The IT Payoff: Measuring the Business Value of Information...

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 167 pages
• Published by: FT Press March 11, 2002
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0130650749
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0130650740
• Book Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 10.4 ounces

Product Description


Does technology really add value? If so, when? What's the best way to quantify and maximize technology ROI? The IT Payoff gives you powerful new tools for answering critical technology investment questions. Discover where technology can add the greatest value; when to adopt new technologies; how to coordinate process and technology change, and more. Includes new metrics, hands-on templates, and a complete action plan for making smarter funding decisions!

One of the 5 Best Technology Books as cited by About.com

Download Description
Does technology really add value? If so, when? What's the best way to quantify and maximize technology ROI? The IT Payoff gives you powerful new tools for answering critical technology investment questions. Discover where technology can add the greatest v

Reader Reviews
There is a plethora of books on the subject of wisely investing in information technology. If you immerse yourself in the literature you'll see that there are two distinct camps: the process-oriented, quantitative approach espoused by Dan Remenyi, and the holistic, 'there is no payoff' philosophy of Paul A. Strassmann. This book is in the Remenyi camp, although it does address many of the paradoxical observations set forth by Strassmann. This book has 12 chapters that are presented as a process and the techniques and factors that are required to make the process work. It begins with an introduction that discusses investment factors. Chapter 2 discusses the productivity paradox that Strassmann is famous for exposing. Where the book picks up is from Chapter 3 onward, when strategic planning is introduced as the framework, and the discussion of failure analysis in Chapter 4. This is one of my favorite chapters because it not only restates the obvious (you need top management commitment to embark on any strategic endeavor), it also provides references to documented failures and why they occurred. Forearmed is forewarned. In Chapters 5 (A Process Perspective) and 6 (Technology Payoff Metrics-Balanced Multiple Objectives) the roadmap to the process of nailing down the value of investments in IT and how to perform ongoing measurements is introduced. The next chapter is almost a digression with the discussion of technology curves (the 'S' curve). While this material gave insights into factors such as disruptive technologies and their impact, I think the entire chapter would have been better placed in the introduction. In many respects the heart of this book lies in Chapters 8 and 9. The survey of technology justification models discussed in Chapter 8 included three viable approaches: real options, economic value added and statistical approaches. Chapter 9 describes how to implement the IT payoff initiative to which the preceding chapters build by using a four phase approach: I -Exploration, II - Involvement, III - Analysis and IV - Communication. The final three chapters wrap up the book by examining the unique challenges imposed by eCommerce, a case study that dissects each of the four implementation phases, and an action plan for succeeding at IT payoff measurement. If you want a quantitative, by-the-numbers approach to investing in IT, it boils down to this book or Dan Remenyi's "The Effective Measurement and Management of It Costs and Benefits". Neither are mutually exclusive, and you may find that the approach that is provided in this book, and the wealth of checklists and compatible approach in Remenyi's book will result in a larger payoff than by choosing one of these excellent books over the other.