Benefits Realisation from IT – BeRIT-Model
Methods
Benefits Realisation from IT – BeRIT-Model
Purpose: Identify, define and manage benefits from the use of IT over the entire lifecycle – from the evaluation of a technology to its replacement.
Identifying the benefits arising from implementations of enterprise systems and realizing business value remains a significant challenge for both research and industry. For many organizations enterprise systems represent an area of significant financial investment and business activity. Recent surveys emphasize that understanding and improving the benefits and returns from enterprise system investments is a significant and challenging activity.
The Benefits Realisation Model (BeRIT Model) is a framework that provides help for the identification and realisation of benefits from information technology investments over time. The model is a further development of the Expectations-Benefits Model (Schubert and Williams 2011). The BeRIT Model makes use of practitioner approaches such as the Balanced Scorecard and the OGC Model. Benefits are characterised by three different dimensions: “Outcome”, “Benefit Measurement” and “Strategic Objective” (see figure 1). With the help of the “measurement” dimension the model makes sure that a benefit can really be measured and its changes can be tracked over time (benefits realisation).
Figure 1: BeRIT Model: Overview of components that represent a benefit
The benefits are shown in so-called benefit effect chains. Figure 2 shows an example of such a chain for the Case Freitag, a company producing fashion bags from truck tarpaulin.
References:
The model has first been proposed in the following publication (in German language):
Schubert, Petra; Williams, Susan P.(2013):Management der Nutzenrealisierung aus Informationstechnologie, in: Konferenz Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI 2013),pp. 593·607.
The original expectations-benefits model (exp-ben model) was described in the following publication:
Schubert, Petra; Williams, Susan P. (2011): A Framework for Identifying and Understanding Enterprise Systems Benefits, in: Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 17, No. 5, 2011, pp. 808‐828.
The exp-ben model was derived with the help of a comparative analysis from 31 real-world company cases. IT project managers were interviews and asked about how they had identified and measured benefits of their IT investment over time. From their responses it was possible to develop a taxonomy for benefits from enterprise systems use. This taxonomy is displayed in figure 3.
Figure 3: The expectations-benefits framework (exp-ben framework)
The following table 1 shows examples of benefits on the four levels that could be identified in the cases.
cases.
| BUSINESS DESIGN Strategy/Processes |
MANAGEMENT Resources |
FUNCTIONAL AREA Functions |
IT & INFRASTRUCTURE Technology Elements |
|
| Case 1 | Faster processes (e.g. customer quotations, final accounts, material and equipment dispositions)
Group-wide reporting Increased transparency |
Massive relief for employees in daily business
Higher satisfaction and motivation at work All information is centrally stored without redundancies and available for all subsidiaries |
Consistent target-actual comparison over the entire life cycle of a project (construction site)
Timely construction cost controlling Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for each project |
Integration of functional modules is optimized for information delivery
Higher security and availability levels by hardware outsourcing |
| Case 2 | Massive acceleration of the processes (e.g. month-end closing 23 days earlier) | Improved inventory management leads to higher stock availability and lower capital lockup.
Daily on-line analysis of the situation possible |
New warehouse management allows a larger assortment | Through processing reduces error rates significantly
Continuous coverage of the processes in the system |
| Case 3 | Increased process transparency
Improved competitiveness through faster processes Implementing just-in-time delivery Attractive prices |
Reducing costs through more efficient and faster processing
Time savings for employees through automation, thereby improving customer service |
Generation of analysis and reports for corporate management
Increased customer satisfaction with faster order processing |
Guaranteed future due to up-to-dateness of software and hardware
Technical integration with suppliers |
Table 1: Exemplary benefits identified in three cases grouped by categories in the exp-ben model