ROI and the Value Puzzle

摘要

In October of 1997, Government Computer News along with the Industry Advisory211u001eCouncil and the Federal CIO Council conducted a study to look at government IT 211u001einvestment environment issues such as methodologies for making IT investment 211u001edecisions, evaluating ROI and ROI barriers, and the overall influence of IT on 211u001eorganizations structure. Twenty-one hundred questionnaires were issued to 211u001eadministrative, operations, CIOs, directors, and managers in both the public and 211u001eprivate sectors. The results of this research were reported at the October 1997 211u001eIAC Executive Leadership Conference in Richmond, Virginia. The findings of this 211u001estudy serve as a foundation for, and are woven throughout this document. An all-211u001eencompassing evaluation of ROI (Return On Investment) can accurately size up an 211u001einvestment's total value to an agency. But, this endeavor is not as easy as it 211u001eseems because there is no one universally accepted prescription for assessing the 211u001evalue of an investment. Not only do agencies differ in their approaches to 211u001ecalculating value, many times divisions within agencies take varying approaches 211u001eas well. Herein lies the challenge of evaluating ROI: it must be a standard, 211u001erepeatable process, while containing a significant degree of flexibility. The 211u001eprocess of assessing the total value of an investment informs decision-making, 211u001ebut this task can be difficult to perform without a clear agreement of the 211u001edefinition of terms, or paths to follow.