Product Description
Imagine thinking about your company’s information technology in the same way that you think about its investment portfolio: as a bundle of assets that–when managed right–will generate revenues and savings. Here’s just such a framework for leveraging IT (technology, networks, data, and software)–one that enables business managers to make the important decisions about the potentially confounding mix of high-technology that influences near- and long-term planning, … More >>
Leveraging the New Infrastructure: How Market Leaders Capitalize on Information Technology
#1 by Anonymous on May 1, 2010 - 3:26 pm
Super book! This book adds value to something most companies are yet to figure out they have or need–an IT infrastructure. The book makes a case that the infrastructure is the key to competitive edge. Sold! I believe it. Read this book and you’ll also be convinced.
Regrettably, some of the readers won’t “get it” hence the competitive edge. If you don’t get, check your altitude. You may be flying too low. In my view, infrastructure only looks like infrastructure from on high. Think end to end. The secret is to gain enough altitude to see it. Believe me–whether you see it or not–it’s there and costing you big bucks! So soar! Gain altitude until you see the infrastructure. Let this book be the wind beneath your wings.
Don’t just take Weill and Broadbent’s word for it. What is your favorite IT guru saying about this subject?
You will undoubtedly conclude that this book is on target and on the money! Read it. Let it soak in. Then start Leveraging the New Infrastructure.
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Anonymous on May 1, 2010 - 5:15 pm
Information technology has made possible the Information Age. Today, organizations are wrestling with the monumentally complex decisions about how to invest in this ever-advancing technology-investment decisions that are shaping the competitive destiny of corporations. How such decisions are made and how they should be made is at the heart of this book. The central theme is linking strategy with a firm’s IT portfolio: its total investment in an IT infrastructure. The authors explore four approaches to such infrastructure investment decisions, ranging from none to an enabling view that positions the firm to optimize its IT core competence in a strategically flexible manner.
The authors have synthesized the approach market leaders take to leveraging IT. This books shows how IT creates business value and how top performing firms use IT in alignment with their current and future needs and goals. The book’s concluding section addresses how to manage the IT portfolio for optimum business results. The work includes a useful grouping of infrastructure services into 8 management clusters. Reading this book is a delightful educational experience; it is also requisite reading for all strategists.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by J. Haefele on May 1, 2010 - 6:29 pm
This book has a tendency to reiterate the same concepts over and over, but they are ’sensible’ concepts. Managing the projects and having measurements for the use of infrastructure in todays businesses is critical. More important is the methods used to weigh the benefits of investing more into a global infrastructure vs. a LOB infrastructure. the second half of the book reads faster than the first, but 20-30 pages a day will get you through it in know time and allow you to consume the message.
Rating: 4 / 5
#4 by patrick darmon on May 1, 2010 - 6:49 pm
A very good approach to a complex subject : IT governance and investment. The authors provides you a good framework to analyse it. A must read for CEO and CIO that want to regain control of IT and its relation with corporate strategy. The “portfolio” and “maxim” model are simple but so obviously relevant that you will be amazed you don’t have them in your company
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Anonymous on May 1, 2010 - 7:19 pm
I must say that the book did consider different industry sets and broke investments into meaningful components for easier and clearer analysis. I was very impressed by the way the book was researched.
I think some crucial factors external to technology need to be taken into account for a clearer picture on ROI such as:
a.Factors at the country level – specially for multinational companies such as macroeconomic stability,investments in infrastructure at the country level, and so on.
b.Organizational factors -internal culture, politics, etc.
c.With the internet transforming the market place, I am still thinking how this framework will be useful in analyzing IT investments in the future (say five years from now).
Rating: 4 / 5