Nick Carr's article 'IT Doesn't Matter' was published in in Harvard Business Review in May 2003 and ignited an industry firestorm for its perceived dismissal of the strategic value of IT. Ten years ago, Nick Carr said IT doesn't matter -- sort of. The jarring headline of Carr's May 2003 article, 'IT Doesn't Matter,' is what many people remember, and it tends to overshadow his more thought-provoking thesis: that companies have overestimated the strategic value of IT, which is becoming ubiquitous and therefore diminishing as a source of competitive differentiation. ] 'The opportunities for gaining IT-based advantages are already dwindling,' Carr wrote in the Harvard Business Review article. 'Best practices are now quickly built into software or otherwise replicated. And as for IT-spurred industry transformations, most of the ones that are going to happen have likely already happened or are in the process of happening.' [ Q&A: BLOG POST: ] Carr advocated spending less on IT, both to reduce costs and to decrease the risk of buying soon-to-be obsolete equipment and applications.