ROI and Articles, Papers, and Reports

The first decade of the 21st century is already on the wane and we stand at an interesting point as regards the use of technology to support and enhance learning and teaching. The fact that we still refer to much of this enhancement as e-learning (and still disagree about what the term actually means) signals that the relationship between technology and learning is not as yet an entirely comfortable one. e-Learning still carries with it a sense of something 'other' and few institutions can say that a sound understanding of available technologies, their capabilities and current examples of appropriate usage, forms a cornerstone of the curriculum design process.

Within the academic community there remains a sizable proportion of sceptics who question the value of some of the tools and approaches and perhaps an even greater proportion who are unaware of the full range of technological enhancements in current use. Amongst senior managers there is a concern that it is often difficult to quantify the returns achieved on the investment in such technologies.

"CIO William Hill had an admirable, if unanticipated, return on investment when he overhauled the IT infrastructure for Dayton, Ohio: He helped the environment. Hill's strategy included replacing the old setup -- a disorganized mix of 80 archaic networked terminals and numerous ad hoc PCs of varying ages and operating systems -- with thin clients for 60% of the staff and PCs for the rest, strategically positioned for optimum use. Hill opted for thin clients for technological and cost reasons, but says he saw a corresponding drop in how much energy his organization uses -- a drop that saves the city between $60,000 and $90,000 annually."

From cars to condos, "green" is all the rage these days — and IT is no exception. Eco-friendly computing promises the twin win of saving money and the environment. In this groundbreaking awards program, Computerworld honors 12 user companies and another dozen vendors that are leading the way.

The reviewer states the "Complete Guide to Security and Privacy Metrics is a good reference book for individuals developing or managing metrics for performance management programs." This book has more than 900 ready-to-use metrics designed to measure the following;

• Compliance with current security and privacy regulations and standards
• Operational resilience of physical, personnel, IT, and operational controls
• Return on investment (ROI) on controls used to manage risk of information and IT assets

The author discusses the challenge of keeping technology costs down and meeting the needs of various campus communities.

Integrating our digital campus brought together services, processes, and the campus community while delivering substantial returns and value on our investment.

The authors discuss the importance of university CIOs and other senior executives having basic IT knowledge to make IT investment decisions.

When asking the question, "does technology make a difference"? The authors state the answer depends on how the question is asked.

Measuring the value of an investment instead of dollar-for-dollar return provides a clearer picture of benefits and costs.

A study of Gonzaga's use of its enterprise resource planning system recommended further investment in the software.