More of the good stuff

Value Management is becoming increasingly important for all levels of software investments for any size company.  The question is why?  Companies like SAP are leading the way when it comes to offering excellence in software sales with value management.  Instead of just addressing software requirements SAP goes further and help companies draw the connections to key performance indicators based on SAP's wide industry experience and best practices knowledge.  While a company may have the item in the budget there are still overarching priorities that may derail the budget spend.  For example, a company may have a priority to address employee satisfaction.  Picture a board room setting with a group of executives that are trying to determine what is the best way to address the most pressing focus points - such as employee satisfaction.  On the table are several items including a training program a software solution and other proposals.  Now, imagine the group looking at all these potential spends but the only one that clearly demonstrates the link between employee satisfaction is the software solution.  This is the game they play called "spot the bad investment".  I don't know about you but I'd rather be the vendor that includes a business plan than the one that does not.  Further to this, value management is the continued check-in between a company and it's vendor to ensure the investment has reached the calculated results.  This is really how a vendor can help a company run better.