Benefits Management

The successful management of investments in information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) continues to be a challenge to most organisations.  Studies repeatedly show that the majority of projects, even if they are implemented on-time and on-budget, are still judged to be unsuccessful - as they do not yield the benefits that the organisation was expecting.

This book explores the causes for lack of benefit delivery and the reasons why new approaches to the management of IS/IT investments are needed.  It then presents a comprehensive process, including a set of tools and frameworks that many organisations are using to increase the benefits realised from their investments. The approach enables business and IS/IT professionals to combine their collective knowledge, in order to develop integrated benefit delivery and change management plans, including realistic and achievable business cases. It demonstrates how these benefits plans can be used to improve the evaluation and implementation of investments and hence increase the ability of organisations of all types to obtain greater value from the use of IS/IT.

Written in the same practical, straightforward way as John Ward’s previous highly successful book, Strategic Planning for Information Systems (also in this series), Benefits Management: Delivering Value from IS and IT Investments will prove valuable and informative to business managers and IS/IT professionals as well as academics and students.

Benefit Management: Delivering value from IS & IT Investments provides a comprehensive explanation of how organizations can achieve grater success in realizing the benefits of their investment sin IS and IT and other major change programmes. It incorporates the latest knowledge from research with real examples from the use of the approach in a wide range of organizations. It will prove valuable and informative to business managers and IS/IT professionals as well as academics and students. In Benefits Management, John Ward and Elizabeth Daniel:

• Explore the causes of lack of benefit delivery and the reasons why new approaches to the management approaches to the management of IS/IT investments are needed.

• Explain new ways of thinking and managing, based on a comprehensive Process, including a set of tools and process, including a set of tools and frameworks that many organizations are using to increase the benefits realized from their investments.

• Demonstrate how benefits plans can be used to improve both investment decision making and the implementation of IS/IT projects and IT-enabled change programmes.

John Ward is Professor of Strategic Information Systems and Director of the Information Systems Research Centre at Cranfield School of Management. Prior to joining Cranfield, he worked in industry for 15 years and he currently acts as a consultant to a number of major organizations. As well as publishing many papers and articles, he is co-author of the book Strategic Planning for Information Systems, now in its 3rd edition. He has served two terms as President of the UK Academy for Information Systems and has been a member of its board since 1994.

Elizabeth Daniel is Professor of Information Management at the Open University Business School. Prior to joining OUBS in 2005, Elizabeth worked in the IS Research Centre at Cranfield School of Management where she researched and taught in the fields of e-business and IS strategies and benefits management. She has a particular interest in IOS and IS in marketing and supply chains. She has published many papers in leading academic journals and a number of management reports. Elizabeth has a first degree and PhD in Physics and an MBA from London Business School. She has spent over 10 years in industry, starting her career as a medical engineer and subsequently working as a strategy management consultant.