Developing the IT Scorecard reveals the tools, techniques and approaches that separate the winners from the losers in IT evaluation and performance measurement. Drawing on case studies of pioneering organizations in the UK, Europe and US, it offers a blueprint based on actual, successful experience - often learned the hard way - for planning and implementing IT evaluation and performance measurement across the systems life cycle.

Chapter One: IT Evaluation - Trends, Eras and Challenges
Chapter one looks at the importance of evaluating IT with the goal of understanding costs, types of benefits derived and guidelines for measuring those benefits

Chapter Two: A Survey of Current Evaluation Trends and Practices
As part of the research for this report Business Intelligence and the Oxford Institute of Information Management conducted an extensive survey into how IT evaluation practices are managed in leading organizations throughout the UK, Europe and the US. This chapter summarizes the survey results, enabling you to see how your company's evaluation practices and techniques measure up against the average, best and worst in the field.

Widespread customer dissatisfaction and the desire to become a business-focussed IT organization led to the introduction of a customised IT measurement portfolio for the UK Post Office's IT services, including the Balanced Business Scorecard, EFQM initiatives, an investigation into the benefits of outsourcing and the implementation of ongoing customer surveys. The new measurement regime provides not only direction for the future of the organization, but also an effective management tool that is ingrained within the IT culture.

Chapter Three: Planning Prioritization and the Feasibility of IT Investments
Overall planning and prioritization of IT projects can provide a bird's-eye view showing how various projects interrelate to each other and to other initiatives and operations within the organization. This chapter examines planning and prioritization, feasibility assessment and benefits management approaches, reinforcing the need to focus on life cycle evaluation and quality IT investments.

An examination of evaluation at a division of SunAlliance uncovers both strengths and weaknesses in their system's life cycle approach and reveals key lessons in alignment and prioritization.

Chapter Four: Risk Assessment and Management
Chapter four explores risk assessment and risk management. It reviews why projects fail in order to glean insight about project risk and other project variables requiring management. It also looks at frameworks for diagnosing risk as the basis for failure/success of a project, reviews successful risk analysis examples and finally, from a risk analysis perspective, extracts a set of variables that need to underlie measurement going forward.

Chapter Five: Project Management and Post-implementation Evaluation - Methods and Approaches
Chapter five looks at evaluation from the IT project process through to post-implementation. Several popular management and development methodologies will be reviewed here against project/risk variables.

The California Franchise Tax Board faced problems when it needed funding from the California legislature for critical technology improvements. Because of several recent IT disasters involving other Californian public sector agencies, the legislature was unwilling to commit to funding for unproven IT projects. A performance-based procurement process, underpinned by benefits funding, provided the lever FTB needed to get the project go-ahead.

Chapter Six: IT Assessment - Taking a Balanced Business Approach
The development and use of a scorecard provides the organization with the opportunity to agree on and disseminate a clear organizational strategy, deliver this in detail and continually improve on delivery. Chapter six covers the conceptualization and use of balanced business scorecards, the use of which can align IT usage with organizational strategy.

GenBank needed to modify its approach to business in general and to IT in particular in order to maintain its customer and profit base. Ultimately, the IT group decided on the balanced scorecard as the vehicle for carrying out a new measurement and management programme.

Chapter Seven: IT Benchmarking - van Nievelt's BOP Approach
Chapter seven examines benchmarking techniques in general and van Nievelt's approach in particular. This approach avoids significant problems inherent in many benchmarking initiatives and, if used correctly, helps to diagnose and redirect organizational competitive performance.

Chapter Eight: Outsourcing as a Catalyst for Improved Evaluation Practice
Chapter eight explores outsourcing and its relationship to the evaluation process.

Chapter Nine: Assessing the Business Value of Internet-based Electronic Commerce
The contribution of Internet-based electronic commerce to the business has to be clearly defined before the allocation of resources. Chapter nine examines the economics of electronic commerce.

When European fashion retailer C&A decided to conduct market research among a group of buyers not attracted by its retail outlets it chose the Internet as its medium. Business needs and objectives were clearly defined, the potential contribution of the Internet was examined and evaluated against alternatives and specific goals, and expectations were defined along with suitable metrics. But the main problem was in measuring the overall success of the project.

Chapter Ten: Key Emerging Issues in Information Technology Evaluation
Chapter ten covers a number of special issues pertaining to evaluation, including the Year 2000, EMU, EFQM, infrastructure issues, mergers and cost of ownership.

The case Study on Royal and SunAlliance UK Life Pensions provides an effective illustration of the interaction between technology evaluation and a number of special issues covered in this chapter. The case study describes the business and technology contexts of the merged organization.

Chapter Eleven: Conclusion - An In-depth Look at Integrated Performance Measurement
This Chapter presents a case study that ties together the issues and evaluation approaches by pointing towards integrated performance measurement as a process: a set of techniques facilitated by computerized tolls.