ICT Investment Evaluation and Mobile Computing Business Support for Construction Site Operations

Alexander Löfgren Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

Abstract
The intangible qualitative innovation benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are essential for improving quality of production, enhancing business activities and creating new competitive opportunities. Still, these benefits are not accounted for in traditional financial investment evaluation methods like Return On Investment (ROI) and Net Present Value (NPV). The strict quantitative financial methods for evaluating ICT investments leave out most of the strategic long-term performance benefits that ICT provide. There is a need for a multidimensional evaluation method that includes the long-term performance perspective, generation of system usefulness and future business value of ICT investments. This paper starts from a general perspective of ICT investment evaluation. It describes the complexity of ICT benefits, some of the common pitfalls when estimating the business value of ICT and two general approaches for evaluating ICT investments. The paper then reflects upon the benefits of mobile computing for the construction site production environment and the evaluation of such a technology investment in that business context.

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Reference:	Löfgren, A. (2006). "ICT Investment Evaluation and Mobile Computing Business Support for Construction Site Operations," Proceedings > Proceedings of Helsinki Mobility Roundtable . Sprouts: Working Papers on Information Systems, 6(29). http://sprouts.aisnet.org/6-29
Keywords:	ICT evaluation; Intangible Benefits; Mobile Computing; Construction Sites
Item Type:	Article - Volume 6 Article 29 (2006)
Language:	English
Email:	Alexander Löfgren (alexander.lofgren@kth.se)

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