Margaret,
THere is a lot of research that many on the list will have more accurate
reference to than I, relating to the poor return on investment for IT
projects.
Here in the UK there have been some well publicised disasters. #40 project
stopped without any benefits. A new call system for emergency services
caused poorer service.
Whilst I do not have a 'neat and simple' answer there are some common
parameters that seem to be ignored quite often.
1. What is our corporate strategy/goal and how will this IT investment
achieve that more effectively.
[it is my experience that IT investment is often looked at in terms of
'How will it help our processes, costs, resources etc, rather than how
does it relate to our strategy. In these instances it is of little value
is the IT was put in on time, to budget etc if it has little bearing on
strategy]
2. If this is done, then another missing step is the involvement of
people, particularly 'line' people who will use the IT.
3. IT seems to 'get away from us' in terms of technology advance, price,
time more quickly than other investments.
I worked with a client who said they would not have an IT project that
lasted longer than 6 months because, IT and the business world in which
they operated (insurance) changed too much over 6 months.
I am particularly keen to see greater weight being placed on strategy and
goals rather than enablers. Enablers, (structure, systems, processes and
culture) are the foundation on which strategy is implemented. THey need to
support rather than dictate. If they don't support then they, the
enablers, need to change. I see goals changing to meet enablers more
often.
Best wishes
Ian Saunders
Transition Partnerships - Harnessing change for business advantage
tpians@cix.compulink.co.uk
--tpians@cix.co.uk (Ian Saunders)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>