Technology Investment Prioritisation

Many companies, and especially, banks and other financial institutions are now heavily dependent on their information processing systems and development can account for a significant proportion of total IT spend.

Development spending in one year intended to create value through, for example, support for new product features also creates a corresponding ongoing multi-year burden: not only for maintenance of the software itself but also the ongoing operational costs. In addition, if enhancements to the application portfolio are not managed in a rational framework then continued development increases the complexity of the resulting software systems. This leads to a disproportionate increase in support costs compared to the value delivered.

Despite the significance and size of the investments involved, we often find that the decision processes are not well managed. Specifically, projects are only either approved or turned down – they are rarely compared to each other for purposes of prioritisation. The development budget is simply allocated until it is exhausted leaving more well-deserving projects which arise later with no funding, as there is often little will to stop projects once they are funded and underway.

By contrast, a rigorous comparative prioritisation process can accelerate investments with the higher returns and defer (or cancel) those with the lower return. As a result, the cash flow of the organisation would be significantly improved. Sixhills have wide experience helping clients Prioritising Technology Investments