Experience of Nigerian Managers in Maximizing Returns from Information Technology Investments

This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of Information Technology (IT) and business managers in the oil/gas and IT/telecoms companies in Nigeria to better understand how they maximize returns from IT investments. The resource-based view theory was used to conceptualize the relationship between the use of IT resources and organizational performance, and employed purposeful sampling method to select participants for the study. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 22 IT and business managers to understand how they solved the lack of positive returns from IT investments in their organizations. Interview transcriptions were analyzed using the thematic analysis approach. Results indicated that managers used IT business best practices, IT governance, and organizational IT capability for maximizing returns from IT investments. Managers developed organizational IT capacities through competent IT staffing and training, and alignment of IT operations with business objectives to promote excellent service delivery to customers. Managers developed and enforced IT governance using organizational IT policies and strict management structures to ensure employees focus on business objectives. Managers take advantage of their organizational IT capability, IT investments dimensioning and scalability, infrastructure consolidation, and sharing to achieve business profitability. Managers' responses suggested there should be processes for identifying and filling training needs of employees, and interacting with government as an input to policy formulation that affect their businesses. Social change could be achieved when business and IT managers use insights from this research to imbibe the culture of efficient IT investment practices to achieve maximum benefits.