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 | | The Valuation of Information Technology: A Guide for Strategy Development, Valuation, and Financial Planning by Christopher Gardner ISBN-10: 9780471378310 ISBN-10: 0-471-37831-3 ISBN-13: 9780471378310 ISBN-13: 978-0-471-37831-0 Hardcover 2000-03-15 Wiley Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Top executives support The Valuation of Information Technology "This is the first book which I have seen that places corporate decision-making on a logical and quantitative basis. Decisions which have traditionally been done by the 'seat of the pants' are subjected to the same rigorous analysis as is routine in the hard sciences. I think this book strikes off in a completely new direction and deserves to be read by anyone contemplating a career in business." -Dr. Mel Schwartz, Nobel Laureate in Physics 1988 and Professor Emeritus, Stanford and Columbia Universities "An insightful, rewarding evaluation of information technology-with the aim being the creation of shareholder value. Chris Gardner's detailed work shows how powerfully constructive and destructive the forces of innovation can be. Mastering information technology is the key to twenty-first-century commercial success. This book is a driver toward that mastery." -Tom Gardner, The Motley Fool (Fool.com) "Finally, a clear set of tools for those of us who are trying to find a path through a jungle of complexity. Chris Gardner has clearly and crisply provided a road map of rationality to help direct our path through a chaotic world of accelerating change." -Peter Sprague, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Wave Systems, and former Chairman of National Semiconductor "The Valuation of Information Technology provides a practical, step-by-step approach for analyzing the attractiveness of an information technology system.. Highly recommended." -Derek R. Reisfield, Vice Chairman, Luminant Worldwide, and formerly President, CBS New Media, Chairman, Marketwatch.com, and Member of the Board, Sportsline USA "Information and technology are transforming commerce and challenging traditional valuation methods. The Valuation of Information Technology builds a bridge between familiar valuation, grounded on customer value, revenue, cost, and earnings contributions all on the one side, and the returns available in the new information technology context on the other. With these tools, added to thoughtful application and judgment, you will be a wiser leader investor, and consumer." -Stephen B. Bonner, President and CEO, Cancer Treatment Centers of America "Chris Gardner's book comes at the right time for many businesses which can no longer afford the guessing or the hip-shooting that has been the solution algorithm in many companies. He points out the systemic thinking that is possible and the discipline that is required to tackle the issues in a sound, responsible, and competitively superior way." -Dr. Rainer Famulla, Partner, Andersen Consulting "The Valuation of Information Technology tackles the tough problem of defining the value of new technologies company shareholders using integrated analytical techniques. The methodologies presented in the book are essential to any successful new business development. I highly recommend it." -Dr. Khasha Mohammadi, President, e-Networks, and formerly of Bell Labs "Clearly we have entered an era where many organizations are making 'bet the company' investment decisions in information technology and the Internet. Unfortunately, many of these investments are made on an emotional basis alone. The Valuation of Information Technology provides a significant advance in our ability for making these decisions on a more thoughtful, analytic basis." -Frank Ostroff, Author of The Horizontal Organization "For the first time, The Valuation of Information Technology marries corporate finance with technology marketing to create a technology decision guide focused on what matters most-shareholder value." -Jim Szafranski, Marketing Manager, Tut Systems | ||
Reviews | ||
Not for an accountant The Valuation of Information Technology by Christopher Gardner was one the books assigned me to read in my accounting course. From the title of the book, I expected some topics often discussed in the accounting course, such as valuation of intangible properties on financial statements. However, this book had very limited relevance to such topics. In terms of "valuation", all it talked about was to calculate the net present value of future cash flows generated by an information technology system. The book focused more on market research and system designing to develop an information technology system that would generate shareholders' value. Through an intensive market research, a customer segment to be served and its need were found, and an information technology system would be designed in such a way that the customers' need and the design of the system were "aligned". According to the book, an information technology system aligned to customers' need is more likely to generate future cash flows and thus shareholders' value. A shortcoming of this book was the fact that the "valuation" was based solely on the shareholders' value or the appreciation of share price as a result of cash flows generated by an information technology system. As a result, the "valuation" ignored the benefits to other stakeholders and non-cash-flow-generating benefits. In today's business environment, shareholders may be the most important, but not the only, stakeholders of a company; therefore, impact on other stakeholders must be considered to evaluate an information technology system. Also, non-monetary benefits such as improved efficiency from a new information technology system should be as important as monetary benefits such as cash flows generated by the system. One book cannot cover everything, but other stakeholders' perspective and non-monetary benefits are too critical in an evaluation of an information technology system to be just ignored. This book was not beneficial for me as an accounting-major student, but the valuation process presented in the book may be useful in convincing someone that a new information technology system is worth implementing. You can state the intended customers, how the system is designed to serve the customers best, and how much positive impact the system has on the share price. It will make the discussion more convincing. | ||
Book of Limited Resources The Valuation of Information Technology by Christopher Gardner is a book of limited resource. Only so many readers from very limited backgrounds can truly utilize what this book has to offer as far as valuation goes. Those that would enjoy Gardner's book would most likely be suppliers, customers, computer programmers, etc. For instance, I, as an accountant, found very little information useful in this reading. This is because its title is quite a bit misleading. Instead of offering various methods on the valuation of information technology, this book provides general definitions of information technology and strategies for potential customers. It also involves the objective of an information technology system, gauging a demand estimate, and obtaining feedback upon implementation. This obviously sounds like a tool that someone who was considering a future information technology investment might use. Although there is a small section on a single valuation model that provides an actual valuation of information technology, it leaves much to be covered. It simply considers the cost of a potential system, as well as, the present value of cashflows provided to shareholders. The author himself states that this method utilizes many assumptions, shortcuts, etc. So obviously there is a lot of inherent risk involved in this process. This leaves those wishing to appraise information technology with numerous questions. Accordingly, my recommendation to read this book only extends to those who are wishing to learn more about what information technology is and how to locate that information technology that would be especially suited for their business. | ||
Invaluable Reference for Marketing and Valuing Software As a 20 year veteran of in-house software engineering and development, I was recently challenged with creating a business case for developing shrink-wrapped software for global sale. A daunting prospect that better have some serious market anaysis and ROI numbers behind it to satisfy the board of directors. I purchased 4 books on the topic before I found Chris Gardners book, and I breathed a sigh of relief flying to headquarters as a studied and highlighted endless passages in the text. I have since read this book end-to-end; and it was worth every penny I paid for it. If you need formula's for valuation this book has them like several others; if you need a book that takes you end-to-end, from marketing considerations to valuation, this is the book for you. I have a multi-million dollar deal sewn up because my business case looked so good. The COO has even told me it was the most impressive software development business case he has ever seen. I used this book to design a marketing approach and build my business case from the ground-up; and it worked. This book will pay for itself a thousand times over if you really need to understand technology valuation. And you know what; you don't need an MBA to understand it or six months off work to read it. | ||
Good review course Despite the huge interest in technology stocks and their incredible market volatility in recent years, there have been few sources available for would-be investors wanting to make responsible decisions. But here's one. Chris Gardner takes you through the bedrock of responsible valuation, discounted cash flow analysis, using an extremely detailed case study of AT&T's acquisition of TCI. He provides the entire AT&T spreadsheet on his website so you can play with it on your own time. For myself, as an internet equity analyst, the most interesting part of the book was the guide to market research. Gardner has very detailed suggestions on how to decide what to sell, survey what customers want, and estimate how much they'll buy. He cuts some slack for struggling dotcoms looking for customers: "Developers of commercial Internet services have had to rely on their instincts during these early years of the Internet, since market research could not provide much guidance on their prospects." If you're already in the business, this book provides a good review course in valuation methods; if you're not, it's a good place to start. | ||
A bible for an analysis of IT business The book is structured in a way to lead me to integrate the analysis of an IT business from a holistic approach. It provides an analytical framework to link all operational details which are integral to the strategic objective. | ||