IT business value the case of kenyan insurance companies
Date
2008
Authors
Muthuri, Brettah Karimi
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
This research addresses the perpetual problem raised by many companies on how to improve management of value from Information Technology (IT). Evidence in academic and professional literature shows firms often perceive poor returns on IT investments overall. The scope of this research is restricted to management of value from IT so as to yield business value, over the business lifetime of IT-enabled initiatives, as expressed by current theory and as demonstrated in practice. This research also develops a matrix that companies can use to determine if their approaches to IT value will bring forth some business value or not. The theoretical focus pursues models or frameworks for IT value management that attend to all the phases in the business lifetime of an IT enabled initiative and tht also tightly connect IT value management with business strategy and activities. The objectives are to assist insurance companies in Kenya improve management of value from their IT investment and specifically, to contribute to the development of theoretical considerations and frameworks in academic research targeting IT value. The value of an IT system can be considered from a number of different perspectives. Specifically, the same IT system can be valued differently across different stakeholders, time periods, usage environments and other contextual factors. When measuring the value of an IT system, it is important to consider what value perspectives are relevant and how those perspectives affect the development of value metrics. An IT value assessment framework is proposed to aid in identifying such contextual factors and exploring how those factors affect the value that is realized from an IT system. The proposed framework takes a holistic view of the organization where IT is applied to ensure that value is achieved from the investments that companies make. The holistic view ensures that all aspects of the organization have been considered including the people. The proposed framework also goes ahead to detail activities, outputs, measurement metrics that organizations can put in place to ensure they IT investments are of value to the organization.
Description
Partial fulfillment for award of degree of Master of Science in Information Technology
Keywords
Citation
HD30.2.M88 2008