In today’s economic conditions, every decision you make needs to show that your organization maximizes its investment dollars—and implementing the right technology platforms is essential for growing business while running lean. But through this process, a key component is too often overlooked: benefits realization. 

It's deceptively easy to make a major investment in technology and then take a set-it-and-forget-it mentality. After making the business case for tech, the focus on delivery supersedes benefit management and realization. Then, looking back, no one can quite articulate what value was delivered, or whether it was. 

Clarifying benefits—both those you aim to deliver and those you actually realize—is crucial because it sets the standard for success or failure. Without this, technology investments are moot, ultimately impeding future investment.

Deliver once, measure twice (before and after implementation)

Align benefits with strategy –> Benchmark the beginning –> Capture the after –> Turn data into dollars

The best way to build trust is to show you achieved your intended benefits. Organizations and teams that document a baseline—the current situation before implementation—can show the leaps they made in value post-delivery. The numbers they capture crisply articulate an initiative’s impact. Then, they can turn that data into renewed investment because they earned trust with proof of success. 

Benefits realization by the numbers

These organizations aligned benefits with strategy, then captured metrics before and after delivery, to convey success.

Where to begin: Do the right things, and do them right

To get the most out of its resources, your organization needs to answer two questions before considering how to deliver benefits:

Get the most out of your tech investment

Your technology platform should do more than merely manage your portfolio. It needs to help you assess whether you are realizing the desired benefits. Pairing Deloitte’s experience with Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) from ServiceNow helps businesses answer the right questions accurately and fully to drive outcomes including:

1. Aligning your strategy to the work. SPM allows you to see the connections between strategy and delivery for each project—and helps you close the gaps. You can define, roadmap, and iterate your strategy, all while keeping value in view; visualize strategy, targets, and updates to maintain a benefits focus; and make decisions with confidence because you know your organization is meeting objectives.
2. Aligning investments. SPM is designed to empowers you to respond swiftly and skillfully to change or to make changes. In SPM, you can identify, prioritize, and schedule the right work according to what is important in your strategy now, not last year. Your business can model potential shifts within the tool rather than manually to avoid time-consuming tasks that can lead to ineffective decisions and suboptimal outcomes.
3. Delivering value quickly. Position teams to deliver the right way, irrespective of methodology—and ensure every person is working to deliver on strategic goals. You can then track and manage their progress in the tool.

By the numbers: A firsthand example

ServiceNow leaders themselves grappled with these questions when they needed to manage their own IT portfolio effectively. Before implementing SPM to digitalize their portfolio, they took stock of the inefficiencies. After, they could point to these realized benefits:

• 15,000 hours saved annually
• 60% reduction in average time to screen and approve projects
• 20% faster time-to-value between project approval and delivery

Communicate value –> gain capital commitment 

Investment in your business requires investment in the technology that powers it. But without strategic alignment and assessment, your organization is leaving value on the table. In today’s economic conditions, that waste makes or breaks businesses.