Book Briefs: Competing in the Information Age

Competing in the Information Age: Align in the Sand

By Jerry N. Luftman

Oxford University Press, September 2003

432 pages, $39.95

There is a reason—beyond the clever subtitle—that Oxford has published an updated edition of this essay collection. When this book first appeared, in 1996, IT professionals were confined to their departments and regularly had to go begging to fund their projects. Today, however, the typical company’s focus has shifted to “how can IT let us do our jobs faster, more efficiently and at less cost?” Here, academics and consultants offer 18 essays—four of which were either written or co-written by Luftman, who is executive director of the graduate IS programs at New Jersey’s Stevens Institute of Technology—designed to answer those very questions.