A three-year-old Irish organization called the Innovation Value Institute (IVI), apparently heavily funded by Intel, held a meeting in California Feb. 10 to showcase a new information technology (IT) framework. Called the IT Capability Maturity Framework, it is said to demonstrate how to extend the definition of business value beyond productivity. Chevron and Northrop Grumman are said to be using the methodology already along with Intel.

The IVI Web site says that while optimizing IT’s value is a top priority in these down economic times (the project started during the good times, however), there is currently “no integrated, standardized framework for evaluating (IT) investment decisions strategically at the corporate level.”

Actually, the methodology is similar to tools and best practices available from professional organizations such as the Business Software Alliance, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the Federation against Software Theft (FAST)—which joined with Investors in Software (IiS) in September 2008—in the United Kingdom (UK), and the International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers (IAITAM). However, it is always important to have more academic thinking on the concept on proving IT's value.

Details about the framework are available on the IVI web site and you can listen to the meeting. The list of IVI patrons and contributors is impressive including AstraZeneca, Bearing Point, British Petroleum, Ernst & Young, Google, Microsoft (in the same room!) and SAP as well as Chevron, Intel and Northrop Grumman.