informationized? If all information such as warehousing, warehousing, sales and inventory are assumed to be accurate, can sales be automatically increased and inventory reduced? If before informatization, the boss may still be confused because he can't see but live happily, what about now? It's just painful to know that so many goods have been kept in the warehouse for so long, and so many goods have occupied the counter for a long time without bringing any sales, let alone profits! There are only two conclusions to analyze the phenomenon that software manufacturers publicize that "information technology is the core competitiveness of enterprises": either these enterprises don't understand what core competitiveness is (I think most of them do, and I hope they do and they don't), and the result is that software enterprises can at least understand some management concepts instead of burying themselves in purely technical companies, and I hope that they don't understand because they have no professional ethics and can be attacked less by others, so people who don't know can't stand it, or they have other reasons. There is a serious information asymmetry between general enterprise customers and IT enterprises. The final result of the game between IT enterprises and enterprise customers is often the suboptimal choice, the so-called "lemon effect". At this point, in addition to IT enterprises and employees to improve their professional ethics, the government or industry must strengthen the training and education of informatization construction, improve enterprises' understanding of informatization construction, and introduce management consulting companies and supervision companies to change the outcome of this game, so as to achieve a new balance and promote the healthier development of IT industry.

Information technology itself is just a tool, like a sword or a good pen. Buying it does not necessarily guarantee how much your martial arts will improve, and how beautiful your handwriting is. You also need to practice how to dance swords and write. Informatization construction also needs you to constantly improve your ability to use information. This is the real core and the most difficult place. Kung fu is beside the point! The purpose of informatization (digitalization) is not to get a few figures from the system, but to serve as a foundation. Its core lies in the word "transformation", which integrates all kinds of information related to resources and then "rationalizes" and "optimizes" the configuration. For example, using historical information to assist in making sales forecast, purchase plan, production plan, distribution plan and inventory plan, and issuing instructions according to these plans, and modifying the plan according to the actual operation situation. Computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) proposed by Dr. Joseph Harrington in the United States contains two basic viewpoints: First, all aspects of enterprise production, including market analysis, product design, processing and manufacturing, management and after-sales service, are an inseparable whole, which must be closely related and considered in a unified way; Second, the whole operation process is essentially a process of data collection, transmission and processing, and the final product can be regarded as the material expression of data. If you get on the information system but don't use it to assist decision-making, or operate according to the original operation mode, the role of the information system may be limited to liberating some work, such as statistical reports, and it will increase the workload of other work. A lot of experience shows that it is impossible to realize accurate, timely and complete information-aided decision-making without the data collected by the information system, and only by using it can the information system gradually improve its accuracy, timeliness and integrity. According to the evaluation standard of core competitiveness, to build core competitiveness, only integration ability is essential, and the more dominant the ability, the easier it is to be imitated. The tip of the iceberg, the less exposed, the less likely it is to be imitated, and the more it can constitute the core competitiveness.

As Hal Varian, editor of Harvard Business Review, pointed out: "Carl is right, it is being commercialized and no longer provides a competitive advantage. But knowing how to use it effectively is still a very scarce skill. " "It is not itself that provides competitive advantage, but those who know how to use it effectively." "The company spent thousands of dollars on data storage and obtaining customer transaction data, but a lot of data lay there, not analyzed and not used, but the same data can generate huge returns in the hands of trained analysts!" This is an era of rich data, but at the same time it is an era of poor knowledge!

Thomas H. Davenport, a professor of information system management at Boston University School of Management, wants to describe "the past 40 years as a data age, not an information age". "It takes a lot of manpower and wisdom to turn data into something more useful, but most organizations only look at this problem from a technical point of view. Having a database or data mining system is as necessary as having other technologies, but it is not enough for high-quality information and knowledge. "

So here we need to clarify some basic concepts that are often confused.

Data = a record of facts. Last quarter, the sales of series A products in East China was 6.5438+0.2 million.

Information = (information) = data+meaning. Last quarter, the sales of A series products in East China decreased by 25% compared with the same period of last year.

Intelligence = information+understanding and reasoning. For example, is it because the sales units in East China are not good, or the A series products are in recession, or the overall marketing activities of the company are backward and the competitors are vigorously promoting them? Or other reasons.

Knowledge = problem-solving skills. What is the company's strategy to solve this problem?

Wisdom = knowledge selection There may be many action plans to deal with, but which wisdom (strategy) to choose. The activity will generate new transaction data.

The relationship among data, information, intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, action and management activities is shown in the following figure. In fact, there is a multiple loop relationship between them.

Figure 1 Relationship among data, information, intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, action and management activities

The same highway, the same high-end car, different drivers will drive at completely different levels, and then the more critical factor-driving ability is very important. At the beginning, the competition was relatively extensive, which may mainly depend on who can build roads and who can buy good cars. Everyone's hardware infrastructure is similar, and the competition is becoming more and more fierce. At this time, the role of people is highlighted. It is not enough to have a good car, but a top player like Schumacher can win the game. Business management is not the same as racing. Some people make rules for running races, stipulating that they can only run the same road. The competition between enterprises is that the Eight Immortals cross the sea to show their magical powers. If they have money, they can buy high-end servers and minicomputers. If they have no money, they can only buy a PC server. You can use fiber-optic broadband if you have money, but you can only use ADSL or even dial-up if you have no money; Those who have money can spend tens of millions on SAP and Oracle, while those who have no money can only use Kingdee, UFIDA or even small invoices or some basic financial software. Rich people can ask the Big Five to help them formulate strategies in line with future trends and conduct training. Without money, entrepreneurs can only cross the river by feeling the stones themselves ... indeed, this is an unfair competition. But the network economy is coming. In Karl's words, IT technology has become "popular" and a commodity. What's more, the appearance of ASP mode will greatly lower the threshold of enterprise informatization, and the threshold of expensive server, network and software costs will be lowered at once. For example, although you have a private BMW and Mercedes-Benz, you can get where you want to go quickly. But I can also take a taxi to achieve almost the same effect. I almost have a bus and subway, and I can basically achieve my goal at a very low cost. But the same broadband, the same set of system software, users are the same, but the effect is completely different. Didn't you see that SAP, Oracle, Kingdee and UFIDA are also in use? There have been some successes and some failures? Again, kung fu is outside the poem!