Evaluating the value of an information technology (IT) investment is a complex exercise in technology innovation and change management. Research has indicated that about two-thirds of companies hadn¡¦t been able to evaluate the value of IT correctly. Several perspectives have been proposed to help in evaluating IT investment before implementation, such as financial and socio-technical perspectives. Among them, Intel offered an integrated evaluation method and tool, the Intel's Business Value Index (BVI), which takes into account of financial and socio-technical perspectives. This study develops an IT investment evaluation methodology grounded on Intel¡¦s BVI method for the chemical industry. The research methodology is articulated using the design science research methodology. A usability evaluation is performed using a chemical industry case to demonstrate its applicability. With this methodology, CIO or adopting organizations can more easily and systematically determine the value and the priority of each IT investment in an ex-ante evaluation.

s the dependence of IS/IT has grown in modern organizations, IT investments have soared in the last couple of decades. Large amounts of money are spent with the hope that the investments will generate value for the business organizations using the systems. It is hence easy to understand the needs for methods to assess the business value of IT-investments. The investment decision is basically about selecting the best IT-system or the best combination of IT-systems, i.e. the system(s) that provides the most business value in dimensions that are important business-wise. However, a problem with many of the avail-able methods is that they often fail to concretely explain what technical characteristics the IT systems(s) should have to achieve the business value desired. A complicating aspect of IT-investment evaluations is also that the evaluations usually include a high degree of un-certainty. In this thesis, an IT investment evaluation method is presented that indicatively assesses the differences in contribution to business value from IT-investment alternatives. The method provides, at a relatively low cost of investigation, indications of not only the technical differences between the IT-investment alternatives in a specific investment situation, but also an assessment of the differences in types and amounts of their business value. The presented method has been applied in a large case study at an electric power company. Furthermore, it also incorporates concepts found within Enterprise architecture (EA), particularly in how the information used in the evaluation is collected. The presented thesis is a composite thesis that, besides an introduction, includes five papers (paper A-E). Paper A presents an outline of the method as well as its application in the case study. It also presents the theoretical fundaments for the criteria used for the technical evaluation and the business value assessment including the method’s applications in relation to Enterprise architecture. The following two papers primarily present necessary steps in the development of the method. First, paper B presents the process to develop a functional reference model (used for the functional assessments in the method), including its application in the case study. Second, a breakdown of the term business value into a set of IS/IT-affected value dimension is presented in paper C. The last two papers present the final steps, i.e. the technical evaluation of the investment alternatives (paper D) and the final business value assessment (paper E). The papers include the methods to perform these analyses as well as the application of the method in the case study and the results of the case study. / QC 20100608

Introduction: The traditional IT investment evaluation methods and/or techniques tend to measure the quantitative value added by eHealth. However, there are contributions brought by innovation which are intangible and sundry, and thus are difficult to identify, measure and manage. A model presented by Vimarlund & Koch (2011) aims for identifying the benefits that IT investments bring to health and social care organizations. It could be used as a tool that identifies and classifies the effects and indicators of IT innovation in-vestments at different organizational levels for different stakeholders. Purpose and research questions: This is an evaluative study with the purpose to validate Vimarlund & Koch’s (2011) evaluation model through practical application. A care study of EIAS (ERAS Interactive Audit System) is conducted. ERAS stands for Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, which is an innovative process aims to enhance patient’s outcome after ma-jor surgery. EIAS is a system that supports the ERAS process. The aim is to achieve a deep understanding of IT investment evaluation. The model will be used in a real case as a guide to evaluate and identify impact that derives from the use and implementation of IT applica-tions. The process of evaluation could also be seen as a process of validation of the model in terms of comprehensiveness, practicality and applicability. Through this study, we aim to find out: 1) What are the possible contributions that EIAS brings to Jönköping County Council? 2) How is the performance of Vimarlund & Koch’s (2011) evaluation model in practical application, in terms of comprehensiveness, practicality and applicability? Method: The purpose of this study is evaluative and it is conducted by using adductive ap-proach. Single case study will be adopted as the research strategy. In this study, qualitative data will be collected through semi-structured interview with key respondents. The data collected will be analyzed qualitatively with a narrative approach. Conclusion: Guided by Vimarlund & Koch’s (2011) evaluation model, the innovations that have been brought into healthcare organizations by EARS are electronic information supply, internal integration of clinical information and possibilities to learn from the system. The model has been validated in terms of comprehensiveness, practicality and applicability. The evaluation model is a generic model to demonstrate the contribution of IT to innovation and change in health care. It could be used in both formative and summative assessment and as well as goal-free and goal-based evaluation. The issue of the productivity paradox has been noticed as some effects are not immediate after introducing of IT. User-participation or not could be considered as an important condition for the validity of the evaluation guided by the evaluation model.