The Information Paradox: Realizing the Business Benefits of Information Technology

Citation

Cassell, K.A. and Mercado, M.I. (1999), "The Information Paradox: Realizing the Business Benefits of Information Technology", The Bottom Line, Vol. 12 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/bl.1999.17012dae.001

The Information Paradox: Realizing the Business Benefits of Information Technology

The Information Paradox: Realizing the Business Benefits of Information Technology

John Thorpe and DMR'S Center for Strategic LeadershipMcGraw-Hill Ryerson LimitedToronto1998

Keywords: Information technology, Information industry, Planning

The purpose of this book is to demonstrate to business organizations not only the ways in which they can get more value from the large investments which they are making in information technology but also, how to improve the odds of success in managing information technology enabled change.

Basically, this book, a product of a team effort at DMR's Center for Strategic Leadership, an international provider of information technology, strives to do the following. The author aims to not only make business managers cognizant of the critical issues present in managing information technology, but also to impress upon them that these issues have a bottom line impact on their ability to manage. Second, he wants to expose information technology experts to the key business implications inherent in managing information technology. And third, John Thorp is intent on providing all managers with tested perspectives, methods, techniques for bringing "information" and "technology" together into winning information technology-enabled change programs that deliver value to their organizations.

To achieve these aims, he presents to the reader the DMR Benefits Realization Approach. This approach to management is designed specifically to provide managers with the tools required to obtain results from the business applications of information technology. In addition, he aims to teach managers how to manage risk/reward relationships more effectively when developing those applications. In explaining his conceptual framework, he makes the assumption that in the real business world, benefits and results do not materialize unless you understand and proactively manage the process for achieving them.

Because of the volatility of today's business environment, the fundamental question facing managers is how does an organization select the right business and technology investments and transform those investments into tangible results? Yet, in this day and age neither the information nor the technology dollars are being consistently translated into business value.

This is the information paradox. The information paradox arises from the conflict between the widely-held belief that information and investment in technology to provide that information is a "good thing," and the all too frequent reality that we cannot demonstrate a connection between money spent on information technology and business results.

The problem, according to Thorp, is that there is a basic misunderstanding between ideas held relative to information and information technology. For example there is the widely accepted belief that if information is good, then more information must be better. In addition, the demand for information is growing because of the assumption that information is cheap, even free. On the supply side because new technologies are able to provide and distribute vast quantities of information at apparently little cost, demand is stimulated even further. More funds are being spent on information technology than ever before. Yet, the link to business results and economic value to information is still not clear. Although managers may be drowning in information, they often do not have the specific information necessary for them to effectively do their work.

Thus, in order to examine this paradox from a unique perspective, the author organizes this book into four parts. The first part describes the symptoms of the information paradox, the problems associated with it and its causes. In this first part, he introduces the conceptual framework within which to deal with these difficulties, the benefits realization approach. In Part II, Thorp details the three fundamentals of his approach. Part III provides more details on the three necessary conditions for the effective implementation of this approach. In Part IV, he puts it all together in terms of how one can start implementing the approach.

This book also gives us client stories in which the basic problems facing the organization are discussed, the key elements of the approach that was used and the results that were achieved. In addition, he identifies the issues and elements that are common to these organizational experiences.

The benefits realization approach was developed to deal with the multiple challenges posed by the information paradox and the demands of engineering information technology or IT-enabled business transformation. According to the author there is a wide range of challenges organizations can meet with greater confidence when they apply the benefits realization approach. And organizations have to start by precisely defining their challenge. This book is recommended for any organization committed to long range change, because it presents guidelines to those managers who can follow and transform the output of information technology into relevant value for the organization.

Kay Ann Cassell is Associate Director, Programs and Services, for the New York Public Library's Branch Libraries.

Marina I. Mercado is Adjunct Faculty member, Mercy College, New York, and a consultant in international business.