In today's uncertain business climate, IT investment is often in the budgetary crosshairs. But in fact, now is the ideal time to upgrade existing infrastructure and invest in next-stage technologies that create value.
And speaking of costs, what role does a capital-intensive function like information technology play in this quest for high performance? Many business leaders are understandably wary of IT investments. Although spending on information technology has increased substantially in the past 10 years, many technology projects have been characterized by sketchy metrics, long cycle times to new products and unpredictable results. No wonder many executives have come to regard IT investments as a necessary evil and information technology as something to be managed and purchased like any other commodity or utility.
Bank of America holds a broader, decidedly more positive view. We believe that technology investment is vital to driving future productivity and growth—hence, it is critical to achieving high performance. And this investment can, in fact, be managed with discipline and rigor, which leads to increasing predictability and decreasing cycle times. Greater discipline in IT investments will enable companies to attain superior cost positions, which, in turn, can be used to gain market share, bring new products and services to market sooner, and serve customers with deeper insight.

Investing to capture value
Companies that achieve high performance through technology understand this. They execute to take full advantage of the IT investments they have already made, for both short term gain and long-term competitive advantage. This forward-looking approach to IT investment is based on their understanding of information technology itself, which they see evolving along a path similar to those taken by earlier transformative technologies. This understanding, in