The past year has seen much debate the business value of information technology. It´s a crucial issue but not a new one. Senior executives have long struggled to determine whether their investments in information systems (as they used to be called) produce adequate returns. In 1986, a technology executive from Citibank argued in these pages that two straightforward goals should guide Is management. First, senior managers need an unbiased go-between- an independent auditor - to translate the arcane language of Is staffs into business terms. Second, they need to maintain a sense of "innate proportion" in making Is decisions.

All is not well with information systems. But sometimes it´s hard for managers to tell what´s gone wrong. To make rational decisions, upper-level managers need an interpreter. Data processing has it own language, but once past the language barrier, managers can make rational decisions based on common sense. Is auditors are among the best interpreters available. Let them do the fieldwork and attend all the meetings held in system development projects. Do rely on common sense when the results from the audit are in.
Always remember what you originally wanted the system to accomplish. Having the latest, greatest system and a flashy data center to boot is not what data processing is supposed to be all about. It is supposed to help the bottom line, not hinder it.

If a new software system comes out that promises to do everything you want, wait until all the pieces of the system are fully operational and functioning. Let some other companies install the system first and go through the anguish of debugging it. Be conservative. Does your company really need the latest? If it will add nothing to the functioning of your primary business - say, producing springs - then common sense should tell you that it isn´t necessary to be on the technology´s cutting edge. If all this sounds basic, it is.
Management has a few defenses against Is chaos: the use of system development life cycles, excellent documentation, and strict standards that are enforced. Above all these, though, is an overriding sense of innate proportion and common sense in upper management. Without them, the profits of most companies will eventually be lavished in vain on the latest and greatest state-of-the-art technology in data processing and programming extravaganzas.