Majority of IT projects have no plan for value realisation says SAP
Sydney, Australia — SAP Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) today announced the local launch of SAP Value Academies, a quarterly series of executive workshops providing customers with the tools and methodologies they need to identify, deliver and measure the value of IT projects.
The Value Academies extend SAP’s existing Value Engineering service that accurately quantifies, in dollars, the value to a company of a proposed business systems project. The SAP Value Academies provide customers with the knowledge and skills to ensure realisation of value identified – a process called Value Lifecycle Management.
The first Value Academy will be in Brisbane on 8-9 September, specifically for public sector organisations. This will be followed by a Value Academy in Melbourne in October.
SAP ANZ piloted two Value Academies earlier this year – one in late March in Sydney focused on a mix of private and public organisations and another in May, which focused specifically on Public Sector departments and agencies, held in Canberra. The Sydney Value Academy session brought together a wide variety of senior business and IT professionals from seven different organisations.
The launch of the Value Academies follows an in-depth analysis by SAP of 11,000+ completed case engagements revealing that only 17% of organisations have a formal business case for their IT projects and only 5% have plans to realise their full value.
“Corporate scrutiny of new investments is at an all-time high,” said Greg Harbor, Director Value Engineering, SAP ANZ. “Delivering projects on time and on budget is not enough anymore. Companies must focus on a third dimension: value.
“Projects are managed as a portfolio of initiatives competing for the same funds. Naturally, those projects with the highest value and lowest risk get funded first.
“Few companies adopt this simple best practice. But it must become the rule, not the exception. Uncertain times present opportunities for businesses willing to invest. But if you’re spending money in times like these you must be certain it delivers a tangible return.
“The SAP Value Academy provides customers with the skills and the methodology to enable them to realise the value of their systems projects. The methodology complements SAP’s Value Engineering service that identifies and quantifies value up front.”
SAP Value Engineering combines SAP process and industry experience with comprehensive tools and knowledge resources using industry benchmarking data, total cost of ownership models and return on investment analytics.
SAP Value Engineering quantifies the value from potential systems projects by benchmarking discrete business processes (for example, HR, Finance, Supply Chain) against the industry best practice. Being able to accurately quantify the ROI in advance enables a business to prioritise their systems projects accordingly.
Industry benchmarks and SAP best practices are a core feature of SAP Value Engineering. Globally, SAP has more than 2,500 benchmarking participants with more than 20 functional areas benchmarked to best practices.
Locally, SAP is working with the ANZ ecosystem to deliver industry benchmarks founded on local best practice data and business process legal requirements, including an initiative with the SAP Australia User Group (SAUG), which is currently benchmarking best practice for Human Resources Management processes in Australia.
Feedback from the two Value Academy pilots was very positive. The CIO of a large State Government enterprise currently undergoing a major SAP transformation project praised the workshop for its customer focus and the quality of the thought leadership content. “This is one of the best programmes of its kind that I have ever attended. It was the best thought leadership content I’ve seen in my working career.” Other participants all made similar comments.
“It’s more important than ever for organisations today to take a rigorous and methodical approach to IT strategy and related investment decisions,” said Chakib Bouhdary, Chief Value Officer, Global Field Operations, SAP AG, in Australia for the launch of the Value Academies.
“SAP Value Engineering provides the tools our customers and partners need to understand the impact of new investments and ensure that they are aligned with specific business objectives. We work with customers to help them understand the impact before they commit to a major investment.”
“Businesses are typically investing in IT in order to access the data that they require to make strategic business decisions; SAP Value Engineering takes this principle and applies it to IT strategy development, project portfolio management and IT investments. It helps identify the projects that will deliver the highest value and the lowest risk.”
