Business value is the overall health of an organization over time. This encompasses
many different areas of the organization. Many times a business may be valued based upon the
financial health of the organization. However, in order to determine the business value, the value
of non-financial aspects must also be included. Such non-financial aspects that should be taken
into consideration include the value of the business to society, the value of their customers, their
employees, their partnerships, their suppliers, and their managerial team. Each of these different
aspects contributes to the overall success of an organization. Therefore, focusing solely upon
financial health, would give a skewed view of the overall health of the organization. This may
misrepresent that actual business value that is realized with all of the various aspects being taken
Many different things that can influence the various aspects that are taken into
consideration when determining business value. Successful information technology can be one of
the influencing factors, meaning that IT success is interrelated with business value (McDowell,
Simon, 2004) . Successful information technology can improve an organization’s communication
with their employees, their customers, their suppliers, and their partners. Easy communication
with these groups allows the organization to develop better relationships with each of these
groups. For instance, successful IT can provide a strong intranet that supports employees in
achieving their own individual goals by providing professional development tools. Successful IT
can improve customer relationships as it can make it easier for consumers to gather information
about the company and contact them when needed. Additionally, successful IT can tell the
organization early enough when more inventories need to be ordered from suppliers. This can
diffuse any tensions over short turnaround times before they occur. Likewise, the same system
can track when suppliers are owed money, ensuring payments are on time and improving the
organization’s overall relationship with the supplier. Successful IT can also be beneficial towards
managerial team value as it can provide needed tools for managers to make appropriate decisions
to continue moving the organization forward. Because successful IT can improve the value of the
various aspects taken into consideration when determining business value, it can be determined
that it is interrelated with business value.
One company that has been successful in maintaining high business value with the use of
successful IT is Newsweek. The company had produced their publication in the traditional print
format for 80 years (Mirkinson, 2012). However, given the technology revolution that has taken
the world by storm it was no longer financially feasible for the company to continue producing
the publication in this format. However, through the implementation of successful IT, the
company has been able to alter their product offering to increase their business value. Using new
technologies, the company has been able to enhance customer value by providing the publication
in a format that is readily available to them and one that is utilized by them frequently. Likewise,
by using this technology the company is able to produce one edition globally, as opposed to a
separate international version as they did previously.
While Newsweek’s decision to transition to a completely digital format increases the
financial value and the customer value of the organization, it does not directly address the value
of the other aspects taken into consideration. However, in the end, the increased value of these
two aspects alone will likely maintain, if not improve, the overall business value of Newsweek.
Had the organization focused more upon the other aspects of business value such as employee
value and supplier value, they may have continued the print publication. If this would not have
been financially feasible or beneficial, it may have hurt the business value more so than the
company’s current decision.
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