Best Practices in Information Technology: How Corporations Get the Most Value from Exploiting Their Digital Investments - Couverture souple

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Get real, quantifiable value from your IT investments!

This year, more than $1,000,000,000,000—one trillion dollars—will be spent on information technology. Yet few organizations are confident of the value of these enormous investments. It doesn't have to be that way. Best Practices in Information Technology offers a comprehensive approach to finding and applying IT solutions that work—not just now, but for years to come.

In this concise, actionable book, IBM management expert James W. Cortada shows how to implement IT best practices as a long-term strategy, not a one-time fix. You'll learn:

• New ways to make sure IT delivers economic value to the corporation.
• What IT best practices have in common—and where to look for them.
• How to take a “snapshot” of your current effectiveness.
• How to choose among competing IT initiatives—and make sure they deliver on their promises.

Cortada reviews every major activity that IT organizations perform, showing how to continuously find new ways to maximize cost-effectiveness and customer value. He focuses on areas where best practices can deliver the most powerful payoff, including: reducing labor costs, shortening cycle times, and enhancing service. Discover how to:

• Create an IT business culture conducive to ongoing improvement.
• Build IT architectures that integrate and enhance legacy systems.
• Use modern balanced scorecard measurements and other best practices management tools.

The competitive frenzy unleashed a decade ago shows no signs of abating: companies must constantly improve, or they will die. Best Practices in Information Technology shows you the secrets of building an IT organization that will keep improving—today, tomorrow, and well into the 21st century.

This book describes a strategy for always finding and applying the best practices in the management and use of information technology. It covers all aspects of I/T management from aligning I/T with corporate business strategies, through the operation of I/T operations, down to measurements of progress.