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Comparative Analysis of IT Performance Indicator Weights Using the IT Balanced Scorecard

Lim, Yeonghui1 · Son, Myeongho2 · Lee, Huiseok3

1 CJ Systems, 2 Myongji College, 3 KAIST

Published: January 2005 · Vol. 34 No. 6 · pp. 1807-1828
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Abstract

Not like few years ago when many enterprises invested in IT resources competitively, nowadays they emphasize realistic investment and evaluation. It is difficult to evaluate the benefits of IT investment, in spite of radical rising of its scale. IT performance evaluation studies are divided into two categories. One focuses on quantitative effects measured in terms of monetary value; the other focuses on qualitative effects (soft benefits). Because it is not a trivial task to measure the effects of IT from a single perspective in isolation, several integrative concepts have been proposed; IT-BSC (IT-Balanced Scorecard) is one of them. IT-BSC applies BSC(Balanced Scorecard) performance measures proposed by Kaplan and Norton to evaluating information systems. It consists of four perspectives such as ‘Business Contribution’ (financial benefit of information systems), ‘User Orientation’ (benefits of systems users), ‘Operational Excellence’ (efficiency of information systems provision), and ‘Future Orientation’ (preparation for future business changes). Furthermore, IT-BSC provides the links among IT strategic focuses. The choice of performance measures and the relative importance (i.e., weights) of measures are critical to formulating strategies. It can help companies better identify which measures to focus on and which to ignore. These weights vary depending on the purpose of information systems and managerial factors of companies. To understand the relationship between managerial factors and IT performance, this paper addresses the following research issues: (i) Does industry type as a managerial factor affect the weighting of IS performance measures? (ii) Do companies outsourcing their systems have different view about IS performance measures? (iii) Like the BSC concept, do companies with the emphasize on the ‘Future Orientation’ perspective get better performance in information systems? To solve for these questions, this paper investigates the weights of IT performance measures according to industry type and IT outsourcing characteristics. In addition, the effect of IT intensity is explored. A survey is conducted from 75 corporate IT managers, who work for manufacturing companies (26.7%), financial companies (25.3%), service companies (29.3%), and nonprofit institutions (18.7%). It is found that IT-BSC weights differ in industry type and outsourcing characteristics. While the manufacturing group emphasizes the business contribution perspective, the service and financial groups emphasize the user orientation perspective. Specially, public organization group emphasizes user satisfaction and stable operation more than financial benefits. It is also found that the selective outsourcing emphasizes the business contribution while the integrative outsourcing emphasizes the future orientation. Finally, this paper found that IT intensive companies tend to emphasize future readiness measures than operation excellence measures. Our study results will be able to help IT managers align IT strategies with the enterprise’s strategic direction.
Keywords: IT 균형성과표정보시스템 성과평가정보시스템 평가