Portfolio Management
Some organisations are not always certain that their IT investment is fully supportive of business strategy.
Partly this is due to the complexity of IT, particularly when, as in most large organisations, the technical infrastructure has evolved over many years and often several mergers.
It is also however, sometimes down to an inability to measure IT in the same way as a line of business might be measured. Unlike sales per FTE or calls per agent, IT can be elusive of meaningful and tangible measures.
If it cannot be measured properly than actually, it cannot be managed properly.
Portfolio management techniques borrowed from the world of finance can solve this problem. They solve it by starting at the top, the point of investment and there forcing:
- A focus on value. An understanding of value and risk is required discipline to apply, before an investment is made.
- Prioritisation. The demands implicit in the objectives of a portfolio help enforce a meaningful prioritisation process.
- Benefits tracking. No fund manager would stay in a job if they were not able to point to past performance. Similarly, portfolio management disciplines mandate adequate tracking of cost and value.
We introduce Portfolio Management techniques by demonstrating the likely outcome of existing key projects. Using the Morgan Hill Financial Model we show: Risk, Value, Accountability, Alignment and expected outcome. Showing these results illustrates how Portfolio Management techniques can benefit an organisation as well as where and how to apply them.
We can introduce this technique into an organisation in a proven, effective and measured way. We use our Rapid Expert Service to show the value of the technique to an organisation in a way that will allow the organisation to begin to take on the necessary processes.
We use our In-Depth Expert Services to enhance existing organisation procedures in this area or to embed them over a period of time.
Examples of previous work includes:
- Placing portfolio management investment selection and subsequent reporting services around the integration programme of a global merger.
- Implementing portfolio reporting for IT development costs and business revenue streams arising from substantive, long term customer service contracts. This allowed senior executives to see the value delivered from IT services.