Translating A Technical System Project Into Business Language And Benefits

The Client's Challenge

Over the previous 14 months the IT area had developed a new architectural approach to project delivery that promised to deliver significant benefits to the bank.

However, the project team was having difficulty explaining the concepts and value involved.

A business case was under development, but the benefits were neither identified nor quantified.

Scope

The assignment was to

• identify the business outcomes of the program
• identify the business benefits
• quantify these benefits (where possible)
• generate the program’s value proposition and NPV.

Approach

Using the TOP Value Equation™ approach, we ran one half-day workshop, conducted a number of interviews, took the information that existed and identified and quantified the:

• desired business outcomes,
• outcomes roadmaps (for the different streams within the program)
• business benefits
• strategic alignment of the program
• bases for calculation and the quantified dollar value
• resultant NPV
• benefits accountabilities.

This was achieved in 2 weeks.

The Results

The generation of a detailed value proposition included:

• Twelve ‘desired business outcomes’ that made clear exactly what each stream of activity was about and what value each outcome would deliver

• Over 100 benefits, each linked to its enabling business outcome, and categorized as a Customer, Competitive, Capability, Productivity, Financial or Risk-reduction benefit

• An increase in tangible dollar savings from a previously estimated $6m to $25.3m in real tangible dollar savings (with 12 additional financial benefits identified but not quantified)

• The identification of 15 “Key variables to track” allowing the progress towards the realization of the financial value to be easily measured.

The Payoff

In two weeks the business case generation team were provided with a comprehensive value proposition for the overall program of work. The financials computed were initially so high that they had to be ‘toned down’ to become more ‘acceptable’ to management.