How to Prioritise Your Investment in Digital

This series of articles began by looking at how firms need a strategy for Digital to align their investment priorities behind the key strategic business drivers at the organisational level. As our clients progress on their digital journey, they soon ask us…

The headline-grabbing programmes typically involve client-facing applications and directly impact how we engage with clients by improving the way we provision information. Investment into a website re-design or the creation of a client portal are increasingly common in the industry as firms seek to differentiate their client experience.

Whilst not as visible, we are increasingly seeing clients implementing digital solutions to great effect further down the value chain, improving their operational systems and processes which act as an enabler to the front-end systems. The use of automation and workflow tools to do the heavy lifting in the middle and back office frees staff to work on more value-add tasks, not to mention reducing operational risk. For that reason, we often see these programmes of work to be more commercially beneficial, even if they are less visible.

By taking a holistic view of the value chain, firms are well placed to adopt a more scientific approach to the prioritisation of opportunities. To achieve that, we recommend developing an in-house framework to facilitate prioritisation decisions that will not only tell you where to start, but will also allow you to continually adapt to the changing needs of your business and your clients.

The ultimate objective of the framework is to promote ideas which are highly valuable and fast to implement. That way, you shorten the feedback loop to your client and deliver value quicker. It is critical to reflect your strategy for digital in how you build your scorecard, and to continually re-visit your priorities to ensure it is aligned with the broader business objectives. As a starting position, we encourage our clients to categorise considerations according to:

• Commercial Potential
• Strategic Alignment
• Business Relevance
• Regulatory & Risk
• Feasibility and Effort to Implement

The assessment of new initiatives is both an art as well as a science and takes time to master. However, it fast becomes a preferred alternative to the Executive Pet Projects or Highest Paid Person’s Opinion (HiPPOs) which so often fail to deliver commercial benefits and underwhelm clients.

By assessing your organisation more holistically and measuring priorities more scientifically, you will benefit from a more efficient allocation of resource, shortened delivery cycles, greater collaboration between business and IT as well as a faster release of value to clients.