EPSRC Grant Reference: GR/M95066/01
PROJECT: Classifying Organisational Costs of Information System/Information Technology (COSTS-IT)

Abstract
COSTS-IT is motivated by industries increasing expenditure on IT/IS to deliver strategic competitive advantage. As a result, there is a changing portfolio of costs resulting from IT/IS, with COSTS-IT addressing these changes through theoretical and empirical research. Traditional approaches to IT/IS appraisals are unable to accommodate the changing of costs associated with deploying "enterprise-wide" IT/IS solutions. Therefore, forcing management to either i) invest as an 'act of faith' ii) 'not' invest in IT/IS, which reduces competitiveness; or, iii) use creative accountancy by assigning arbitrary values to benefits and costs. As a result, research that supports management in cost identification and management will be of value to organisations. The inability of managers to identify the 'true' costs of IT/IS is considered attributable to a lack of kowledge and understanding of IT/IS costs. COSTS-IT proposes to extend the myopia of traditional ;direct' financial costs analysis by identifying 'indirect' cost factors, together with their respective natures. In doing so, developing a framework that integrates taxonomies of costs and performance measures/metrics to support management during investment decision-making. Furthermore, the implication of COSTS-IT support the benchmarking of costs during post-implementation evaluation. Hence, contributing increasing the efficient utilization and effective deployment of IT/IS resources.

Starts: 4 January 2000

Ends: 3 August 2001

£ Value: 50,974

Investigator: Professor Zahir Irani

Partners: Rover Group Ltd, Velden Engineering UK Ltd, Netsolutions 4U Limited, Management Centre International Limited

Link to EPSRC's description of COSTS-IT.