It would seem that business investment in information technology (IT) is at root no different from business investment in anything else. After a careful consideration of the costs of the investment and its anticipated benefits, a decision is made as to whether the benefits of the investment outstrip the costs and by how much. If the benefits are competitive with other investment alternatives (say, a major marketing campaign), then the business will commit financial resources to the IT proposal. Otherwise it won't. This decision making process is at the heart of capital budgeting. Senior executives have been making IT investment decisions for well over three decades. So why is the measurement of IT investment payoff so difficult and controversial? Why do we need a book dealing with contemporary approaches to measuring IT investment payoff? Why have earlier approaches to measuring IT investment payoff proven unsatisfactory? In what respects have earlier approaches fallen short? Do we need to scrap earlier approaches entirely or can we find important improvements to these approaches such that they can be newly applied to effectively measure IT investment payoff in ways that are convincing to senior management? This book will help you to find improvements in existing methods for measuring IT investment payoff as well as to find new, innovative methods for addressing the value of emerging IT.
About the Author
Mo Adam Mahmood is Professor of Information Systems and Ellis and Susan Mayfield Professor in Business Administration at the University of Texas at El Paso. His research interests include information technology in support of superior organizational strategic and economic performance, group decision support systems, software engineering, and the utilization of information technology for national and international competitiveness. Dr. Mahmood has published in many scholarly publications, including MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, Decision Sciences, European Journal of Information Systems, Expert Systems with Applications, INFOR Canadian Journal of Operation Research and Information Processing, Information and Management, Journal of Computer-Based Instruction, Information Resources Management Journal, Journal of Systems Management, Data Base, International Journal of Policy and Management, and others. He has also edited and published a book in the information technology investment and performance area. He is currently serving as the Editor of the Journal of End User Computing.
Edward J. Szewczak is a professor and Chair of the MCIS Department at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. His information systems research has been published in Data Base, European Journal of Operational Research, Information & Management, Information Resources Management Journal, Journal of Management Systems, Journal of Microcomputer Systems Management, Journal of MIS, Omega, and Simulation & Games as well as in a number of readings texts and scholarly conference proceedings. He has also co-edited two books of readings entitled Management Impacts of Information Technology: Perspectives on Organizational Change and Growth (1991) and The Human Side of Information Technology Management (1996) published by Idea Group Publishing of Harrisburg, PA. He is currently an associate editor of the Information Resources Management Journal and vice president of publications for the Information Resources Management Association.
