Maximising the Return on Public Sector IT Investment

Malcolm Brock

Managing Director Brovanture

 

“Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice.”

– Henry Ford

I have always loved this saying – it is so true. It is attributed to Henry Ford but I first read it as a child in the wonderful story ‘Stig of the Dump’ by Clive King. I came to fully appreciate it as a teenager when I actually chopped wood on a cold winter day!

What has this to do with business and especially Enterprise Software, which I normally write about, I hear you say? Well, speaking to our Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud (PBCS) customers over the last few months it struck me that this has relevance. They typically begin the process of replacing their current planning and forecasting system with a specific benefit in mind but on reflection having completed the project realise they achieved much more.

This is particularly true with a modern planning and forecasting solution where, very often, the aim is to reduce the cost of the process through reduced IT cost. This can be achieved, especially with a cloud based solution, but in addition having a better planning and forecasting will enable an organisation to better understand and manage its costs and reduce them further. Thus the ‘warm you twice’ analogy!

For Public Sector organisations there is significant relevance in this. Austerity has put great pressure on their budgets and is driving a ‘doing more for less’ revolution throughout the sector, be it local or central government, police constabularies, NHS Trusts or any organisation funded by tax payers. In this environment choosing how to save and where to spend money becomes even more significant. So, investing in this type of solution can really have a major impact – often much more that investing in other areas of IT.

There are other advantages of looking at this type of solution as a first place to invest:

• Implementation times are short – a few weeks is all that many organisations need to be fully up and running and delivering benefits
• Unlike replacing an ERP system, putting in new planning and budgeting will not disrupt the entire organisation, with in potential for high cost and increased risk
• Flexible integration functionality means that as other systems are replaced the new systems can, where required, be easily integrated with the new planning and budgeting solution

Can this really be achieved so easily you might ask? The answer is, categorically, YES. We have partnered with a number of public sector organisations and are right now working with others on live projects that have, and are, delivered the benefits listed above. If you would like to know more about what our customers, in partnership with Brovanture, have achieved then please contact us.