Business Intelligence Applied: Implementing an Effective Information and Communications Technology Infrastructure

Chapter 1

Defining Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure

This chapter sets the context for the rest of this book by introducing the terms and concepts that will be used throughout. This book covers the methods for understanding the business imperatives for building information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. Assessing the value of ICT infrastructure is both important and difficult. It is important because an organization needs to understand how ICT can bring value to its bottom line. It is difficult because ICT value has traditionally been paradoxical. That paradox is evident in the contradiction between the rapid increase in the speed of desktop computers over the last few decades and the slow growth in productivity and economic measures caused by computers during the same time. In other words, that paradox is the discrepancy between investment in ICT and output at the national level.¹ This book will provide the tools with which to assess the effect of ICT investment. This chapter provides an introduction to the concepts of value management, ICT value, and the business-driven infrastructure design cycle.