This week ISACA released its Value of IT Investment survey results which showed that more than 25 percent of companies are increasing their investments in IT this year and only 16 percent are cutting across the board. My guess is this increase is driven by another revealing statistic that showed 69 percent of respondents are achieving at least 50 to 100 percent of the expected value from their investments in IT.  How do they know this?  The survey revealed that 29 percent of companies are fully measuring the value of their investments in IT, and more than 50 percent are measuring value to some extent.

Measurements don't lie.  By measuring the value of IT, organizations can see the business value it can bring when implemented strategically.  The top two benefits cited in the survey include improved customer service (31.2 percent) and cost reduction (24.2 percent).

We've come a long way. Just five years ago, the numbers measuring value would have been much smaller. But the survey also showed that we have some work to do. While more than 82 percent of companies measure value in some way, only 51.8 percent have a framework or guidelines in place to select the investments that will result in the highest value.

Worse, only 33.7 percent of survey respondents said that a shared understanding of value ran across different departments, such as IT and finance.  This is worrisome because organizations must have clear expectations and goals to be able to successfully measure results.

I congratulate those of you who are succeeding with IT and reaping its benefits, and I look forward to any discussion for others who are struggling to get agreement on the value of IT in their organization.