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Determining and Articulating Intrinsic Value of an Enterprise Initiative

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Determining and Articulating Intrinsic Value of an Enterprise Initiative

As an enterprise leader you have the key responsibility of prioritizing investments towards enterprise initiatives. Cloud Transformation is an initiative that may require thorough due diligence to determine if, and when to take on such an initiativeat what financial and opportunity cost, and to achieve what benefits and outcomesHow does the return on investment (ROI) of this initiative compare with the alternatives?

Determining the intrinsic value of the initiative may help you calculate the ROI. Then, articulating this understanding of intrinsic value should help you secure the necessary budget and the buy-in from the stakeholders to pursue and execute this initiative.

 

 

Components of Intrinsic Value of Enterprise Initiatives 

 

Intrinsic value for an enterprise initiative or program can be categorized asTangible, Qualitative, Organizational and Individual 

 

Tangible value is an outcome that can be measured such as cost savings, revenue and probability. Qualitative value is an intangible outcome that cannot be measured with numbers such as satisfaction, stress and team morale. Organizational value applies to the overall organization, division, or the enterprise such as enhanced reputation of a division, or increased productivity throughout the enterprise or its business units. Individual value ispecific to the individual such as employees’ enhanced career potential.  

 

Each of these values can be estimated over short and long-term  

 

Following is an example of applying this as a framework to a Cloud Transformation initiative to determine and articulate the intrinsic value of migrating apps, data and infrastructure to the Cloud

 

  Short-Term Value Long-Term Value
  Tangible
  • Operational cost savings from reduced time to serve internal and external customers
  • Future Value (5 years and beyond) of compounded operational cost savings
  Qualitative
  • Clarity in department strategy and plans improving teamwork
  • Accelerate offering development and faster time to market
  Organizational
  • Elevate division’s reputation for servicing requests faster
  • Increased ability to convert more selling opportunities
  • Division’s or business unit’s promising growth and expansion
  Individual
  • Boost employee morale
  • Employees are upskilled to match industry standards
  • Employees’ promising long-term career growth within and outside the organization
Exhibit 1: Intrinsic Value framework applied to an example of moving data, apps or infrastructure to the Cloud.
  Long-Term Value
  Tangible
  • Future Value (5 years and beyond) of compounded operational cost savings
  Qualitative
  • Accelerate offering development and faster time to market
  Organizational
  • Division’s or business unit’s promising growth and expansion
  Individual
  • Employees’ promising long-term career growth within and outside the organization
Exhibit 1: Intrinsic Value framework applied to an example of moving data, apps or infrastructure to the Cloud.

 

Of course, there may be more short and long-term values for each of the value categories. You could go a stefurther and assign a weightage for each of the value categories. You can also add metrics for categories such as: Continuing education of employees (Individual), division’s growth measured by the increase in size of its yearly budget (Organizational). 

 

Finally, this exercise should serve as a framework to determine whether the ROI of an initiative is aligned with the expected business outcomes of pursuing the initiative.

 

Rishi Khanna is a Sr. Client Partner at Technossustechnology firm solving problems through AI, SaaS, Cloud Transformation and DevOps, based in Orange County, CA.