When I talked about the big black boxes earlier, I mentioned that we learned pretty well how to sell and buy them and why selling technology is different. What about buying technology?

If we look back, business machines such as Burroughs arithmometers were literally boxes on cast iron legs. Those were probably served by a technician who was responsible for data input and output, and a support team from the vendor that was responsible for changing oil and replacing bearings. This all makes sense — after all, arithmometer is a useful box, but still just yet another business tool like a fax machine or a pencil sharpener.

Time passed; we replaced arithmometers with mainframes, minicomputers and arrays of blade servers; punch cards with magnetic tape and disk arrays; telegraph lines with copper and optic fiber. The approach, though, has hardly changed. Buy a database box and create an IT group around it that will input and output the data. Buy a web server box and create another IT group around it. Buy a build server box… rinse, repeat. After all, why would we treat those boxes in a different fashion than fax machines?

The problem is that when the boxes need to evolve to support the growing needs of business, innovation stops at the organization boundary. This is exemplified by Tom West’s experience of “seeing Digital’s organization chart in the design of the product”.

Change happens when people start to treat the technology as manufacturing equipment, rather than infrastructure plumbing. This is how technology companies see the world differently. This is when, against all business books, technology becomes a competitive differentiator.