Benefits Management

Investment in Enterprise Business Transformation Programs is justified by the benefits resulting from successful Program Delivery. Benefits Management is a Program Management discipline that exists within a broader framework of Program Delivery.

A fundamental principle of Benefits Management is that a benefit is simply a special kind of deliverable within a Program. Hence the same practices of Planning & Control and Risk Management can be applied to delivering benefits in order to facilitate Benefits Realisation within the scope of a Program.

Each anticipated benefit must be defined in such a way that it can be:

  • Related to a Business Transformation State Change
  • Quantified as a dollar value at the point in time when the benefit is realised (e.g. cost savings, increased revenue, etc.)
  • Assessed through some form of identification and measurement (e.g. Accounting System figures for cost of sales, revenue, etc.)
  • Included in a time schedule as a set of planned milestones – it is important to note that benefits may have a recurring pattern (e.g. increased value to the business may be achieved every month as an ongoing benefit)

The process of systematically analysing benefits will invariably ensure that opportunities to realise benefits will not be missed as the Business Transformation Program proceeds.

Using a brainstorming approach with key stakeholders, key questions that enable stakeholders to define benefits are:

  • What is the benefit – describe what it looks like in the context of daily/weekly/monthly operations?
  • Who will enable the benefit to be realised?
  • What is the realisable value of the benefit, in terms of cost savings and/or additional revenue creation?
  • How can the benefit be measured as a monetary value?
  • When will the benefit manifest itself as a measurable value?
  • How can we ensure that the benefit continues to realise sustainable value? (Achieved through a process compliance regime, in order to ensure practices are sustainable)
  • What are the risks that may prevent benefits realisation

By treating benefits as a series of deliverables in a Project Schedule, the visibility of benefits enables stakeholders to determine if/when benefits are actually realised. Information in this form may also be incorporated into Program and Enterprise budget forecasts.