The Valuation of Information Technology: A Guide for Strategy Development, Valuation, and Financial Planning (Book)

The Valuation of Information Technology: A Guide for Strategy Development, Valuation, and Financial Planning (Book) $59.95
The Valuation of Information Technology: A Guide for Strategy Development, Valuation, and Financial Planning (Book)

Assess shareholder value created by Information Technology.


Christopher Gardner
John Wiley & Sons
297 pages
February 2000

From the Inside Cover:
Information technology has many well-known success stories, such as America Online, @Home, and Windows(r) 95. However, there have also been far too many failures. The reason for this is that the effect of information technology on a company's shareholder value has been unpredictable. Lacking a method to analyze the value of an IT system, managers are forced to make decisions based on fragmented data and guess-work, which often prove to be faulty.

Now, it is possible for you to avoid the same mistakes with your information system choices. The Valuation of Information Technology demonstrates how to assess the shareholder value created by a system before it is built. Top management consultant Christopher Gardner provides a unique framework for analyzing the value of an IT system in a quantitative fashion.

This solution-oriented book walks you through every aspect of evaluating an IT system for your business, from concept to shareholder value. Gardner lays out a method that will allow you to not only determine the contribution of a system to shareholder value, but also guide the activities involved in its construction so they create value.

Integrating techniques from market research, computer science, and corporate finance, Gardner shows you how you can maximize your chances for success in applying information technology. The book is replete with real-work examples from such companies as AT&T, @Home, and Time Warner. These field-tested solutions will help you tackle various practical problems, improve your corporate decision-making, and make more productive use of capital and labor by avoiding investment mistakes.

Written from the shareholder value perspective, The Valuation of Information Technology:

  • Explains step by step how to estimate the shareholder value created by an IT system
  • Describes how the analytical methods provided are applied in practice to get answers, with Internet examples
  • Emphasizes ease-of-use with direct language and liberal use of tables and figures
  • Shows how any type of IT system can be evaluated using the techniques discussed

Dr Mel Schwartz, Nobel Laureate in Physics 1988 and Professor Emeritus, Stanford and Columbia Universities: "...strikes off in a completely new direction and deserves to be read by anyone contemplating a career in business."

Tom Gardner, The Motley Fool (Fool.com): "Mastering information technology is the key to twenty-first century commercial success. This book is a driver toward that mastery."

Derek R. Reisfield, Vice Chairman, Luminant Worldwide, and formerly President, CBS New Media,Chairman, Marketwatch.com and Member of the Board, Sportsline USA: "... provides a practical, step-by-step approach for analyzing the attractiveness of an information technology system ... Highly recommended."

Harvard Business School, Working Knowledge April 2000: "...does an admirable job of outlining techniques for creating shareholder value in an area...subject to luck and hapless guesswork."

Peter Sprague, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Wave Systems, and former Chairman of National Semiconductor: "Finally, a clear set of tools for those of us...trying to find a path through a jungle of complexity."

CHRISTOPHER GARDNER is a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he leads the Information Technology Strategy Group in their New York office. Gardner formerly held key positions at leading management consultancies, including IT specialist at McKinsey and Company, principal at A.T. Kearney, and vice president at Bain and Company.