Optimal Purchase Decision Criteria for Information Technology

Abstract

With the amount of resources dedicated to information technology (IT) expenditure today, we need to have a systematic way for assessing the elusive benefit of all IT purchases. This chapter proposes a modified Factor Rating approach that separates the subjective benefit assessment from objective cost-benefit analysis. Using this method, we often discover that for most users, due to the advancement of computer technology, the cheapest computer may be the optimal computer in the market today.