Why spend on IT?

Students in my IT Strategic Planning class at the University of Alberta will be familiar with the message of John Thorp in a recent Computerworld article cleverly entitled, "Buyers addicted to gambling on IT investments".

"Business needs to take greater responsibility for technology investments as $800 billion is wasted on ill-conceived IT projects each year, according to the head of Fujitsu's global consulting centre for strategic leadership, John Thorp. Pointing the finger at companies for having 'a serious addiction to gambling on IT investments', Thorp said a huge amount of money is spent on IT that is creating no value. 'The minute you put IT in front of something, it's an IT problem. IT strategy, IT governance, it's not about IT, it's about enterprise value,' he said."