Technology Scorecards: Aligning IT Investments with Business Performance

Citation

Howard, W.R. (2010), "Technology Scorecards: Aligning IT Investments with Business Performance", Kybernetes, Vol. 39 No. 7, pp. 1208-1209. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684921011062809

This book is written with the aim of examining supply chain management (SCM) and product life cycle management (PLCM) while other important sectors that many readers would expect to be included, such as retailing or even the public sector are left to other texts.

One is tempted to fill in a scorecard for the book itself but it would be extremely one‐sided with 70 per cent going to the SCM and PLCM sector. But how much confidence has current business in scorecards? Measurements are always suspect unless the underlying structure is carefully formulated. The subsidiary title of the book indicates that discussion of aligning IT investments with business performance is to be a leading theme. But the whole study should be an integrated one where measurement and scorecards are linked together with good management principles.

There are some well‐written chapters on supply chain and product with pages of diagrams, etc. on the relevant value chains. There is much detail about the benefits of PLM, which will be useful to those involved with practical implementations. There are discussions and serious practical information on the important concerns such as the management of projects, the strategy selected, the quality of the management issues, etc.

A worthwhile section on case development as well as some good advice on implementation all contribute to a book, which although it appears to be only concerned with SC and PLCM, also has much more to offer which merits its purchase by those who are already scorecard advocates as well as readers with interests in business in general.