Benefit Realisation

It is important to any business today to ensure that the services it delivers are provisioned and managed in a structured way that enables the greatest benefit. Many businesses invest large amounts of resource and time to ensure that the services they offer to their customers provide not only benefit to the customer but also to the business. However, all too often businesses overlook the provision of technology services that are consumed by the organisation on a daily basis, resulting in technology platforms that are not fit for purpose or costly to maintain.

At Astute Technologies we understand the importance of technology service delivery and the impact this can have on business efficiency. Through our experience of working with companies on this subject we have developed a four stage approach that allows for monitoring and traceability throughout the life cycle of a service. This approach can be used for the delivery of a single technology service or an entire technology platform. It provides a structured way in which to achieve benefit realisation of technology services within a business, driving cost reduction and increased business efficiency.

Migrate

When delivering a new technology service or changing an existing one, it is vital to understand the business processes that are supported by the service. During the migration phase of our approach to benefit realisation, work is conducted to understand the technology estate, the service to be delivered and the business processes that must be supported. Through the collection of this information an informed decision can be made as to the optimum approach for delivery of the service, and early stage delivery activities can be undertaken.

Improve

During this phase it is vital to focus on small improvements that can be made to the service, without large scale change activity either to the service itself or the associated business units and processes. Work is conducted to examine the business processes that constitute the service, and recommendations are made to streamline these so that underlying technology platforms can be rationalised and consolidated. Activities are also undertaken to develop a vision for the service that aligns with the needs of the business and its strategic aims.

Transform

It is now that the service undergoes major transformational change, in line with the service vision developed as part of the improve stage. Large scale change programmes would be initiated that would alter business process and underlying technology elements, to ensure that the service is delivered in the optimum manner, whilst driving the greatest amount of benefit realisation to the business.

Sustain

During this phase the technology service is transitioned into steady state and ongoing delivery, whilst processes and procedures are developed and implemented to ensure that the service continues to deliver optimum efficiency savings and benefit realisation. Service scalability and flexibility is also addressed at this stage, through the development of an organic growth framework for the service that ensures that it can scale both upwards and outwards in response to business demand. Trigger points and performance indicators would be defined, and aligned with this organic growth framework, to enable the service to be driven again through this approach depending on business and technology changes.