Intranet - The Benefits Realisation Plan
The Millennium Experience
A successful project is one that delivers on-spec ('quality'), time and cost. Right? Well consider these two projects?
The Millennium Dome was delivered on time for the 31 December 1999 and safely within a budget (fixed in 1998) of £289 million. The Project was also delivered to quality, albeit against a Specification that had been adjusted several times during the project to simplify the scope of work required (and ensure that time and cost deadlines could still be met). However, visitor number targets were greatly overestimated, the business a total flop and the whole endeavour deemed a failure by many.
The Millennium Wheel (or "London Eye") opened one month late on a dreary February morning in 2000 (following problems raising the wheel and then safety & quality issues with one of the 32 pods). It was also over budget, with building costs of £70m (against the £25m British Airways had originally planned to spend). However, an average of about 10,000 people a day now ride the wheel, making the London Eye the UK's biggest tourist attraction (and generating £15 million of trading profit a year) - a healthy return on investment for the shareholders.
A New Mindset for Change Projects
Traditional methodologies for change / project management (of which PRINCE is an example) tend to focus primarily on time, cost and quality. Benefits are all too often only implicitly recognised and the accountability for realising them is assumed to lie outside the project.
However, the pace of change within our society, industry and business grows ever faster. Somewhat paradoxically, there is an ever-greater need to ensure that changes 'stick' (delivering sustainable benefit and competitive advantage to the organisations making them). Most businesses have already achieved greater efficiency and effectiveness within single functions or processes; The challenge of the 21st Century is increasingly how to realise end-to-end change across a boundary-less business.
Rarely (these days) will a single customer sponsor a single project, delivering a single system into a single department.
The leadership challenge is thus how to engage multiple sponsors and change agents across the whole business to deliver excellence in change and the ruthless pursuit of business benefits and true return on investment (ROI).
The Case for a focus on Benefits Management
Recent research from the Cranfield University School of Management finds that 78% of IT-enabled change projects (in large UK companies) fail to deliver business benefits. 47% believed assessment of business benefits in business cases was poor or worse and 79% said that all the available benefits were not captured during that assessment. 45% believed benefits were overstated in their organisation to get investment approval.
Arguably, this will only change when project managers and their people become accountable for ? and obsessed by - delivering business benefits and value through Change, rather than simply projects to time and cost.
Benefits Defined
Soft Benefits (sometime called "non-quantifiable" benefits) are those intangible improvements to be obtained from a change, including improved employee satisfaction, better customer satisfaction, increased knowledge sharing and re-use of intellectual capital. Whilst it is often accepted that such benefits do lead to financial gain, it is deemed impossible to demonstrate a proven causal link that would enable one to place a financial value on the benefit.
Direct Benefits are those which lead to a measurable impact on the bottom-line of the organisation, including increased revenue, reduced costs of sale / improved margin, operating cost reduction (e.g. through reduced headcount) and improvements in working capital (e.g. through a faster debt collection cycle). An individual or team can be held directly to account for achieving them and providing evidence of their realisation.
Indirect Benefits are those which facilitate or enable bottom-line impact, without leading directly to realisable items for which can individual or team had be held accountable. Such benefits include cost avoidance (i.e. costs not currently budgeted that might otherwise become payable) and capacity creation (where efficiency savings free up people to undertake high-value adding tasks but do lot lead directly to the release of FTEs or other costs).
The Benefit Realisation Toolset
In the Benefits Realisation & Tracking chapter of my (free to access) Intranet Portal Guide, I outline a number of tools that can be used to better manage benefits on the typical portal project.
1) An enhanced Business Case
Many business cases simply do not sufficiently reference Benefits. Make sure that you dedicate at least as many column-inches to benefits as you do to costs. Split benefits between soft, direct and indirect. Ensure that direct benefits are included in the ROI, NPV or IRR calculations and that the people who will be accountable for their realisation have signed them off.
2) The Benefits Blueprint
Create a document that shows how your benefits link to actual business process changes, projects or deliverables and changes to systems. Suitable tools can be found in Cranfield's Benefits Network approach, the Six Sigma toolset and as add-ons to PRINCE. Position the overall result in the context of your vision and strategy. This will help you capture all the benefits and to sharpen what you need to do to achieve them.
3) The Benefits Realisation Plan
The key control document, a good Realisation Plan includes, for each benefit, (a) a description of what the benefit is, (b) how much it is worth, (c) who will be accountable for it's realisation, (d) when it will be realised and (e) where it will impact. If there are risks or dependencies to the benefit realisation, these should be noted and managed in the plan. Finally, it should be clear in the plan how the benefit realisation will be objectively measured and evidenced (e.g. through the monitoring of key performance indicators).
4) Benefit Evidence
In my guide, I suggest the use of Benefit Sign-off sheets, whereby the benefit owner identified at the Business Case and Planning stage is expect to sign-off once she is satisfied that the benefit has been realised. Evidence supporting the sign-off should also be attached to the sign-off sheet. This is a good discipline, to keep everyone honest.
Conclusions
The 21st Century Project Manager needs to be obsessed with delivering business benefits and value through change, rather than simply projects to time, cost and quality. There are tools that can help, including in particular the Benefits Realisation Plan. Good luck and don't forget to check back with my guide for further help and templates you can download.
About the author:
David Viney (david@viney.com) is the author of the Intranet Portal Guide; 31 pages of advice, tools and downloads covering the period before, during and after an Intranet Portal implementation.
Read the guide at http://www.viney.com/DFV/intranet_portal_guide or the Intranet Watch Blog at http://www.viney.com/intranet_watch.
 Google News Updated : Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:05:30 GMT House committee widens probe of Vytorin safety - International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune - AP TRENTON, NJ: A House committee investigating the safety and effectiveness of the popular cholesterol drug Vytorin and one of its components is turning up the heat on the drug's makers. Many Questions About Vytorin Drug Scare Shenanigans Publ.Date : Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:32:18 GMT Tropical Storm Hanna aiming for Massachusetts - Boston Globe
Boston Globe - By Andrew Ryan and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff Tropical Storm Hanna is expected to churn up the Atlantic coast and lash Massachusetts this weekend with winds gusting up to 50 mph near the coast and up to four inches of rain. Video: Hanna Nears US, but Stronger Ike Looms Area departments gearing up for Hanna's arrival Publ.Date : Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:23:14 GMT UN warns of Haiti flooding crisis - BBC News
BBC News - Several hundred thousand people need help in Haiti, which is suffering severe flooding after being hit by a series of tropical storms, the UN says. Attempts to Aid Desperate Haitians Hindered by Floodwaters Storms line up to slam western Atlantic, southeastern US Publ.Date : Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:05:26 GMT Jesse Jackson hospitalized for stomach pains - Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune - By Jeremy Gorner | Chicago Tribune reporter Rev. Jesse Jackson was being treated Thursday in Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago after falling ill. Video: Rev. Jesse Jackson Hospitalized Jesse Jackson hospitalized after stomach pains Publ.Date : Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:00:48 GMT Kilpatrick's rise and fall - Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press - BY BILL McGRAW • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • September 5, 2008 Kwame Kilpatrick entered the mayor's office with extraordinary gifts -- charisma, savvy, flair, pedigree, connections, ambition and chutzpah -- everything a 31-year-old needed to make a ... Video: A Timeline of Detroit Mayor's Text Scandal Detroit’s Mayor Will Leave Office and Go to Jail Publ.Date : Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:27:50 GMT Arthritis Drugs Linked to Risks From Infection - New York Times
New York Times - By AP WASHINGTON (AP) - The Food and Drug Administration ordered stronger warnings Thursday on four medications widely used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other serious illnesses, saying they can raise the risk of possibly fatal fungal infections. Deaths Heighten Arthritis Drugs Warning Nation Digest 4 arthritis drugs get tougher warnings Publ.Date : Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:38:34 GMT Stocks: A Terrible Thursday - BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek - Major US indexes each tumbled nearly 3% as worries intensified over the health of the economy. All eyes are on Friday's jobs report Market players were probably wondering Thursday why they bothered to come back from their summer vacations. Stocks Are Broadly Lower Tracking Falls on Wall Street Stocks slide on economic worries Publ.Date : Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:53:27 GMT Increased Website Traffic |
PARLOT::Ebooks, Scripts,
Websites, and more... Is shopping online becoming popular and safe enough for you... Read More What is the Internet?In order to provide a discussion on... Read More The Lowdown on EcommerceEcommerce is truly the most confusing aspect... Read More A beginner's guide to setting up a successful online store... Read More Far too many people get ripped off when setting up... Read More If you learn how other people make money online, I... Read More Ecommerce use to be about spending thousands of dollars on... Read More The World As It Then WasThe dynamic economic growth of... Read More You did it again, didn't you? Forgot until the last... Read More To obtain more local customers for your business, consider expanding... Read More Do you sell something online? Do you have a business... Read More Building BridgesI have often used the analogy of building a... Read More How much holiday shopping did you do on-line this year?... Read More When most people think of a retirement gift, they think... Read More A common frustration among merchants who sell online via a... Read More Selecting the right emarketplaceAlthough, IT spending has been staying flat... Read More PayPal is secure in its domination over the electronic payment... Read More Let me share with you a secret that most marketing... Read More E-commerce offers customers the chance to eliminate many stages in... Read More Global Insight, a leading economic and financial forecasting company, (formerly... Read More According to NOP World, 48% of all Internet users have... Read More For some people, shopping online is as normal as driving... Read More 1. Combine a few of your articles into a free... Read More The Internet brought a great deal of benefits to our... Read More One bright spot on the economic horizons around the world... Read More
Adsense
websites
Shop: Is Shopping Online Secure?
The Origins of E-Commerce
The Lowdown On ECommerce: Making All The Pieces Fit Together
A Beginners Guide To Setting Up A Successful Online Store
Dont Get Ripped Off Getting A Merchant Account
How Do You Make Money Online?
Cost Effective Ecommerce Solutions
A Tale of Two Revolutions - Ecommerce: A Historical Perspective
Online Florists - Send Flowers Online When Youre In a Hurry
Expand Your Local Business Through the Internet
Business Online ? Blind Hunt
Intranet Project ? RAD or Waterfall?
E-Commerce Is Back On The Fast Track
Retirement Signature Frames ? The Perfect Retirement Gift!
Shopping Cart Abandonment ? Discover 5 Things you can do to Lower Cart Abandonment
Grow Your Business Using B2B Emarketplace ? Part II
Google to Compete with PayPal?
Leading eCommerce Consultant Admits You Should Only Listen to One Real Expert! (And its not him!)
Online Shopping: Legal Challenges for Taxing Authorities
Government Buying and Selling on the Internet
Mr and Mrs Smith Go Online, as Internet Technology Moves from Fantasy to Normality
Shopping Online: What You Should Know
12 Easy and Effective Ways To Create Reports
Rules for Achieving Online Success
Developing a Winning e-Commerce Strategy
Affordable and Reliable Web Hosting Starting at $4.49/Month
Is ClickBanks Popularity Drawing To An End?
ClickBank is the Internet's most popular payment processor for online... Read More
The Internet Challenge
In spite of the increasing attention on how the Internet... Read More
Precautions Necessary for an Online Brokerage Business
Maybe no business requiring little or no capital pays as... Read More
Prompt Delivery Rules ? Internet Product Sales
The Internet is the fastest growing source of mail order... Read More
Ecommerce Comes from Customer Satisfaction
Online shopping is convenient, but many companies whose web sites... Read More
Online Florists - Send Flowers Online When Youre In a Hurry
You did it again, didn't you? Forgot until the last... Read More
The Secret Science Of Online Shopping
In theory you could create a retail web site with... Read More
The Essential Christmas Web-store Makeover
Ten great tips to turn online holiday shoppers into eager... Read More
Intranet - The Benefits Realisation Plan
The Millennium ExperienceA successful project is one that delivers on-spec... Read More
Products for a Successful Web Business
There are F words in business. We have seen many... Read More
Dont give up on your business!
Summer must be when many work at home Mom start... Read More
How To Sell Websites Fast !
This article will explain in depth the steps needed to... Read More
Online Shoppers Say They?ll Buy from Small and Large E-Businesses Alike
As the holiday shopping season begins in earnest, consumers say... Read More
Online Customer Service - The Cornerstone of a Successful Online Business
Online customer service is still one of the most frequently... Read More
Evaluating Vendors of Ecommerce Fulfillment Services
Once your website has secured an order, you have to... Read More
Government Buying and Selling on the Internet
Global Insight, a leading economic and financial forecasting company, (formerly... Read More
Grow your Business with Emarketplace - Part III
Increase Company ProductivityAfter years of hard work, finally your business... Read More
Tell Them Whats in The Can!
What does 'the can' mean? Well, its literal meaning relates... Read More
Start doing online business using B2B Portals in Six Steps
I registered with a B2B site but what's next?This is... Read More
Internet Merchant Accounts For Innocents Abroad
If you want to sell on the internet, your need... Read More
Online Payments Make It Easy For Your Customers To Buy
In the last column we discussed the process of credit... Read More
Getting Started in ECommerce - Part One
In 2004, Enquiro.com conducted a study of the search behaviors... Read More
Creating Legal Framework for E-commerce Taxation; non-tax statutes
We have to make amendments in existing substantive and procedural... Read More
What Does It Take to Make Money Online?
What a loaded question! Let's narrow that down a bit... Read More
7 Must Have Scripts to Look for When Shopping for E-commerce Hosting
When shopping for e-commerce hosting there are a lot of... Read More
E-commerce |