Businesses pump $2 trillion annually into information technology to pursue competitive advantage and spur productivity. But extracting strategic value and productivity gains from IT has become increasingly challenging. Like other widely adopted technologies, IT no longer affords a competitive edge. Moreover, despite the coincidence of increased productivity and IT spending in the 1990s, IT didn't directly fuel that productivity. Instead, it enabled companies to answer stiffening competition with new products and more efficient business processes.

The spread of these innovations spurred productivity. But IT can still generate strategic value and productivity today if you apply three practices:

1) Manage IT's risks: Buy only what your company needs. Delay IT investments to avoid getting soon-to-be-obsolete applications.

2) Integrate IT with your company's other functions in ways that rivals can't imitate.

3) Understand IT's role in productivity. Concentrate IT investments on levers that most impact productivity in your company. The three Harvard Business Review articles in this collection: "IT Doesn't Matter" by Nicholas G. Carr (HBR reprint R0305B), "Strategy and the Internet" by Michael E. Porter (HBR reprint R0103D), and "The Real New Economy" by Diana Farrell (HBR reprint R0310G).

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