Benefits Tracking Solutions
Benefits tracking is essential to measure success
As illustrated in the first and last examples, whilst cash benefits are usually the focus on improvement initiatives, most projects attempt to capture other types of benefit and a good tool should do both. Both of the last two examples provide an audit path back to the original numbers used to "baseline" the spend used to calculate the benefit. Once past the idea stage, Hermetica believes in a proper auditable business case.
Simply measuring the benefit is not enough
Over 50% of the spreadsheet example is devoted to measuring progress against plans. Any good benefits tracker should have elements of planning associated with it. This example charted the number of Requests for Quotation issued as a means of determining if activities were on track.
The benefit lifecycle and "levers"
Benefits start with an idea (the first example) and should end up being fully reflected in the financial accounts. It is a fact of life that some ideas do not develop and even fully planned initiatives deliver more or less than calculated. If an overall target is set, then the idea pipeline should be at least double (if not more) than the final target.
Most trackers will capture how the benefits will be delivered. "Levers" are the usual means of capturing this.
Watch this space for a really good solution (coming soon) ...
A simple, pick-list based, tool to capture quick wins
This tool was developed to capture quick wins whilst working with the DH Care Services Efficiency Delivery (CSED) programme (more detail ..).
It includes key features to arrive at a typical benefit versus ease of implementation matrix.
A more comprehensive spreadsheet benefits calculator
This tool is a more extensive example of spreadsheet solution which captures benefits over time and, importantly elements of planning to get there. The output charts show progress both in terms of cash and in terms of deliverables (see more ...).
A solution based on a web front end and database
This solution was designed to capture life cycle benefits - not just cost. It includes the "levers" used to deliver the benetis amongst other details. There was a simple front end (available here) which captured a summary of the initiative.