In a tough financial environment it is now even more important to understand the implication of major investments in your intranet and to ensure that every pound spent will reap a greater ratio of rewards both tangible and intangible to the organisation.
IBF can help you build a business case using our valuation model which has been developed with financial analysts and IBF members BT, Sara Lee, Nokia, BP and Lloyds TSB.
If you are making a business case to provide enhanced facilities for your remote and mobile workers (such as remote conferencing) you should be considering all of the following aspects:
| Benefits | Examples for Remote and Mobile Working |
|---|---|
| Revenue generated | This is the cash generated for the organisation which is a direct result of implementation. Enhanced facilities for on-line ordering and problem resolution facilitated increased sales by a mobile sales force up to 10% on previous years. |
| Cost savings | These are real cash savings that will be derived from the planned improvement. Property cost savings for one organisation generated an initial benefit of £200m and further savings of £20m per year. |
| Time savings | Many financial accountants are sceptical of time savings which can be translated into cash so any analysis of time savings should be linked to specific tasks which can be measured in terms of both before and after the improvement. Travel time, time to access information and colleagues’ expertise. Most organisations cite between 10-30% increase in productivity for home workers and one organisation can illustrate £90m time savings which obviously far outweighs the cost of implementation. |
By analysing and using real examples (rather than a guess) you are less likely to meet opposition on these justifications. You should also consider applying a certainty factor to your calculations.
Intangible Benefits
These are areas that will show benefits for the organisation but can’t be directly translated into cash. Again, using any of these as a measurement requires that data is captured before and after the improvement.
- Employee satisfaction – if you able to directly attribute increased satisfaction with a specific improvement then you may also be able to claim a share for the benefits of employee satisfaction such as employee retention and cost savings on recruiting and employing new staff.
- Reduced carbon footprint- reducing the number of miles travelled by individuals will obviously help to improve your emissions rating.
- Improved health and safety – fewer employees working in offices will reduce overall risk of accidents and statistics show that home workers take less time off for stress related illnesses.
- Reduced business risk – improved applications and communications will help to reduce many elements of business risk i.e. a widely spread workforce reduces the risk of a single point of failure.
Most organisations conduct satisfaction surveys which are qualitative and general in nature. These surveys will need to be redesigned to provide specific and quantitative feedback on each individual area of improvement i.e. how long does this task take you?
Find out more about IBF Financial Value Benchmarking. To discuss your requirements, please contact Paul Miller on paul@ibforum.com.
