The Squandered Computer
Evaluating the Business Alignment of Information Technologies

by Paul A. Strassmann

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"In the near future somebody will write a book about how executives in the 1990's spent too much money on information technology because they were afraid to manage it properly. They put their trust in technological experts to deliver business value from I.T. investments."

- Editorial, Wall Street Journal, 12/20/96

This is that book.

Despite much talk about the cyber economy, information age, or the knowledge-based enterprise, as yet there are no generally accepted economic or financial principles to guide executives in spending money on computers.

The Squandered Computer offers a new perspective from which to interpret the economics of computerization. It explains the difference between promises and facts. It shows how misperceptions and negligence diminish the worth of perhaps the most potent tool, since the invention of fire, ever placed in the service of humanity.


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"It would be difficult to find an author with better credentials to speak about the applications of information technology in the workplace: Strassmann has served as chief information officer at General Foods, Kraft and Xerox corporations and as a senior Defense Department official. Despite or, rather, because of this extensive background, he has withering comments to make about the waste of computer resources in most industries. But the book has much more, including a chilling discussion of international information crime, which he believes national police and military forces cannot adequately counter."

- Foreign Affairs, Volume 77, March/April 1998