From Business Strategy to IT Action: Right Decisions for a Better Bottom Line

354 Pages·2004·4.254 MB·English

by  Robert J. Benson, Tom Bugnitz, 160;

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From Business Strategy
to IT Action
Right Decisions for a
Better Bottom Line
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Praise for
From Business Strategy to IT Action
The authors provide us a most insightful approach to industry’s
toughest problem: on what IT investments should we invest our scarce
resources? More importantly, their framework can be applied to
any and every discretionary corporate investment. Linking corporate
investments to strategic objectives is critical to remaining or
becoming a viable and vital business—and this book gives us the
roadmap for the journey. Particularly helpful are the provocative
sets of questions and helpful tools to address this complex issue.
—Francisco A. Figueroa, CFO and Vice President,
Sandia National Laboratories
This is a dynamite book of practical advice for companies that
do not fully understand IT, and should become required reading for
both business and IT management. It is a “gem” of disciplines
and practices and of business-based ways to manage IT and to get
the biggest and most important value from IT investments.
—Cecil O. Smith, Senior Vice President and CIO, Duke Energy
I’ve worked with Bob for several years. This book, which outlines
his practical yet elegant approach for aligning IT action plans
with the overarching business strategy, is a must read for anyone
who wants to get more impact from their IT dollar!
—Brian Gill, Vice President and CIO, Sunlife Canada
I like this book very much. It offers an extraordinary set of insights
on how to take IT planning, innovation, and performance
measurement to the bottom line. For more than two decades
I struggled, as a CIO, to tie IT management decisions to business
outcomes. Finally, I found in this book a consistent framework
for guiding IT and business leaders alike, in maximizing the
business value of their IS capabilities and technology investments.
—Doron J. Cohen, Ph.D. CIO, The BrassTacks
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To bridge the chasm between business and IT, concise and clearly
defined business and financial decision processes and metrics
need to be created and articulated. This book provides a precise
and simple to follow methodology that IT executives can use
to better align themselves with CFOs and their business partners.
—Mark Popolano, CIO, Vice President, AIG, Inc.
This book tells you all you need to know about strategy and execution
related to developing IT strategies, making the right investment
decisions, and implementing the strategies that will lead to creating greater
impact to business performance. A great insight shared by the authors
for those who are concerned with IT investment and return.
—Swee-Cheang Lim, Director, Institute of Systems Science, Singapore
In 1988, Information Economics proposed a way of thinking and
a method about the value of IT. In this new book, based on their broad
business-based experience, the authors further develop the
framework and process. It is the combination that lays the foundation
for increasing the bottom-line results of IT investments.
—Prof. dr. Pieter Ribbers, Faculty of Economics,
Tilburg University, The Netherlands
Within ING there is continuous pressure to ascertain that all
discretionary IT-related business investments generate a stable earnings
stream that is significantly higher than the weighted average
cost of capital. Following on the valuable insights of Information
Economics, this book may contribute to the firm’s ability to
enhance IT’s contribution to its value creation process by
ameliorating project risk.
—Dr. John FA Spangenberg, Head of IT Performance &
Investment Management, ING Group
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From Business Strategy
to IT Action
Right Decisions for a
Better Bottom Line
ROBERT J. BENSON
THOMAS L. BUGNITZ
WILLIAM B. WALTON
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper. (cid:1)(cid:1)
Copyright©2004 by John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
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07030, 201-748-6011, fax [phone], e-mail: [email protected].
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to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Benson, Robert J.
From business strategy to IT action : right decisions for a better
bottom line / by Robert J. Benson, Tom Bugnitz, William Walton
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-471-49191-8
1. Business planning. 2. Business enterprises—Computer networks.
3. Information technology—Management. 4. Information resources
management—Economic aspects. I. Bugnitz, Thomas L. II. Walton,
William, 1951– III. Title.
HD30.28.B4533 2004
658.4'03—dc22 2003020204
Printed in the United States of America.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Bob Benson thanks his wife, Noreen Carrocci,
for her continuous and constant support
and dedicates this effort to her and our families.
Tom Bugnitz dedicates his work on this book to
Diane Dimeff, who has supported, helped,
encouraged, and most of all put up with him
and his many idiosyncrasies for the last ten years.
Bill Walton dedicates his work to his wife Eliza
and children, Mac, Jas, and Grace.
Together, you are both my why and my how.
Miraculously, we have all three ended up with women
who are much better than we deserve.
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