The Value Imperative: Harvesting Value from Your IT Initiatives

by Gerald G. Grant, Robert Collins

Overview

Organizational executives must change the way they think about how to invest in and manage IT if they want to get lasting value from computer-based innovations. The old way of thinking has not served organizations well. They continue to experience high levels of technological and operational failures even though they apply a wide variety of industry best practices. The rapid pace of technological advancement has tended to hide some fundamental problems that have existed from the start. These involve, not the technology only, but also the management and application of that technology. The human and organizational factors have not kept pace. They have remained relatively static and, to a shocking degree, ineffective.


As a result, the IT department in many organizations has remained a breed apart. Communication between IT and the rest of the organization is fraught with misunderstanding. This leads to failures, recrimination, and, sometimes, wholesale changes which fall well short of their goals. The authors wrote this book because they wanted to help both business and IT to shift their focus from technology project implementation to that of value realization.


In The Value Imperative readers will be introduced to a new business model called The Agricultural Model created by the authors for managing IT in organizations. This innovative model will help you learn how to change the mindset of people in your organization about how IT should be invested in and managed; key considerations for ensuring that business value is delivered from IT investments; how to measure that value that has been delivered and whether there has been effective return on the investments made; and finally the authors challenge business and IT managers to focus on the business value that customers seek which will help companies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137590398
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	06/21/2016
Edition description:	1st ed. 2016
Pages:	207
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Gerald G. Grant is Director of the PhD Program, Director of the Centre for Information Technology, Organizations, and People (CITOP) and Associate Professor at the Sprott School of Business, Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Dr Grant’s work focuses on the strategic management of information systems in organizations, particularly on issues around governance of IT in organizational and inter-organizational settings. He has consulted internationally for organizations such as the Commonwealth Secretariat in the U.K., the COMNET Foundation in Malta and the Government of Jamaica. Dr Grant is also a member of the Advisory Board of DPI-The Association of Public Sector Information Professionals in Canada.

He is currently an Associate Editor of Information and Management and IT for Development journals. He was previously Senior Associate Editor of the European Journal of Information Systems and Associate Editor of the Journal for Global Information Management.




Robert Collins is an experienced technology executive with more than thirty years’ experience in both the private and public sector. He has held positions as a product business line executive as well as Chief Information Officer. During his career, he has had the opportunity to work with organizations all over the world. He is now a Consulting Executive who works with large organizations to maximize the value they get from information technology. As well, Robert mentors high-tech startups and provides professional development training.

Table of Contents

1. Business and IT Challenges for Today’s Organization   


2. The Value Cycle   


3. The Engineering Model of Business-IT Alignment


4. The Agricultural Model


5. The Value Realization Cycle


6. Governing IT Service Delivery


7. Enterprise Architecture


8. IT Investment Portfolio


9. Sourcing IT Services


10. Measuring IT Value Delivery


11. ROI


12. The Role of Leadership


13. It’s Not About Technology; It’s About Value

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The Value Imperative introduces a thought-provoking metaphor – that of agriculture! They illustrate how organizations benefit by using an agricultural model to realize business value from IT investments. A focus on the harvest, or expected outcomes, leads to effective governance, change management, and decision-making. Readers will likely find the book easy to read but at the same time provocative. For sure, the Grant and Collins’ agricultural perspective on the management of IT will make them think!” (Yolande E. Chan, PhD, E. Marie Shantz Professor of Information Technology Management, Stephen J.R. Smith School of Business, Queen’s University)

“This book provides a fresh and much needed take on how digital information technologies can create incredible business value for organizations. The agricultural model, value realization cycle, and rich examples from practice raise managerial understanding of what it takes to be successful in the modern digital age.” (Nigel P. Melville, Associate Professor of Information Systems, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan)

“Grant and Collins have crafted a fascinating book that clearly demonstrates how today’s business and IT leadership should value, grow, and govern technology investments. An interesting and thought-provoking read, with appeal for both business and IT leaders!” (Jane Fedorowicz, PhD, Chester B. Slade Professor of Accounting and Information Systems, Bentley University)

“Grant and Collins use the farm analogy to describe the IT environment helping leaders to think of the IT environment as a very expensive harvest, which needs to be cultivate and nurtured in order to produce and maintain a productive crop. As with farming, there are many uncertainties, changes, and new technologies that constantly impact our environment. So, it is helpful to realize that continuous attention, investment, and modifications are required in this land of IT.” (Dan Ahern, CFO and Head of IT Dept, voestalpine Roll Forming Corp)

“The beauty of simple, clever ideas is not just that they are easy to appreciate but also that they bring clarity to problems that otherwise seem mired in complexity. IT initiatives are very different from an engineering enterprise. The agricultural model devised by Grant & Collins is straightforward, tangible, actionable, and requires no leap of faith. This is an excellent distillation of the best of top managerial plus leading research experiences.” (Jonathan Liebenau, Professor of Technology Management, London School of Economics)