Linking IT to Business Metrics

Abstract

Early efforts to link measures of IT investment with measures of business
performance have often been challenged to show consistent organization-level
relationships. Managers and researchers alike have often concluded in the past that
the relationship between what is done in IT and what happens in business is
considerably more complex than originally thought. It has long been argued that
technology is not the major stumbling block to achieving business performance, but
rather it is the business itself – the processes, the managers, the culture and the skills
– that makes the difference. Therefore, a good business metrics program that
considers not only IT investments but also how the business uses IT is important. If a
business measurement program is carefully designed, properly linked to an incentive
program, widely implemented and effectively monitored by management, it is highly
likely that business performance will become an integral part of the mindset of all IT
staff and ultimately pay off in a wide variety of ways.