Whose Value is it Anyway?

By: Deb Krueger, Thavron Solutions

Organizations can and should have strong value statements in place, which serve as guiding principles for providing their products and/or services.

It is also important to remember that following those values in practice has consequences — both positive and negative. For instance, if an organization values no employee layoffs, there may be a time when an economic downturn makes keeping this value very painful. In fact, the correct financial decision may be to perform some layoffs; however, by keeping to those values, the organization maintains its integrity, employee morale, and public image.

It is through the products and/or services that are provided to the public where the organization’s value is most important. If the public does not get the value, at a reasonable price, the organization will cease to be relevant and its very existence is in peril. Thus, the ultimate conversation to be had within the organization is ‘how does this function create value for the customer?”.

Customer-driven value decisions can and do occur for ITFM adopters. Here are some examples of actual wins:

• Reduced the number of servers from 64 to 2 that are used to provide mortgage related services. Processing time was reduced for new mortgage applications.
• Found that storage was allocated to test servers that were no longer being used; allowing that storage to be re-allocated for other functions. This alleviated the need to procure additional storage for several months, consequently reducing wasteful spending.
• Ability to sunset several applications that were not utilized by the organization; allowed for additional investment in revenue-producing applications, which improved customer experience.
• Found that forcing usage of corporate SAP to an acquisition would have deteriorated that value of the acquisition ongoing.
• Supported discussions about the need for growth of algorithm development by the business and co-designed best technology implementation to meet business needs while keeping costs low.

It is important to remember that services provided by IT need to be in alignment with the customer’s values.

This assures that IT spend, either for running or growing the business, is optimal for the business. If no value is found in providing an application or business service, then it is time to sunset the provision and focus IT’s efforts in areas that build a better customer experience.

What wins have you seen from implementing TBM or rigorous ITFM processes? What obstacles still stand in your way? Comment below to start the discussion going.