IT Adoption

With annual IT spending topping two trillion dollars globally, it makes sense for organizations to assess whether they are receiving the value from these investments.  Unfortunately, the answer often appears to be no.  Why is this?

Because there is an obvious gap between PERCEIVED COSTS – the effort it takes to effectively use a solution (training time, emotional acceptance, desire) and PERCEIVED VALUE – what the outcomes people desire .  This gap is a measure of the technology’s Adoption – when the Perceived Costs outweigh the Perceived Value, the technology will not be adopted.

For years, CIOs have understood this from a financial perspective — it is essential for their success that the business benefits they generate need to outweigh the investment costs.  In recent years, IT organizations have attempted to increase their PERCEIVED VALUE not by improving how technologies are delivered, but by preparing glossy brochures, binders and fancy presentations which explain the value the IT organization is creating:  “Look, see we spent $X millions on IT, but look at the $Y millions in benefits we created.”

Of course, the benefits “created” are often not really created, but the benefits PROJECTED or estimated when the investments were initially approved – often years earlier and nowhere near the actual financial benefits seen.

If the benefits of the IT investments were truly valuable, IT organizations would not need to produce glossy brochures or presentations reminding the rest of their companies how much value they produce – the value would be inherent.

A FOLLOW UP BLOG WILL FOCUS ON SOLUTIONS…