In Search of Business Value Ensuring a Return on Your Technology Investment

by Simon, Bill; McDowell, Robert

• ISBN13: 9781590790625
• ISBN10: 1590790626
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-01-01
• Publisher: SelectBooks

Summary

In today's high-tech business world, few issues are more important than how companies can gain competitive advantage from using new technology, especially information technology (IT). In 'In Search of Business Value', Microsoft vice president Robert McDowell and best-selling business author William L. Simon address that problem head-on, describing the steps every organization must take to "get the best bang from each buck spent" on IT infrastructure.Drawing on their own personal experience and that of over twenty-five corporate and IT leaders from the worlds of business and government, 'In Search of Business Value' covers in detail such issues as bringing organizational leaders on board in promoting the use of IT, enlisting staff support, using IT to lower costs and improve productivity, integrating the IT and business sides of an organization, and using IT to support best business practices.IT these days is an indispensable tool in defining and achieving corporate goals. 'In Search of Business Value' is an indispensable tool for corporate leaders and managers looking to make IT work successfully for their organizations.

Author Biography

Robert L. McDowell, vice president, Microsoft, has thirty-plus years in information technology. Interacting with executives at major companies worldwide, he is able to keep his finger on the pulse of business and IT. William L. Simon, bestselling author of business books and narrative non-fiction, has also written extensively for screen and television.In 2001, Simon and McDowell wrote Driving Digital

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Introduction: The Promise of Technology	xi
The Cast of Characters	xv
PART ONE: The Role of IT	1	(56)
Chapter 1 Achieving Business Value is a Leadership Issue, Not a Technology Issue	3	(18)
Chapter 2 Anybody Buying Technology Only for the Sake of the Technology Just Doesn't Get It	21	(22)
Chapter 3 You're Using Technology in Support of Business Processes-Right?	43	(14)
PART TWO: Making the Business Case for Technology	57	(38)
Chapter 4 Making the Business Case for Technology, I: Justifying the Technology Spend	59	(20)
Chapter 5 Making the Business Case for Technology, II: Demonstrating Value After the Fact	79	(16)
PART THREE: Governance, Culture, and the Challenge of Running IT	95	(56)
Chapter 6 Let's Give Governance a Chance	97	(16)
Chapter 7 "The Beatings Will Continue Until the Culture Improves"	113	(16)
Chapter 8 Why Aren't You Using the "Ruby Slippers" Approach?	129	(22)
PART FOUR: Controversy and Miscellany	151	(40)
Chapter 9 "Everything That Can Be Invented Has Already Been Invented"	153	(14)
Chapter 10 And in Conclusion: A Collection of Other Ideas and Viewpoints	167	(24)
Profiles	191	(16)
Acknowledgments	207	(4)
Appendix	211	(2)
Glossary	213	(2)
Index	215