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March 19, 2001

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Editor's Note:
Testing Techonomics

By Stephanie Stahl (sstahl@cmp.com)

Stephanie Stahl all it "techonomics"--the study of technology's impact on the economy. In a way, it's one of the easiest, no-brainer, forms of science to explore. The impact has been huge. Period. Forgive me if it seems I'm oversimplifying things or just throwing out a new buzzword, but few would argue that technology investments ignited an economic boom in the '90s.

The speed at which business changes, the drive for innovation, the desire to build deeper and more collaborative relationships with customers and business partners are all rooted in technology and its value to your business and even your personal life.

Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan cites technology investment as a dominant driver of productivity in the past decade. The flow of nearly real-time information to customers and business partners improves such productivity, he believes. It also means an economic downturn moves at a faster speed. That's because companies have more immediate access to sales and inventory data and can take action on that information quickly.

This is where my previous simplification turns tricky. Does the speed of information and the business reaction to it help the economy climb out of a downturn more quickly? Or does it feed a herd mentality that prolongs it? In this week's cover story, managing editor Chris Murphy investigates these questions and looks at Mr. Greenspan's theories about technology's impact on the economy.

Also in this week's issue, we bring you our quarterly IT spending report. While the softening economy is starting to have an impact on the once-sacrosanct IT spending, senior editor Cheryl Rosen takes a look at confidence levels of IT and business executives and budget plans for the next quarter. Now's a good time, it seems, to scrutinize return on investment of IT projects but also move forward quickly with plans that improve productivity and competitiveness.

Does your company have any IT projects under way that promise to provide increased productivity? Write to us at informationweek.com/writetous.jhtml.

On a personal productivity note, in another week or so I'll be going on maternity leave as I welcome my second child into the world. While I won't be too far removed from this fast-paced industry and the excitement that comes with it, my colleague John Foley, editor of the print magazine, will take over this column and keep you posted on what's going on at InformationWeek. I plan to return in about three months and look forward to corresponding with many of you at that time. In the meantime, please don't hesitate to send John or anyone at InformationWeek your feedback on our coverage. Also, congratulations to the InformationWeek.com team for winning the Jesse H. Neal award for best Web site! For details, see informationweek.com/jesseneal.htm.

Stephanie Stahl
Editor
sstahl@cmp.com

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