+ 1/2. ROI is a badly abused term in IT as most business cases appear to be "spend another x million and we promise that THIS time it will deliver"
However if you work in a world (e.g. Outsourcing) where those elements can be not only quantified but contractually enforced then they become real. I did a piece with a company a few years back where I shifted some of the bonuses from being IT awarded to being business awarded, now that helped to focus the minds on real business ROI over fake IT ROI. Steve 2009/5/27 Alexander Johannesen <[email protected]>: > > > On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 13:35, htshozawa <[email protected]> wrote: >> Are you implying that ROI calculation is unnecessary because there may be >> some other benefit gained? > > I think ROI in general is a word made up by consultants to enable them > to justify selling their services to potential clients, but I wouldn't > jut imply such a thing, I'd state out quite loud and clear that ROI > calculations quite often is missing the point, barking up the wrong > tree, bereft of insight and blindingly stupid in their consequences. > > Sure, hang on; I have seen good ones too, although they tend to be > more like summaries, pointers and strategies from some real talented > people rather than intricate, complex and specific "we got some > insight for you to marvel at" that's often drawn up. Everybody is > BSing to some degree, be it consultant, internal or external person. > Someone is writing these reports with acclaimed insights that often do > not hold water when scrutinized (but who's gonna do that when it all > *sounds* so good and clever and is backed with good-looking graphs!). > And all this with the disclaimer that I used to be a consultant and > was longing to get out of it often due to the BS in enterprise > business that pass as muster these days. Just like the term "SOA" has > been shafted into the ground by some of these companies, so has the > phrases "ROI" and "TTM"; it's the business of speaking like a business > for the sake of that business, rather than just focusing on *why* > you're in that business and how you should move on. (Heh, you can tell > I'm a practitioner rather than a talker, right? :) > > Ahem. Just ignore this silly rant. It's been a long day of reading > through a lot of enterprisey systems documentation that speak of > "reducing cost at the vendor level and increasing amptitude for > first-in-line support resources through the use of middle-ware enabled > third-party plugin architecture using the projected SOA initiative" > which has got so many factors and unknowns and silly words and idiotic > pipe-dream upholstery in it that it just makes my brain melt to think > people can think it must be true. Where's my Martini(s!) when I need > it? > > :) > > Alex > -- > ---------------------------------------------------------- > Project Wrangler, SOA, Information Alchemist, UX, RESTafarian, Topic Maps > ------------------------------------------ http://shelter.nu/blog/ -------- >
