I am almost done with this book and find it a great read for explaining "real-world" IT to non-IT folks:

http://www.amazon.com/ITs-hidden-face-Information-Technology/dp/1442152311/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266253788&sr=8-14

Perhaps this is close to what you are looking for?

The reason there is no book to answer your question, "The Perfect IT Book for the Business?" is that the answer is too simple.

IT lowers the cost of doing any business process or function. As an example, my son is a database marketing expert. Clearly it’s less expensive to send millions of direct-marketing pieces to people through the Internet. Postage savings alone make the point. However, the question remains: Is the technology effective (i.e., does it meet the business goal)?

CIO’s need to be tasked with going throughout their organization’s assessing how current business processes are performed and applying technologies that lower costs and can be proven to be effective in performing the function. This has been history of IT from automating accounting and business transactions to today’s social CRM phenomenon.

Bill

The focus for the business should be on the effective use of IT in the enterprise to improve business performance. I recommend IT Savvy by Peter Weill & Jeanne Ross. It is short, readable & targeted to C-level executives.

I briefly describe this book in this blog post.

Two books, both from Peter Weill and Jeanne Ross from the Center for Information Research (CISR) at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

The first is their most recent, "IT Savvy: What Top Executives Must Know to Go from Pain to Gain."
http://www.amazon.com/Savvy-What-Executives-Must-Know/dp/1422181014

The second is their book on IT Governance. Please don't be fooled by the title. IT Governance is a function of the business, not a function of IT. "IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results."
http://www.amazon.com/Governance-Performers-Decision-Superior-Results/dp/1591392535

Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist
http://community.ca.com/blogs/theitgovernanceevangelist/

Hi,

My newest book coming out in April in Finland (and unfortunately at this point only in Finnish) might be just what you are looking for.

The book is titled "IT and Better Business," covering most available IT system solutions and guidelines for business to exploit them, avoiding pitfalls and giving guidance plus templates required change and program management. There are several cases from international companies to highlighting success factors, etc.

This book is published by Talentum in Finland, so if you want it translated, please contact them (www.talentum.com).

Also I want to comment on Bill's comment: lowering business costs is not really the only -- and not always the wisest -- target for using IT. It is in many cases much more important to innovate new business models and generate new revenue.

Vesa

The IT Value Network, publishers Wiley, author Tony J. Read, 2009. Worth consideration -- focused on IT investment types and IT value-based mgmt

A colleague and I are writing a book provisionally titled "IT management for non-IT managers" for use in our MBA IS course. The book draws heavily upon some of the books referenced in earlier comments as well as from ITIL/ITSM literature. Our intent is to publish under creative commons. We will provide drafts to anyone willing to review and comment. We are using early draft in a current class. The response seems to be favorable, but what students are really willing to rip their professors before the class is over?