Computerworld Findings

Computerworld finds in a 1995 poll of 200 chief operating officers, chief financial officers, and chief executive officers that 52 percent of the respondents say that they are getting their money’s worth from information system spending.^[4] Computerworld observes that the percentage is slightly better than in 1993 and a big improvement from 1989, but that “it’s hardly ecstasy.” The poll shows executives ranking as a top corporate goal “improving information systems, systems technology and automation” right behind customer sales and satisfaction.^[5] Although respondents must have considered project success in their evaluations, the poll is not at project level.

Separately reported in the Computerworld article is a quotation from Robert Mittelstaedt, director of executive education at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business (United States): “There remains a level of frustration about why things can’t happen more rapidly, with more predictable results and costs.” Computerworld observed that Mittelstaedt should know. In 1994, some 10,000 executives, including 1,000 chief executive officers, were trained by the Philadelphia-based school.^[6]