IT contribution

Just an illusion, or measurable after all?

Are you asking the question about the actual „value contribution of IT“ (Business Value of IT)? Today, this is the guideline for IT organizations.

But what exactly does this mean? What is to be done?

Typically, the costs of IT projects (IT investments) are still relatively easy to determine. Cost blocks such as investments, procurement and internal/external services are often specified on the controller’s side and can be easily recorded during a project.

However, in the statement about the economic viability of the IT project, assumptions are made in which dependencies and interactions to consider are highly complex.

As a result, IT projects are already successful when they are completed in time and in budget – they do not entail an evaluation of the actual benefits for the company.

„In focus“, i.e. whether a project result is actually attributable to an expected target corridor, is often not considered because of the complexity of the solution itself or because of the knowledge about its inefficiency.

The ValueBoard® is based on the practice-oriented, scientific examination of this multifaceted problem, in the course of which Dr.-Ing. Peter Samulat completed his doctorate at the TU Berlin in 2014. The Business Engineering Institute St. Gallen (BEI) put the result of the work to use as a „value bridge“ in the transfer from science into practice.

The IT organization becomes a „partner at eye level“ – this requires a common view of the company’s products and services. And, above all: a language that both sides understand.

This is much more than the rather passive business alignment of an IT organization that only tries to understand the requirements of the business management and to fulfill them with an existing portfolio.

The desire: To represent the performance of IT in the language of business. The business side wants to see the benefits of IT services and IT should be able to give an account of these benefits.

Nagging question: What benefits do the individual IT services bring to the business? Are the products and services supported efficiently and effectively? Can this be measured at all and controlled based on the measurements?

Solution: definition, coordination, measurement and dynamic visualization of a few KPIs to represent the benefits in the areas: costs, performance, workload and usage intensity.

The ValueBoard® fills a methodical gap and helps to make the actual value contribution of IT projects — the „outcome“ — visible.

Measure the contribution value of your IT: