Deriving business value from IT: converting IT expenditures into assets with desired impacts

The research reported in this paper examines how business value is being created and delivered by IT in large private organisations in Australia. The critical organisational governance and management activities and practices that contribute significantly to business value were identified and described, using a process model of Soh and Markus (1995) as a lens by which CIO statements were organised, understood and interpreted. Broad concepts associated with value delivery were identified, and the key elements of IT governance were then abstracted from these practices. The research also confirmed that a substantial change had been occurring over the past few years, with a rigorous focus on building capabilities and relationships with key business stakeholders apparent, with the deliberate intent of integrating IT investments with business change initiatives, and thus a business-centric focus was replacing what was perceived to have been a largely technological focus of previous years. However, while the broadly defined activities associated with strategy and evaluation were being paid close attention, CIOs were still at times hesitant and grappling with the issues associated with benefits realisation initiatives.