- Napoleon

Overview

The Information System Investment construct is one of the most popular today because of the enormous investment by firms and countries in recent years. Technological advancements have facilitated the development of tools that have become an integral part of the operations of many organizations.
The quote by Napoleon best summarizes the challenges of this construct. Using war as an analogy, any successful operation can have many claimants and nobody claims responsibility for unsuccessful ones. If a firm is profitable and successful there are many departments that will claim responsibility. If a firm is not profitable not many people will assume responsibility. This can often overshadow the effects of Information Systems on a firm's performance and, as a result, make the Return on Investment (ROI) difficult to measure.


Many fortune 1,000 companies have estimated average gross returns on IS investments ranging from 50% to over 100%. For countries, the estimated return is 70% (Singapore showed an ROI of 88%). These returns are partly due to changes in education, infrastructure, and other factors that complement labor and make it more productive. [1]