Fujitsu reveals the real value of IT at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2004

As a major exhibitor at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2004 starting today at the Sydney Convention Centre, Fujitsu is challenging business leaders to examine and understand the role and value of information technology in their organisation.

According to Fujitsu Australia Associate Consulting Director Jeff McCracken-Hewson, effective IT value management depends on the ability of business managers to understand the role of IT in creating long-term value.

"IT investments can be directed towards many different kinds of business outcomes," said Mr McCracken-Hewson. "In Fujitsu's experience, the failure to categorise investments properly is one of the most common causes of confusion and frustration surrounding IT value. Different categories of IT investment need to be assessed, valued and managed in different ways if an enterprise wants to create long-term business value."

"At Fujitsu, we typically develop an investment categorisation scheme to fit the needs of individual clients," Mr McCracken-Hewson said. "Our basic principle is that customers need to adopt different strategies to manage different classes of investments depending on the degree of business freedom that is involved."

Simply rebalancing the current mix of investments across different categories can provide a quick win in the battle for increased yield on the IT dollar.

"Many organisations are overweight in spending that simply runs the business, while they are underweight in the other categories that ensure future competitiveness and competitive advantage," said Mr McCracken-Hewson. "This means they are not using IT as effectively as possible to support product innovation, business growth and organisational transformation."

Assessing IT value

To evaluate IT investments, Fujitsu considers three dimensions of IT value: strategic alignment, financial worth and risk.

"Each client's approach to value assessment should be tailored to the maturity of their organisation," said Mr McCracken-Hewson. "Some clients have no reliable financial data on their proposed investments. In this case, they are forced to rely on strategic alignment criteria to evaluate investments."

However, assessing the value of IT investment is only part of the picture. Fujitsu advises enterprise customers to make sure they are able to properly deliver initiatives designed to realise business value and also to conduct measurement to demonstrate this value.

"Success requires effective governance across project delivery, value measurement and value realisation," Mr McCracken-Hewson added.