Rating: 
Summary: Recommended
Review: I am about half way through this book, and I have to say it has been a life saver. I found other related books to be too entry-level to be helpful, but this book seems to hit the target with some heavy-duty advice for the experienced IT manager. I found out about the book on Nicholas Carr's website where he recommended it... see: related readings
Two texts from Michael Porter, the book Competitive Strategy and the article What Is Strategy?, are essential for understanding the relationships among industry structure, firm strategy, and competitive advantage. An extremely lucid overview of the current state of thinking about business strategy can be found in Richard Whittington's What Is Strategy - and Does It Matter? Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad provide insight into the relationship between corporate capabilities and competitive advantage in their classic article The Core Competence of the Corporation. On the technology side, Porter's Strategy and the Internet diagnoses the failures of e-strategy. Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian take a cold look at the economics of digital business in Information Rules. For a lively account of the commercial and social impact of the telegraph, see Tom Standage's The Victorian Internet. For a solid, practical overview of corporate information management today, consider Jon Piot and John Baschab's weighty The Executive's Guide to Information Technology. Hope this is helpful...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reference Guide for Medium to Large Businesses
Review: I am the CTO of a small financial services company. I read this book to see what recommendations the authors were making about IT organization and use in larger firms, ostensibly as a roadmap for where to take my department. Many of the ideas within the book (change controls, division of labor, alignment with business goals) can be found elsewhere, but Baschab and Piot have pulled it all together created a reference guide for IT managers. Based on my personal experience, many of their recommedations are on target. Most small- and many medium-sized organizations can benefit from their recommedations, although not without modification. It can only benefit an IT manager whose department is growing to be alert for instituting the ideas Baschab and Piot discuss, especially concerning controls, risk and organization. One final note: it would have been interesting for the authors to discuss how small IT departments should implement their recommendations as they grow.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reference Guide for Medium to Large Businesses
Review: I am the CTO of a small financial services company. I read this book to see what recommendations the authors were making about IT organization and use in larger firms, ostensibly as a roadmap for where to take my department. Many of the ideas within the book (change controls, division of labor, alignment with business goals) can be found elsewhere, but Baschab and Piot have pulled it all together created a reference guide for IT managers. Based on my personal experience, many of their recommedations are on target. Most small- and many medium-sized organizations can benefit from their recommedations, although not without modification. It can only benefit an IT manager whose department is growing to be alert for instituting the ideas Baschab and Piot discuss, especially concerning controls, risk and organization. One final note: it would have been interesting for the authors to discuss how small IT departments should implement their recommendations as they grow.
Rating:
Summary: A well written practical handbook
Review: I personally learned a million from reading and enjoying a well written practical handbook, I recommend all IT folks to keep a copy of the "The Executive Guide To IT" book handy in their workplaces as it covers the major areas that any IT, IT business partner and senior management personnel.
Rating: 
Summary: They are coming out of the woodwork-like we didn¿t expect th
Review: It was just a matter of time before the Ghost Busters from Harvard would arrive on the scene to solve the most pressing IT issue of our times: effectively managing information technology for business value. Why not- if there is money to be made? Find a niche and exploit it, right? I have no problem with that, but if you are going to make the claim that you practically wrote the book on a subject, you might offer up something that most executives don't already know. The Executives Guide to Information Technology offers what most college books offer- a history lesson. "All fluff -no stuff." If you really want to know why your IT projects are failing, ask your CIO. If he can't give you an answer, continue on down the chain until you get at the root of the problem. Don't turn this thing into a paradox or enigma. You don't need yet another consultant, at Harvard rates, sucking your already tight budgets. What most IT managers need is collaboration, not cooperation. If you understand the difference, then you can understand the solution to your problem. I admit that production type techniques can lead to some process control for the IT process, but turning the IT process into a production line is not the answer; It might have worked in the industrial age but it won't work now. What these two boys are trying to do is solve an information-age problem with an industrial toolbox- I would watch them if I were you! Mark Kendall
Kendallsoft.com
Rating:
Summary: Great book for IT - need for my executives to read it
Review: The author's depth of experience in optimizing corporate IT departments clearly shines through in this well-written guidebook. Their philosophy for optimizing the IT function is unique and is a refreshing break from many of the "how to boost ROI" books frequently found in this genre. The text is obviously written from a perspective of a CEO/CFO/CIO, but the information is applicable at all levels in corporate IT departments and is particularly useful to IT consultants advising executives responsible for corporate technology. In addition to their unique perspectives and philosophy, the book is loaded with pragmatic advice and methodologies that can be used immediately to put their advice into practice. For example, I found the chapter on vendor selection especially useful and immediately actionable. Using their comprehensive methodology, I was able to help my client effectively move through what would have otherwise been an arduous and oblique process while avoiding some potentially very expensive pitfalls. This chapter alone was worth the price of the book. Overall, I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Packed with pragmatic advice
Review: The author's depth of experience in optimizing corporate IT departments clearly shines through in this well-written guidebook. Their philosophy for optimizing the IT function is unique and is a refreshing break from many of the "how to boost ROI" books frequently found in this genre. The text is obviously written from a perspective of a CEO/CFO/CIO, but the information is applicable at all levels in corporate IT departments and is particularly useful to IT consultants advising executives responsible for corporate technology. In addition to their unique perspectives and philosophy, the book is loaded with pragmatic advice and methodologies that can be used immediately to put their advice into practice. For example, I found the chapter on vendor selection especially useful and immediately actionable. Using their comprehensive methodology, I was able to help my client effectively move through what would have otherwise been an arduous and oblique process while avoiding some potentially very expensive pitfalls. This chapter alone was worth the price of the book. Overall, I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely in-depth & informative, but also easy to read
Review: The Executive's Guide to Information Technology is book focused on the "business" pieces of managing IT, such tasks as IT organization design, vendor selection and management, communicating with business users, IT human resource management, establishing IT steering committees and managing the overall demand within the IT department. The book fills the gap between abundant vocational "how to" books and the business of managing the whole IT function. Overall the book does a good job making the case that the key principles it outlines are the best predictors of a successful IT department. The book is replete with real-life, and often humorous anecdotes from the authors experiences in turning around distressed IT departments. IT managers will quickly recognize many of the symptoms of an IT department in trouble. The book is written in a fairly readable, conversational tone, and there are charts and graphics throughout to further explain key points. At just over 500 pages, the book is lengthy compared to competing offerings. However, it is written in a way that lets the reader pick and choose specific chapter topics, without losing much of the context. Additionally, the book includes a CD-ROM with documents, spreadsheets and links to the underlying research that went into the book, making the book a good value. In all, the book is a relatively easy read, thought-provoking, and a great reference for IT managers (or aspiring managers) who want to learn to think like senior executives and ensure that their IT departments are running on all cylinders. ... Highlights: Opening chapters on "why MIS departments matter" and the symptoms of under-performing IT departments. Vendor selection and vendor management chapters. IT steering committee chapter - why have one, what it can help IT accomplish. IT budgeting chapter - shows key components of IT budgdet, how-to's and benchmarking information. Nice forward by a Prof from Harvard. Lowlights: Portion of chapters on IT organization describing in painstaking detail the exact roles and responsibilities for every position on the IT team. This stuff needs to be there to make the book comprehensive, but not new news for experienced IT professionals.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource for managers & execs who want more IT ROI
Review: The Executives Guide to Information Technology is an excellent resource that is a must have for IT managers and top executives that want to get the most out of their IT investments. Every IT manager and executive should read this book to understand how to effectively manage information technology for business value. Likewise, non-IT managers and executives will learn a great deal about the inner-workings of IT and how to work with their IT brethren in the most effective way for the greatest benefits to their company. (CFOs specifically will find this book incredibly illuminating and useful). The book is extremely well organized and presents a well-balanced mixture of academic analysis and tested practices. The sheer knowledge and hard earned personal experiences of the authors comes through in every chapter. The descriptions of the challenges facing IT will resonate clearly with anyone who has ever held an executive position within an enterprise IT team. The solutions presented are equally clear and easy to follow. Overall, the book is simply packed with techniques for recognizing challenges, accurately assessing the current state of any component of IT, comparing that state to a target benchmark and developing actionable improvement plans. Finally, the CD-ROM included with the book contains all the spreadsheets, documents and checklist tools needed to put Baschab and Piot's sage advice to immediate use. In addition to being a highly informative volume, this is ultimately, as the title implies, a guidebook loaded with recipes for IT investment optimization success. After reading it, I suggest placing it on or near your desk where I am sure you will refer to it again and again. Also, I think that buying a copy of this book for each of their key IT managers would be one of the wisest investments a budget-squeezed CIO could make. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for IT - need for my executives to read it
Review: This book has all the practical advice that I wish someone had told me at the start of my IT career. Instead of another course on programming or the 15th version of some algorithm, this book has the stuff that helps you think like an executive and move forward in your career.
The topics covered include everything you need to know about how an IT department really works - operations, applications, networking, etc. at a non-technical management level. A good book to buy if you are an IT exec or want to get there and run with the big dogs.
| 
