Is there an ROI for the PC?

I remember reading a few years ago that no one had ever managed to demonstrate a positive ROI for the personal computer in a business setting.

There’s plenty of cost, and there are plenty of loyal users who can’t imagine doing business without, but no one has ever shown that an employee with a PC is more productive, more effective, more efficient, or anything else than he or she was with a terminal.

In fact, employees with PCs are often less productive — they communicate via e-mail (much less effective than telephone or face-to-face), they surf, they create numerous documents that no one reads. In fact, much of what is created on personal computers is “junk computing” — databases that are out-of-synch with corporate data sources, and fancy-looking reports that don’t foot, so constantly have to be explained.

What does everyone think?