2. IS investment: strategic or financially profitable

"The financial analysis of information systems raises a large number of well-known problems [...]. Financial models fail to show the risks and uncertainties that arise from their own assessments of costs and benefits. This is not a synchronized movement – costs tend to be direct and intangible, while benefits generally arrive with a delay and are often intangible [...]. Intangible benefits are difficult to quantify. These factors are completely overturning financial models." These words from Jane and Kenneth Laudon clearly set out the stakes involved in studying the profitability of IS: measuring the profitability of IS can only be done...