[Excerpt] Global competition is putting more and more pressure on U.S. managers to make faster and better business decisions. Investments in information technology are often touted as a critical means of speeding up and improving management decision making. Yet it has proved distressingly difficult to realize the potential of information technology investments. This is particularly so in business areas such as Human Resources (HR), though the longer lead times traditionally associated with changes in HR systems mean that HR is a prime candidate to benefit from information technology.