Making IT Work: A History of the Computer Services Industry

by Jeffrey R. Yost

The computer services industry has worldwide annual revenues of nearly a trillion dollars and employs millions of workers, but is often overshadowed by the hardware and software products industries. In this book, Jeffrey Yost shows how computer services, from consulting and programming to data analytics and cloud computing, have played a crucial role in shaping information technology -- in making IT work. Tracing the evolution of the computer services industry from the 1950s to the present, Yost provides case studies of important companies (including IBM, Hewlett Packard, Andersen/Accenture, EDS, Infosys, and others) and profiles of such influential leaders as John Diebold, Ross Perot, and Virginia Rometty. He offers a fundamental reinterpretation of IBM as a supplier of computer services rather than just a producer of hardware, exploring how IBM bundled services with hardware for many years before becoming service-centered in the 1990s.

Yost describes the emergence of companies that offered consulting services, data processing, programming, and systems integration. He examines the development of industry-defining trade associations; facilities management and the firm that invented it, Ross Perot's EDS; time sharing, a precursor of the cloud; IBM's early computer services; and independent contractor brokerages. Finally, he explores developments since the 1980s: the transformations of IBM and Hewlett Packard; the offshoring of enterprises and labor; major Indian IT service providers and the changing geographical deployment of U.S.-based companies; and the paradigm-changing phenomenon of cloud service.

Genres: Business

447 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 6, 2017

Reviews

[Vasil Kolev]

Too much of a general business history. And would've been better without the last chapter.

[Michael]

Yost's book is the first major study of the history of the computer services industry from its beginnings in the early post-WWII period to the present day. It's well worth the investment of time to understand how the service industry grew and changed over time. I found the sections of time-sharing, which Yost positions as a historical antecedent to today's cloud services market, particularly useful. Major players like IBM are there, as one would expect, but there are dozens of companies now forgotten or only dimly remembered that he brings to life and includes in this comprehensive study. There is a great deal of careful research in the book. It will certainly be a reference for me to return to repeatedly in the years to come.

[Evilhag]

Good information, good structure. I wish there were more piccys.