The ICT industry has struggled with performance for years. Tools, processes, and techniques have been developed in attempts to improve performance, however, the level of performance has not significantly improved. The Best Value Approach has been proposed to increase both the procurement and execution of ICT projects. This researches focus is to further test, explore and confirm the claims associated with the Best Value Approach and its applicability in the ICT industry. Using case study research, the Best Value Approach was used in the selection of an ERP vendor for a client organization. The research findings confirm the claims of the Best Value Approach to be accurate in terms of being simpler, quicker, lower costing, requiring little expertise from the client and delivering an understandable, non-technical plan including detailed schedule, milestone schedule, and schedule that identifies all stakeholder activity.

The construction industry performance has been analyzed for the past 20 years. There has been no simple answer to the source of the construction industry problems. In 1991, the Construction Industry Structure (CIS) was formulated, and identified that the price based environment was more inefficient than the best value environment. Over the past 18 years, the analysis of the CIS has led to the hypothesis that the price based sector is inefficient because the buyer controls it. The hypothesis has been tested through case studies, and test results show that the owner is the biggest source of project risk and deviations. The dominant information was formed through repeated testing by moving the control to the vendor, and documenting all sources of project deviation. The studies have shown that the use of decision making, management, direction and control of the contractor by the owner increases the project risk. Two longitudinal studies are used to confirm the potential accuracy of the deductive logic. Key words: contractor control, owner releases control, contractor defined scope.

The IT industry has struggled with performance in the last 10 years. Tools, processes, and techniques have been developed in attempts to improve performance. Three of the most recent proposed solutions which have shown previous results of success include decreasing the size of projects, using agile project management, and using the best value approach. This paper will focus on differentiating between the three approaches and introduces the latest solution, the best value approach. After analyzing the three approaches, the paper proposes that the best value approach is the only one that requires the utilization of expertise. Using a case study of Schuberg Philis, the paper proposes that the Schuberg Philis model uses the agile approach but has most of the characteristics of the best value approach. In the course of the study and analysis, the Schuberg Philis company has moved from the agile approach to the Best Value approach.

In 2002, the Dutch construction industry encountered a problem with collusion. They had a very difficult time understanding the solution to the problem. The visionary Dutch government officials approached the Performance Based Studies Research Group (PBSRG) at Arizona State University to solve the problem. PBSRG introduced the Construction Industry Structure (CIS) and explained that collusion environment is created by the client and not the contractors. Meeting resistance from Dutch researchers, PBSRG created a new research approach upon which the Dutch BV effort flourished. Instead of consensus, PBSRG used simplistic logic, identified visionaries who could understand, and ran tests without years of theoretical discussion. The simplicity of the explanations and the results of repeated testing identified that the problem of collusion was non-technical. It was a problem with the delivery of services. The same problem came up in the ICT industry. PBSRG took the same approach to resolve the problem. Find Dutch visionary partners, educate them, run tests, and document the test and minimization of problems.

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