Title: Information systems evaluation: an ongoing measure

Authors: Govindan Marthandan, Chun Meng Tang

Addresses: Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, Jalan Multimedia, 63100 Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia. ' Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, Jalan Multimedia, 63100 Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract: With increased spending of information systems (IS), IS evaluation is becoming increasingly important. It is important for organisations to evaluate business value of IS they have spent a portion, sometimes large, of their yearly revenue on. For that purpose, however, practitioners and researchers still have not agreed on a single method, although cost-benefit analysis seems to be a flavour among IS practitioners. The decision on which evaluation method is more appropriate in a particular situation is largely context dependent. Evaluators commonly face a difficult situation in choosing the right method for a particular context. This paper first reviews different terms being used to describe evaluation of IS business value. Next, it presents past research results about IS evaluation practices of organisations. It then proceeds to provide a summary of IS evaluation methods, IS evaluation approaches, and IS evaluation types. Last, it concludes with research themes of IS evaluation studies.

Keywords: information systems evaluation; information technology; business value; evaluation methods; evaluation approaches; evaluation practices; evaluation types; investment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2010.035049

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2010 Vol.6 No.3, pp.336 - 353

Published online: 01 Sep 2010 *

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