The role of ICT in our business and society in the 21st Century will be in many aspects different from the current role of IT. The digitalisation of communication technology and consumer electronics makes it possible to integrate these technologies with information technology. The most important consequences of this integration are:

* Current IT systems like mainframes and PCs and even client-server systems are stand-alone systems designed for the support of one company, user or organisational unit. These systems are not designed for collaboration with other systems.
* ICT systems are networked systems. All current corporate and private IT systems will become a node in world-wide network based on the Internet or the successor of the Internet and must collaborate with each other through the network.
* Current information systems are oriented on data processing and the storage and retrieval of information.
* ICT will also support the communication and co-operation of human beings and their organisations and the creation and exchange of knowledge.
* Current information systems support the internal organisation of the company. IT is used for enhancing efficiency and the support of mass-production of uniform products and services.
* ICT will support the external relations of the company: communication and co-operation with customers, suppliers and partners. This will allow for an agile and adaptive ICT enabled organisation with flexible patterns of production. This makes for instance mass-customisation or even mass-individualisation possible: large-scale delivery of products and services tailored to the wishes of the customer.

Considering the development of IT within organisations in the past, it is easy to speculate about the importance of ICT for the functioning of organisations in the future. Although there may be differences in speed for the different industries and individual companies, ICT increasingly penetrates 'the heart' of organisations.

This may be exemplified with the well-known 7-S model of McKinsey. This model has been criticised before, mainly because it was seen as too static. In the figure below the model is therefore extended with the dynamic of decade-wise penetration of technology.