![]() |
|
|
|
| ||
|
|
Intranet Portal - Business Case ROI
The days of easy money are over In these post-dot-com days of the 21st Century, the hype attached to IT is well and truly over. The modern Board is deeply suspicious of large IT projects with questionable benefits and a long-term payback period. The good news is that a world-class portal implementation has the power to completely transform your organisation and touch everyone, from the office of your CEO to the lady in the canteen. First a little on Costs Sorry, but the cost of the software is only a relatively small part of the overall bill; with other major costs in hardware, process change and integration activities. Your first (and major) portal project is (in terms of cost) more an infrastructure investment than it is an application. As a rough rule of thumb (for a user base >10,000), budget for £250 per desktop to put in the essentials (including portal and content management solutions). If you are also integrating to (and exposing) your ERP or CRM systems, add £150. Direct Benefits Based on my experience, Direct Benefits (those that you can directly bake into line budgets and make an individual directorate accountable for realising) are only 20-25% of the total prize and will not generally cover the portal implementation costs by themselves. Direct benefits include reduced printing and distribution costs, decommissioning legacy intranets and FTE savings in operational areas (including IT development & support, Finance & Procurement ledger processing and HR employee services). Soft Benefits include improved employee satisfaction, better communication and corporate belonging, the importance of which should not be under-estimated in your business case. After all, there is always an emotional, as well as a rational, reason for every purchasing decision. However, the bulk of portal benefits are Indirect Benefits, where time saved in line areas leads to (for example) reduced call times in call centres, higher sales, faster time to market for new products, fewer failed projects and so on. Benefits realisation is the issue with such benefits. After all, you can't fire 10 minutes of a person a day! The time they have saved is real - ultimately saving cost and driving sales - but it cannot be readily tracked to either. Making the Business Case: A 10 Step Approach In the Business Case and ROI chapter of my (free to access) Intranet Portal Guide, I outline a 10 step approach to making the portal business case. 1) Seek External Legitimacy 2) Benchmark other Organisations 3) Collect Hard Metrics 4) Use a Comprehensive Time Survey 5) Build a Wall of Benefits 6) Link to the Strategic Agenda 7) Identify 2-3 Killer Apps 8) Use a Cost Avoidance Argument 9) Consider Larger Scope 10) Use Innovative Phasing Conclusions Making the business case for a corporate Intranet Portal will not be easy. You will need all your reserves of patience, cunning and good old-fashioned hard work. Good luck and don't forget to check my guide for more detail, help and tools. About the author: David Viney (david@viney.com) is the author of the Intranet Portal Guide; 31 pages of advice, tools and downloads covering the period before, during and after an Intranet Portal implementation. Read the guide at http://www.viney.com/DFV/intranet_portal_guide or the Intranet Watch Blog at http://www.viney.com/intranet_watch.
Add to these social bookmarking sites: MORE RESOURCES:
Notice: Undefined index: TITLE in /var/www/vhosts/harmonyhollow.net/httpdocs/webmaster-resources/ecommerce/inc/rss.inc on line 103 Google News |
RELATED ARTICLES
Home Sweet Home Page "Your home page is the world's introduction to you and your company. Make it COUNT!" - Heidi RichardsThink of your home page as the cover of your brochure. Mr and Mrs Smith Go Online, as Internet Technology Moves from Fantasy to Normality According to NOP World, 48% of all Internet users have researched or purchased financial products such as insurance and loans on the internet, or used online banking facilities. In April, NOP World had already recorded estimates of 28 million people online in Great Britain, with 13. The Census and the E-Commerce Wave Understanding business and product sales can sometimes put me in a whirlwind. My job tends to get me involved with loads of different opportunities dealing with all sorts of product lines. Choosing the Right Online Shopping Cart Are you a website owner or a web designer/developer? If either applies, I would venture to say that eventually you'll need an online shopping cart for one of your websites. In fact, almost all new websites today need some sort of ecommerce built-in, for the purpose of selling goods and services in the online marketplace. ECommerce Scenario in Pakistan Pakistan with highest growth rates in 1960s and bad politics in 1980s and 90s but, the stage is totally changed in 2000s as the economy is managed by those who once run the most successful Global Financial Houses. Today Pakistan has achieved 8. Google to Compete with PayPal? PayPal is secure in its domination over the electronic payment industry, at least for now.Following reports that Google planned to launch a new Internet payment service (nicknamed Google Wallet), Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, denied that Google would be directly competing with PayPal. Online Florists - Send Flowers Online When Youre In a Hurry You did it again, didn't you? Forgot until the last minute that birthday, anniversary, graduation, promotion, or fill-in-the-blank-here. No fear, online florists are here. Are You Making These E-Commerce Excuses? (part 2) Last time, we started to take a look at the most common reasons why most people don't make progress on their e-commerce and Internet marketing goals. Today, we continue the discussion. Accept Credit Cards Online Without A Merchant Account It is often assumed if you want to accept credit cards on your website that you must have a merchant account. This is not the case. How to Write a Landing Page Is there a difference between writing a landing page and any other web site page? Yes and no. But mainly, yes. Selling Globally Through a B2B Exchange Participation in B2B Exchanges is increasingly becoming one of the fastest growing marketing methods for businesses looking for augmenting their client base beyond their local markets. Any good B2B Exchange offers direct contact with thousands of prospective buyers in a single location. E-commerce: Is It Right for You? The birth of the Internet and the mass availability of personal Computers in the late 80's changed peoples life forever, Everyone now has had the potential to be their own boss whether you are mother at home looking after your children or a manual laborer there are opportunities in abundance . Just a search on Google for business opportunities will bring up more offers than your parents would have had in their whole life. Is Your Business Afraid of the Internet? My Business is Afraid of the InternetBill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, once said that there would soon be two types of businesses, those online, and those out of business. Those words still ring true today, and many small businesses are missing a huge boat by not getting online. Online Consumers - What Are They Complaining About? For many businesses, e-commerce represents a tremendous method for generating revenues. To maximize the profit potential, you need to keep an eye on issues that drive your prospects nuts. Is Your Website Credit Card Friendly? In my last column I discussed the process of credit card enabling your brick-and-mortar business. I pointed out that research has shown that accepting credit cards can help increase revenue and enhance cash flow. How Measuring Key Performance Indicators Can Improve E-Commerce Strategy - Part One The problem with most e-commerce marketing strategy today is that companies don't understand how they use things like web analytics. Most e-commerce directors or web marketers are given a budget and told to stick to it, and good analytics don't usually come cheap. Ecommerce Marketing Plan Concept of ServiceThe current work deals with marketing offer of e-commerce service. It highlights the essential steps of marketing of a brand-new firm offering services of website construction, design, programming, development, and promotion. Pitfalls of Doing Big International Brokerage Business Online Nothing has helped international brokerage business more than the internet: it enables a businessperson to do business with little or no capital and to make quick contacts. Yet nothing has made the brokerage business riskier. Your Affiliate Web Site Is Built - Now What? When I first got my web site built, I thought I finally had a presence on-line. Wrong! I soon found out that I needed someone to host my site, and I needed a domain name. 12 Powerful Ways To Use Autoresponders That Will Take YOU To The Top If only I had known that autoresponders are a necessity to your online business when I first ventured online, I would have saved a lot of time and money. You have to automate in as many areas as possible and if used responsibly, autoresponders can be your best friend. |
| Home | Site Map | |
| © 2006 | |