Nick Carr, the former Harvard Business Review editor that created a stir a couple of years back when he concluded that “IT Doesn’t matter,” may not be in attendance at this week’s FASTforward event in San Diego, but he seems to be here in spirit — and continues to raise a ruckus.

Ray Lane, former president of Oracle, opened the conference by announcing that he is in total agreement with Nick, that, so far, IT hasn’t made much of a dent. “Nick Carr was right,” Lane said, noting that heavy investments in technology seem to have made little or no difference in the long-term profitability of many companies.

Andrew McAfee, Harvard professor and Enterprise 2.0 guru, proclaimed in his Thursday morning session that Nick has got it all wrong, without mentioning Nick by name. “I deeply believe that IT, as a whole, increases competitive differentiation within companies,” McAfee said, adding that Enterprise 2.0 technologies will “accelerate that conviction.” (The two have some history, by the way — When McAfee wrote this, Nick Carr said this, and McAfee responded with this.)

Blogging colleague Jim McGee also concurred, noting that Lane’s recitation of Nick’s anti-IT rants gave him a “twitch.” According to Jim, Lane was giving life to Nick’s “lazy and glib thinking,” adding that “the question is not whether IT does or does not matter — the questions are how does it matter, when does it matter, how does it integrate with our broader strategic agenda, and what do we as senior executives need to understand about technology’s capabilities and possibilities in order to make intelligent decisions for our particular organization?”

Nick’s argument makes a lot of sense when considering the commoditization of hardware, operating systems, networks, and storage. We’ve all become jaded by the breathless (and eye-rolling) claims of “revolutionary” technologies, paradigm shifts, and inflection points. He also correctly states that IT should not get full credit for corporate success.

But no one has ever expected IT to solely responsible for a company’s rise or fall. Adroit management, supported by the right IT tools, makes the difference. A company that smartly and innovatively leverages its IT in new and creative ways will move to the head of the pack. And, thanks to IT, you don;t need a workforce of thousands to do so.

In another FASTforward keynote session, Tim O’Reilly observed that Craigslist.org has completely disrupted the classified advertising industry with about 20-plus employees. IT has lowered the barriers to entry across all industries, to the point where the smallest microcompanies, comprised of a few individuals, working remotely and interconnected to networks of partners and contractors, can compete against the biggest players in the global economy. The larger enterprises are often simply trying to keep up.