A recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management claims that capital investment in computers is as much as six times as productive as other forms of capital investment. That’s a gross estimate, which doesn’t include the cost of replacing those computers every few years. Spending on new software, the study finds, will generally result in a productivity gain of two times. The School tempers its findings by advising that large returns from information technology investment will only be realized when accompanied by parallel investment in new business processes. Organizations will require new tools in order to co-ordinate change in multiple dimensions; or prevent chaos when moving from the old to the new.
