Benefits Management Strategy 1043A - WhatDoTheyKnow

1.1.1.1.1.1

Benefits Management Strategy 1043A

Version: 0.0a Date: 21/09/09

Benefits Management Strategy Version 0.0a 21/09/09

Document Control Key personnel

Title Author Approver Owner

Summary Version history

Version

Date

0.0a

21.09.09

Benefits Management Strategy Programme Board SRO Programme Manager

Summary of changes

Distribution

Name

Area See Annex

Changes marked

References

Doc reference 1050 0067 OGC TSO HM Treasury. TSO Cabinet Office PU367 HM Treasury

Document title Benefits Management Strategy Programme Outline Business case Managing Successful Programmes The Green Book Appraisal and Evaluation in Central Government Service Transformation Benefits Management Strategy Service Transformation Agreement

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Contents

Glossary of Benefits Management terms

4

1 Introduction

5

2 Context

7

2.1 Investment Objectives

7

2.2 The Service Transformation Agreement (STA) and the role of the Programme 7

3 Benefits Management Strategy: Purpose & Objectives

11

3.1 Benefits Management Strategy - Purpose

11

3.2 Benefits Management Strategy ? Objectives

11

4 Governance: Responsibilities & Accountabilities

13

4.1 Senior Responsible Owner (SRO)

13

4.2 Programme Director

13

4.3 Programme Benefits Manager

13

4.4 Benefits Owners and Business Benefits Realisation Leads

14

4.5 Benefits Management Assurance

14

4.6 Aligning Benefits Management with Personal Performance Objectives

14

5 Benefits Categorisation

15

5.1 Benefits Categorisation

15

5.2 Benefits categorisation by recipient

16

5.3 Service Transformation Benefits Categorisation

16

6 Benefits Planning

17

6.1 Benefits Quantification and Valuation

17

6.2 Benefits Profiles and Benefits Register

17

6.3 Annual Benefits Realisation Plans

19

6.4 Booking Benefits in Business Plans

19

7 Benefits Realisation Activity

20

7.1 Phased Realisation of Benefits

20

7.2 Joint responsibility for Benefits Realisation

20

7.3 Benefits Reporting

21

8 Implementation of this Strategy

22

8.1 2009-10 Benefits Management Action Plan

22

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Glossary of Benefits Management terms

Benefits

Benefits Management

Benefits Realisation Management Benefits Profile Benefits Realisation Plan Benefits Management Strategy

The quantifiable and measurable improvement resulting from an outcome which is perceived as positive by a stakeholder and which will normally have a tangible value expressed in monetary or resource terms. Benefits are expected when a change is conceived. Benefits are realised as a result of activities undertaken to effect the change.

Care should be taken to avoid defining benefits that cannot be measured. If a benefit cannot be assessed in any realistic way it is usually better not to claim it at all.

Source: OGC Managing Successful Programmes

A continuous management process running throughout the programme. It provides the programme with a target and a means of monitoring achievement against that target on a regular basis.

The aims of Benefits Management are to make sure that desired business change or policy outcomes have been clearly defined, are measurable, and provide a compelling case for investment ? and ultimately to ensure that the change or policy outcomes are actually achieved.

Source: OGC Managing Successful Programmes

Benefits realisation management is the identification of potential benefits, their planning, modelling and tracking, the assignment of responsibilities and authorities and their actual realisation. In many cases, benefits realisation management should be carried out as a duty separate from day to day project management.

Source: HMT Green Book

The complete description of a benefit or dis-benefit.

Source: OGC Managing Successful Programmes

A complete view of all the Benefits profiles in the form of a schedule.

Source: OGC Managing Successful Programmes

How the programme will handle benefits management.

Source: OGC Managing Successful Programmes

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1 Introduction

1.1 The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) publication `Managing Successful Programmes' (MSP) states, "The fundamental reason for beginning a programme is to realise benefits through change" where benefits are, "The quantifiable and measurable improvement...which will normally have a tangible value expressed in monetary or resource terms. Benefits are expected when a change is conceived."

1.2 The purpose of a Benefits Management Strategy is to describe, "How the programme will handle benefits management."

1.3 Unfortunately, evidence indicates that many projects and programmes struggle to demonstrate the realisation of planned benefits ? the OGC has reported in its `Successful Delivery Toolkit' that, "Deficiencies in benefits capture bedevils nearly 50% of government projects" and, "30-40% of systems to support business change deliver no benefits whatsoever." There is a particular problem with benefits that are realised beyond departmental boundaries ? the Cabinet Office noted in its 2006 report to the OECD that, "identification and quantification of external benefits i.e. to users or other departments, was less strong, resulting in business cases that often understated benefits and provided an incomplete base for tracking future third-party benefits through to realisation."

1.4 Furthermore, research indicates that the benefits claimed in business cases tend to be unrealistic - the HMT Green Book for example concludes that, "There is a demonstrated, systemic tendency for project appraisers to be overly optimistic. This is a worldwide phenomenon that affects both the private and public sectors...appraisers tend to overstate benefits, and underestimate timings and costs."

1.5 This strategy seeks to address these failings and to learn from previous experience by adopting:

a holistic approach where all relevant benefits are identified and managed through to realisation;

a flexible approach where benefits realisation activities are adjusted to reflect the materiality of the benefits, the organisational contexts in which they are realised, and the value to be derived from measuring them; and

a phased approach with the focus at the planning stage on realism in forecasting, shifting to one based on enthusiastic user engagement post implementation to capture unplanned benefits and to disseminate learnings.

1.6 Reflecting the modular nature of the programme and that many benefits will be emergent, this Strategy is a `living document' and explicit provision is made for regular updating to take into account learnings from implementation and changes in programme scope.

1.7 This Strategy includes:

Section 1 ? Introduction: including formal approval of this Strategy by the Programme Director and Senior Responsible Officer.

Section - 2 Context: the Investment Objectives and the programme's place in the crossgovernment Service Transformation Agreement (STA).

Section 3 - The Purpose and Objectives of the Benefits Management Strategy.

Section 4 ? Governance: responsibilities and accountabilities in relation to benefits management of: the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO), Programme Director, Programme Benefits Manager, Business Managers and Benefits Owners, and provision for independent assurance on Benefits Management activity.

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Section 5 - Benefits Categorisation: the categories of benefits used on the programme and how they align with the recently introduced cross-government STA benefits categories.

Section 6 - Benefits Planning: articulation, quantification and valuation of benefits in profiles and a benefits register; validating them with business heads and benefits owners including `booking' benefits in business plans and budgets; and preparation of an annual Benefits Realisation Plan.

Section 7 - Benefits Realisation Activity: including tracking and reporting benefits realised against the annual Benefits Realisation Plan, and active engagement with users to identify unplanned and emergent benefits.

Section 8 ? Implementation: including the 2009-10 Benefits Management Action Plan.

1.8 1.8.1

Approvals

By the Programme Director

I am content that this Strategy provides a sound basis for the management of benefits from the investment in the programme. As such I recommend that the SRO endorse this Strategy subject to the actions listed in Section 8.1 which I will monitor in the forthcoming period.

Signed

Date

1.8.2

By the Senior Responsible Officer

I am satisfied that this Strategy provides a sound basis for providing me with an acceptable degree of confidence that the potential benefits will be effectively managed and that adequate evidence will be collected in due course to demonstrate benefits realisation.

Signed (Terry Moran)

Date

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2 Context

2.1 Investment Objectives

2.1.1 The primary Investment Objectives for the programme are reflected in the following quotes from Leigh Lewis and Liam Byrne:

This, "is a major programme, being led by DWP on behalf of Government as a whole, to transform the way in which people can tell Government (central and local) about changes to their circumstances. At its heart ? as it says on the tin ? is the proposition that people should only have to tell us things ? like a birth or death ? once and we will make sure that information reaches all the Government Departments and Agencies that need to know. That sounds an utterly obvious thing to do ? and it is ? but making it a reality is very challenging."

Leigh Lewis

"As services are scrutinised for ways to deliver greater value to the taxpayer, we will learn from how the best services are delivering higher quality at lower costs by reducing the number of services trying to tackle the same problems in partial ways."

Liam Byrne

2.1.2

As such it seeks to enable services that are better for the citizen, front line staff, and better for the taxpayer:

Citizens will receive a better experience, faster, cheaper and easier access to government services.

Government and taxpayers will benefit from faster and more effective identification of customers for their services, reduced unnecessary contact and improved efficiency.

Staff will see improved job satisfaction as they are able to do their job more effectively.

2.1.3

The benefits management approach adopted by the programme, and as outlined in this Strategy, will reflect these Investment Objectives by focusing on benefits to users as well as to government and staff.

2.2 The Service Transformation Agreement (STA) and the role of the programme

2.2.1

The Vision for Service Transformation is, "to change public services so they more often meet the needs of people and businesses, rather than the needs of government, and by doing so reduce the frustration and stress of accessing them. The result will be services that are better for the customer, for front line staff and better for the taxpayer."

2.2.2

As such, the STA Benefits Management Strategy recognises that the primary objective of Service Transformation is to improve the customer experience in accessing public services and two key progress measures were identified to measure this:

1. To achieve a 50% reduction in avoidable contact by the end of the CSR07 period. The STA defined avoidable contact as, "demand caused by customers initiating contact because they are confused, need to check on progress, pass on information they have already given to other parts of the public sector and so on. This is contact that would not be necessary if the public sector could get things right first time"; and

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2. To migrate more than 95% of the total identified websites to Directgov and Businesslink by the end of the CSR07 period.

2.2.3

The STA also recognised that significant efficiency savings should be delivered from the redesign of services around the needs of the user and stated that the Cabinet Office would track these efficiency savings as they arose. The importance of realising efficiencies that enable government to deliver more with less has recently been emphasised by the Public Value and Operational Efficiency Programmes.

2.2.4

The vision, strategies and publicly committed metrics of the STA are shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: STA Strategy Map

2.2.5 The role of the programme in this wider cross-government agenda encompasses:

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