With the bursting of the Internet bubble and as the economy struggles on, more and more managers are confronted with the question: How much does information technology really contribute to business value? 

IT leaders in the public and private sector wrestled with that and other key issues during a March 14, 2003, program hosted by McIntire’s Center for the Management of Information Technology.

Erik Brynjolfsson, Director of the Center for eBusiness at MIT, served as the keynote speaker at the event, titled “IT and Business Value.” A leading IT researcher, Brynjolfsson is a prolific writer and the editor of the Ecommerce Research Forum. 

His address was titled “IT-enabled Business Transformation: Using the Matrix of Change.” To learn more about Brynjolfsson’s research, visit http://ebusiness.mit.edu/erik.

In addition, a panel of IT mangers from diverse backgrounds offered perspectives on how they measure IT benefits and defend their budgets. Panelists included: