ABSTRACT
To a significant extent, the adoption of high technology is a matter of corporate culture, and the same is true of low technology — except that the latter culture is much more widespread. The proof is that in Group Ten countries today, the majority of banks and of insurance companies are currently devoting about 80 percent to 90 percent of their IT budgets to maintenance of existing legacy systems, leaving only a small part of their funding for new investments, including high tech. Many of these institutions cannot even answer the questions:
■ What kind of differentiating technology could you invest in if your IT maintenance costs were reduced by 20, 30, 40, or 50 percent?
