Comprehensive study of information and communication technology investments: a case study of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The fanatical evolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) boost organization enthusiasm to invest more for adopting innovative Information Technology (IT) solutions that are perceived to facilitate their business model. Researchers proposed several methods, tried to make more understanding on calculating return from ICT investment. Traditionally, measuring the return from investment was based on financial factors only such as Return on Investment (ROI) methods. Currently, non-financial based measuring techniques such as, Value on investment (VOI) is a new challenge for the investor to measure the value (non-financial) from the investment. This paper aims to investigate the process towards building an integrated framework for the evaluation of ICT/Information Systems (IS) investments inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), where tremendous amount has been spending for the development of ICT services. Current status of the ICT investment, utilization and implementation inside KSA therefore are discussed. Furthermore, discussion on previously developed methodologies, models and factors for measuring investments using ROI and VOI has presented . Finally, the brief discussion on relationship between ICT investment, utilization and evaluation presented to provide some more understanding in this field. The paper representing the need of building comprehensive framework for the evaluation and measurement of ICT investment.