Importance of Benefits Management in Strategic Change Initiatives

IMPORTANCE OF BENEFITS MANAGEMENT IN STRATEGIC CHANGE INIATIVES: A CASE STUDY OF

PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN IBM UKRAINE USING BENEFITS

MANAGEMENTTulin Dzhengiz H00232784Oleksii Pominovskyi H00214911Shy-Nien Koong H00214525Nursultan Zhakas H00227733Oybek Nasirov H00213985

Abstract

Benefits Management (BM) or Benefits Realisation Management (BRM) is discussed in different industries for its implications in the field of project portfolio management. Even though the development of BM is relatively new, it is becoming a managerial concept that is widely used in strategic change initiatives. BM gives the opportunity to consider various benefits (tangible-intangible) in a defined strategic change case to link the strategic objectives and particular projects undertaken. Even though there are limitations in the tracking of benefits realisation due to measurement, BM is promising for companies in emergent environments implementing change initiatives by introducing projects and programmes. This paper examines the existing efforts in BM as a managerial concept with a greater focus on its role in strategic alignment and realisation process (benefits tracking and monitoring). As a research method a case study is used to show the practical implications of BM in a global organisation. The case study proves the usefulness of BM in change initiatives and presents BM implementations in a global organisation that is similar to the existing literature.

KEYWORDS: Programme and portfolio management; benefits management; benefit realisation; strategic change.

Introduction

Benefits management is a process that enables management to ensure the expected outcomes of a change initiative to be realized (Breese et al. 2015; Bradley 2006). The literature on BM focuses mainly on cases with IT-enabled change initiatives (Breese et al. 2015). Even though IT-enabled change initiatives are good examples to observe how BM can be implemented, the definition of BM should be broader and not limited with IT

1 C11SP Strategic Project Management 2015/16

projects in companies. BM is a broader concept of value creation and BM should be seen as a tool for managing and developing portfolios and programmes where the expected outcomes of different stakeholders can be realized (Thorp 2003; Bradley 2006; Breese et al. 2015).

Benefits Management is a relatively new concept in the area of project portfolio management and its history is linked to the emergence of programme management and portfolio management studies carried out by scholars and practitioners (Thorp 2003). Benefits can be tangible or intangible performance improvements recognized by the stakeholders. Benefits can be either financial improvements or non-financial improvements and therefore it may be hard to quantify or measure. It is also important to emphasize that different stakeholders will perceive the created value and realized benefits in a different way (Sanchez & Robert 2010; Bradley 2006; Breese et al. 2015).

Benefits management contribute to programmes and projects success and add value by reducing costs and realizing expected outcomes that are of importance for different stakeholders. Therefore, this paper argues that strategic change initiatives should be carried out using benefits management to ensure the alignment of the strategy with projects/programmes using benefits realisation methods either qualitative or quantitative depending on benefit classification. This argument will then be supported by a business case of IBM Ukraine. IBM has developed a new portfolio in Ukraine in line with their global strategy, utilising their resources and expertise with the objective of diversifying this portfolio. The case will show how IBM implemented the principles of benefits management to ensure the success of the change initiative.

Literature Review

Benefits Management as a managerial concept

The term ‘benefits management’ was used in the late 1980s (Barbara Farbey 1999). Later, BM became a vital part of the development of project management in the late of twentieth and early twenty-first century (Winter et al. 2006). It is suggested that there has been a paradigm shift from traditional benefits realization principles to new benefits realization principles (Sapountzis et al. 2008; Tillmann et al. 2010). This paradigm shift is towards a more flexible, emergent and proactive approach to benefits (Sapountzis et al. 2008).

This paper suggests that BM should not be limited with programme and project management, but also should be accepted as a specific managerial concept. BM is defined as the process of organising and managing, so that potential benefits, arising from investment in change, are actually achieved (Bradley 2006). APM defines BM as a ‘strategic business skill for all seasons…centred on using benefits management to align the journey from business strategy to delivery to the embedding of change within organisations’ (APM 2009). Some scholars focus on the value creation aspect of BM and


define BM as the promotion of ‘a different mindset, based on an approach that manages value on an active basis’ (Jenner 2009). Thereby, benefits management is a way to align the strategy to projects so that the deliverables are connected to the expected benefits. Benefits management is therefore a managerial concept which does not only serve for the delivery of a programme and related projects on time, on budget at a certain quality but also taking it to a step further ensuring the expected outcomes to be realized.

Benefits management: A bridge between strategy and projects, programmes, portfolios

Companies have their vision, mission and objectives defined at a strategic level. Projects or a set of projects are governed together (programmes) are created to achieve the strategic goals defined (Thiry 2002). Any kind of strategic change is implemented or achieved by means of different projects or programmes which have their defined goals and targets. Typically, project management success is being measured in terms of cost/budget/quality mostly in short term period, what does not show correlation with strategic level targets. At the same time, project deliverables and benefits overall success measures (what really contributes in strategy) are more complex and usually defined in long term period. That causes most project managers on practice to concentrate mostly on fulfilling project management itself, which is what they are usually expected to do (Wateridge, 1995).

Nevertheless, many scholars admit that successfully implemented projects do not guarantee realizing strategic goals even if projects were finished in given cost/time/quality frames which caused many researchers to focus on adjusting strategic goals of the organizations with project outcomes (Cooke-Davis et al. 2009) and alignment of projects, programmes, portfolios with strategy found to be crucial (Cooke-Davis et al. 2009). Benefits Management serves as the main “bridge” between designing the strategy and its implementation, making sure the targets are met (Serra & Kunc 2015).

To sum up, organisational success or success of a change initiative depends on the project management success and the strategic alignment between strategy and portfolio/programme and projects.

Benefits Realisation Process

Benefits realisation management is a process of organising and managing so that these benefits tangible or intangible perceived by the stakeholders are realised in a programme or a portfolio (Bradley 2006). This process includes identifying these benefits and linking to the organisational strategy which created the strategic alignment, planning and tracking as well as reviewing and monitoring the realisation of benefits (Sapountzis et al. 2008; Yates


et al. 2009; Bradley 2006). Figure 1 explains the OGC Gateway Framework (Tjernstrom 2008) approach to benefits realisation management as a process.

Figure 1: Benefits Management Process. Source: (Tjernstrom 2008)

Moreover, some scholars propose that BM process itself creates the value as more focus on benefits tracking helps to increase productivity (Bradley 2010). Therefore, BM may considerably decrease the risk of projects failure or investment mistakes by making sure that the benefits are identified, planned, monitored, measured and realized.

Benefits Classification and Qualitative/Quantitative Models in Benefits Realisation and Tracking

Benefits can be classified according to the value they create and therefore can be classified as tangible and intangible (Too & Weaver 2013; Yates et al. 2009). Tangible benefits are defined as benefits that have financial implications that can be quantified, whereas intangible benefits are the benefits where the value is subject to discussion and therefore hard to quantify due to the perception of stakeholders and subjectivity (Sanchez & Robert 2010), which is why intangible benefits are called as soft benefits and tangible benefits are also called as hard benefits in literature (Sapountzis et al. 2008).

Benefits realisation tracking can be done by qualitative or quantitative methods (Tjernstrom 2008). Qualitative methods suggests frameworks to track both tangible and intangible benefits. However, quantitative methods focus on the quantification of benefits that are tangible and usually financial.

Different qualitative frameworks can be found on the literature developed or used for different cases such as IT projects (Ashurst & Hodges n.d.; Doherty et al. 2005) or area


regeneration projects (Breese 2012). These frameworks usually focus on linking the vision to helpful mechanisms such as organisational capability, organisational structure or skills as well as conceptualising the benefits realisation process and focusing on the strategic alignment (Thorp 2003). “The Result Chain” can be given as an example to measurement approaches to benefits realisation in Figure 2 (Thorp 2003).

Figure 2: Result Chain Approach as an Example. Source: (Thorp 2003)

The studies that focus on the quantitative evaluation of benefits usually focus on profit maximisation or cost reduction benefits from a shareholder point of view, using cost-benefit ratio, ROI or key performance indicators (Lappe & Spang 2014). In practice, some project and programme managers would use KPIs for measurement and track the benefits and monitor if they are realized according to these KPIs, however researchers also acknowledged that KPIs may not be a common practice for all project/programme managers (Bennington, Peter; Baccarini 2004).

It may be easier to measure deliverables in a project level. However, at a programme portfolio level where organization is making a strategic move the perceived value of stakeholders would vary. Even though some scholars are striving to measure and quantify benefits (Lange et al. 2012; Thomson et al. 2011; Sanchez & Robert 2010), strategic changes usually consist many stakeholders, many intangible outcomes with a varying time to realize these benefits which complicates measurement or quantification.

There are also hybrid models including both qualitative such as employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, transparency and quantitative measures of benefits such as organisational and project costs (Lappe & Spang 2014). This paper argues that tracking of


benefits is crucial in benefits realisation process, and companies use and must use both qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate their benefits realisation. Table 3 presents some models that are used in benefits realisation tracking and measuring.

Sources Suggested Model Advantages of the ModelSources for Qualitative Models

(Ashurst & Hodges n.d.)

Maturity Model of Competencies within the Black-Box of organisation.

Focuses on the benefits realization capability and suggests different drivers of change may require different competencies.

(Lange et al. 2012)

Enterprise Architecture (EA)Benefits Realisation Model

Defines organisational and project benefits with regards to efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility to test the benefits realisation of EA.

(Doherty et al. 2005)

Benefits Dependency Network

Focuses on enablers, business changes, benefits and investment objects in the model to ensure the enablers are there to satisfy objectives.

(Breese 2012) Benefits Hierarchy Links vision, objectives, outcomes, outputs and activities.

Sources for Hybrid Models(Lappe & Spang 2014)

Components of ROI of PM

Defines the qualitative and quantitative components to be considered in benefits realisation

(Thorp 2003) The Results Chain Linking time, people, reach a balanced score card approach is suggested to measuring benefits realisation. Not only focuses on the finances, also focuses on organisational capabilities, softer benefits and links to strategy.

Sources for Quantitative Methods(Sanchez & Robert 2010)

Developing KPIs for Project Portfolios Considering a Strategic Perspective

Setting of portfolio objectives, validating key benefits, linking key benefits, objectives and projects, visualizing the streams, determining the project contribution to the achievement of portfolio objectives, setting the thresholds for the portfolio with regards to the KPI measured

(Mir & Pinnington 2014)

Linking Project Management Performance and

Long term organisational benefits and short term project benefits are identified statistically and valued by taking into


Project Success consideration different stakeholders to achieve overall success

Table 3: Benefits measurement models.

The Case

Introduction to IBM Global and Benefits Management at IBM

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is a multinational technology and consulting corporation, with headquarters in Armonk, New York. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware, middleware and software, and offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM operates in three global areas: software development, hardware manufacturing and IT outsourcing services. IBM has more than 379 000 employees and operates in 170 countries, continuously expanding their business, 5th most valuable brand and 2nd in the IT Services industry according to Forbes in 2014. IBM delivers internal and external projects supported by Project Management Center of Excellence of IBM. This methodology is based on the PMI recommendations and designed to satisfy specific needs of the company due to its structure and strategy. IBM project portfolio management methodology is critical to the IBM operations, as it is used by 22,703 project managers (1Q15, IBM PM Center of Excellence). IBM’s own methodology - Worldwide Project Management Method (WWPMM) defines how IBM manages programmes and projects by assessing risk and performance in a service project and improving efficiency by defining clear tasks for project managers. WWPMM also defines BM as “a practice which describes the process, activities, techniques and work products used to manage program benefits”. WWPMM recognizes strategic alignment of vision, objectives, programmes and projects which is why they try to eliminate major pitfalls like poorly documented business plans, lack of mission and goals, or a poor understanding of stakeholder concerns.

IBM recognizes the importance of tangible and intangible benefits of programmes or projects and use both qualitative and quantitative approaches to realize benefits.

Figure 4&5 Explains the WWPMM guidelines with regards to the BM approach accepted and used in the IBM organization (Kerzner & Learning 2010; Lisa Dyer, Andrew Forget, Fahad Osmani, Jonas Zahn 2013).


Figure 4: WWPMM Strategic Alignment Activity - programs are often initiated to deliver benefits that are part of an organization’s long-term strategic plan. Source: (Kerzner & Learning 2010; Lisa Dyer, Andrew Forget, Fahad Osmani, Jonas Zahn 2013)

Figure 5: WWPMM Activities in order to analyze, develop and plan benefits. Source: (Kerzner & Learning 2010; Lisa Dyer, Andrew Forget, Fahad Osmani, Jonas Zahn 2013)


The Programme Business Case is the key document which provides detailed identification, quantification and timing of expected financial and other business benefits (justifications) derived from implementing the transformation project, and to formally document those. The Business Case also identifies costs and assumptions used in the calculations, so as to provide the true understanding of the benefits. It also should provide the record and road map enabling personnel to claim all of the identified benefits and for the management team to track actual versus planned benefits. The Business Case is the source for the final presentation when gaining senior management or Board of Directors approval to proceed with the transformation project.

Moreover, the Business Case outlines how actual benefits or results can be measured, compared to existing metrics and benefits claimed, as recommendations associated with each business process or function are implemented.

WWPMM recognizes:

"hard" or quantifiable benefits with a presentation of measurements, such as total project benefits ($), total project expenditures ($), internal rate of return (%), net present value ($), discounted payback period (years) and/or other meaningful selected measurements. May also include high-level cash flow analysis for 5-10 years ($/year).

suggested "soft" benefits which are difficult to quantify, "Quick Hit" benefits to the client that can be identified and claimed based on the

project, which may or may not be solely due to the implementation of the recommendation

Examples of benefits realization measures are also whether or not benefits exceed their input costs and whether they are delivered in a timely manner. This includes the dimensions of the benefit (e.g., the date when realization must start) and a quantification of the benefit (e.g., hours saved, profit increased, market share increased, competitor strength reduced, or incremental productivity improvements) and costs.

In order to make BM process controlled WWPMM focuses mostly on quantitative methods like calculating and tracking Benefit Realization - includes Key Perfomance Indicators (KPI) such as Return on Investment (ROI), Internal rate of return (IRR), Payback period, Cost Analysis, Risk Analysis (add other financial analysis techniques based upon client and project environment.


Figure 6 as below shows major processes within WWPMM which are recognized by IBM as a part of the overall BM approach and must be conducted in scope of any programme (Kerzner & Learning 2010; Lisa Dyer, Andrew Forget, Fahad Osmani, Jonas Zahn 2013).


Figure 6: WWPMM processes with regards to the BM approach. Source: (Kerzner & Learning 2010; Lisa Dyer, Andrew Forget, Fahad Osmani, Jonas Zahn 2013)


IBM CASE STUDY IN UKRANIAN MARKET: STRATEGIC CHANGE IN IBM ORGANISATION DUE TO PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMMENT– HOW DID IBM ENSURED BENEFITS REALISATION

History of Retail Banking and IT Services in Ukraine

Early 2000s Ukrainian IT outsourcing market grew dramatically due to the international influence and demand for IT software engineering services and IT support. Therefore, new companies were established to satisfy this external demand and some international players entered the Ukranian IT market (EPAM, Global Logic, Luxof, Ciklum). Most of these companies diversified their portfolio by offering software development services both for international and local businesses. Banking sector was one of the most attractive market for these companies. Ukrainian banks were trying to reduce their operational costs for IT support mostly as the number of banking branches were increasing from less than 8000 in year 2000 to more than 16000 in 2008 (Bank.gov.ua 2008). Other changes in banking area like new legislation requirements and new technologies were pushing banks to outsource IT functions as keeping internal staff for this purposes was becoming more and more expensive. Due to the opportunistic market and high demand, more companies entered the market offering not only software design services, but some infrastructure solutions (De Nova 2009). However, none of these companies who offer outsourcing opportunities for IT systems for the banks were able to offer the whole IT landscape support with a broader portfolio. After 2014, due to unstable political environment in Ukraine, centralized IT activities or outsourcing IT services became an urgent strategic matter of cost reduction, even though not all the providers had heavy investments in the infrastructure and cannot offer a broader solution.

IBM Ukraine and UniCredit Bank

IBM started its operation in Ukraine in 1992 and by September 2006 became a fully established operating subsidiary. Until 2011 IBM Ukraine mostly concentrated on hardware supplies. After 2011, as the market opportunities were clear and IBM had the infrastructure, IBM Ukraine started to offer consulting services in two major areas (traditional for the company on global market) as well: global technology services and global business services.

PJSC Ukrsotsbank is one of the largest banks in Ukraine, providing retail, business, corporate and private banking services. It has a network of nearly 400 branches and


provides services to over 2 million customers across Ukraine. In 2008 the bank became part of UniCredit Group, one of the largest financial networks in the world.

Portfolio Development: Strategic Business Change in IBM with UniCredit Partnership

IBM Global has a strategy of expanding its business operations in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). IBM Ukraine is one of these strategic business units and linked to this expansion strategy (IBM 2015).

In the beginning of 2011 IBM Ukraine management decided to conduct a strategic change which would allow IBM enter Ukrainian IT outsourcing services market and offer much broader services than competitors as IBM provides the whole range. IBM therefore invested on developing a new portfolio in Ukraine and the first contract was signed with UniCredit Bank. This strategic move demonstrated IBM's momentum in growth and signaled its readiness to expand its presence in Ukraine. This contract valued approximately USD$200M and has a duration for 10 years. In terms of contract IBM took responsibility for the development and support of UniCredit’s information systems and applications as well as the management of the whole bank's IT infrastructure.

"This is the first instance of full outsourcing in the region and marks a new era in the IT delivery model and in the development of Ukraine's financial services sector. Banks across growing markets are currently under enormous pressure to reduce costs and manage operational complexities whilst improving the customer experience. Unicredit has turned to IBM for its unrivalled experience in the banking sector and to ensure that its customers benefit from the very best technologies and business processes" said Joseph Benaroya, vice president, IBM Global Technology Services (UniCredit Bank 2011).

Structural Changes: Creation of IT Innovations Ukraine

IBM did not have enough qualified staff to take over the management and maintenance of Unicredit's IT landscape in Ukraine. IBM either needed to hire local staff and go through HR selection processes or engage the IBM experts from knowledge centers in other European countries. IBM needed to start serving UniCredit immediately, and the contract allowed the existing IT staff of UniCredit bank to move to IBM organization to enable a smoother transaction and gave opportunity to IBM to leverage the internal knowledge of UniCredit. Figure 7 and 8 shows the structural change after the contract in IBM Ukraine and UniCredit. This change was conducted as a global project for a new account (contract) creation and a general coordination performed by the IBM Europe PMO. The transformation was made clear by establishing the new structure (both with local and


external staff) and creating rules, policies and procedures and communicating the changes with stakeholders involved.

Figure 7: Sequence of major transformational structural steps.

As a result of transformational changes Limited Liability Company IT Innovations Ukraine (ITIU) was created which is a 100% subsidiary of IBM in order to ensure delivery of strategic outsourcing (SO Delivery) project. However ITIU is a new portfolio developed not only to serve UniCredit but also to gain other accounts and add programmes to the new portfolio using the existing knowledge and experience. ITIU is designed to deliver professional IT & consulting services to customers, including optimization and utilization of IT systems, IT cost reduction and risk management especially to retail banking and financial services industry through expertise in building innovative solutions and capabilities for unlocking value in business performance. All activities of ITIU are executed in compliance with IBM values and IBM quality policy and framework and especially WWPMM guidelines for project and portfolio management.


Figure 8: Structural changes in scope of the agreement between IBM Ukraine and UniCredit. Sequence of major transformational structural steps.

As a result of changes described above, at the end of 2011 IBM Ukraine managed to create subsidiary structure with more than 150 qualified IT professionals (local and from knowledge centers in other European countries). This structure is a unique combination of global IBM knowledge in all the IT areas (both hardware and software) and is able to resolve IT related task of any difficulty. This is currently a unique offering and a business model in Ukrainian market that creates a strong competitive advantage.

Benefits Identification and Mapping during Structural Change

By outsourcing from ITIU, UniCredit planned to improve customer service, increase performance efficiency and lower operational risk across its country-wide network of nearly 400 branches. Francesco Pusateri, head of UniCredit's Global Banking Services Division (UniCredit Bank 2011) explained their benefits:

“By outsourcing our information technology activities to IBM we are able to focus on our core business priorities while ensuring the best possible service to our customers.


Leveraging IBM's technology assets and industry experience we are able to transform the way we work and run our operations. This step is an important enhancement of UniCredit Group's strategy of concentrating on core business and cost optimization."

Table 9 & Table 10 identifies the expected benefits for IBM and UniCredit from this strategic change.

Tangible Benefits of IBM Tangible Benefits of UniCredit

Increased profit – new log-term contract contract for 200M USD.

Reduced operational costs (no need to keep idle expensive staff in periods of low activity),

New market expansion, increased market share

Guaranteed SLAs from IBM for IT services support – financial safety for the UniCredit

Increased efficiency of the IT infrastructure – increased customers satisfaction

Table 9: Expected Tangible Benefits of IBM & UniCredit.

Intangible Benefits of IBM Intangible Benefits of UniCredit

Strong competitive advantage – no equal rivals on the market

Expertise from IBM Europe knowledge centers

New possibilities for cross selling (Supply own hardware + offer own IT support services + offer own IT outsourcing services).

Direct access to IBM technology and hardware support services

Increased internal capability for other contracts

More mature PM approach (using IBM methodology) – guarantee of relevant projects execution and strategic programs alignment

New powerful replicable oursourcing model created that can be 'exported' to other UniCredit businesses.

Table 10: Expected Intangible Benefits of IBM & UniCredit.


Figure 11 presents an alignment of IBM strategy and expected outcomes of the conducted strategic change.


Figure 11: The alignment of IBM strategy and expected outcomes of the conducted strategic change.


Analysis

From the business case described we can see that IBM implemented benefits management approach to manage the change at a strategic level and managed the related projects linking to the general strategy using benefits management ideology.

The strategic change undertaken by IBM is supported by the fact that Unicredit's agreement with IBM represents a major milestone for outsourcing within the Commonwealth of Independent States region. It sets a new gold standard and a reference point for major Ukrainian and Russian financial enterprises seeking a more effective way of running large and expensive IT infrastructures under challenging economic conditions. IDC believes that “This important initiative will start a wider uptake of outsourcing services in the market," said Andrew Golovnykh, senior research analyst, IDC Ukraine (UniCredit Bank 2011).

IBM also listed their expected benefits from this strategic change. IBM expected to enter a new market with a new offering in accordance with their global expansion strategy and took advantage of lack of competition in the market leveraging their existing knowledge in their global infrastructure. This move gave opportunities for cross selling as well for supply their own hardware and IT support at the same time. IBM also increased the utilization of their human resources by rotating their experts to transfer knowledge. ITIU offers a package that can serve to other banks like UniCredit and IBM is getting prepared to expand their portfolio by gaining new customers to serve under ITIU subsidiary. Since June 2015 IBM is also negotiating with Credit Agricole Group which can join ITIU portfolio.

Also, IBM’s focus on its core big data and cloud-based services is one more strong competitive advantage on the background of the current political and economic situation in Ukraine.

IBM’s internal guidelines (WWPMM) are in line with the literature of BM, as it provides a general managerial approach trying to achieve the strategic alignment of goals, managing the change process and creating a plan to ensure the benefit realization.

Therefore, on the basis of the business case presented and the literature analysis, it is suggested that BM should be considered as a managerial concept which is concentrated mostly on achieving companies targets by aligning strategy and activities on programs and projects level. It is done through building sets of processes which help companies to identify benefits and organize planning and executing processes in order to deliver expected outcomes from projects and realize benefits. In this way, BM focuses not on operational management of a particular project, but on the identification of right benefits and realization of them by these pre-defined processes.

Moreover, BM activities itself help to create the value as through strategic alignment of the programs and projects new opportunities are revealed and more focus on benefits tracking helps to increase productivity. Tracking of benefits is crucial in benefits realisation process, and


companies use both qualitative and quantitative models to evaluate their benefits realisation depending on benefits classification.

Conclusion

Benefits management process and benefits realisation monitoring and tracking is still being discussed by scholars and practitioners. This paper argued that a strategic change must be undertaken using benefits management as it helps the strategic alignment and tracks the realisation of benefits defined by different stakeholders.

The case study from IBM Ukraine shows a structural strategic change in a global company. IBM methodology places great emphasis on Benefits Management, as a managerial concept. Therefore, during this specific change, IBM used their WWPMM guidelines with regards to the BM and tracked their benefits. It is clear that IBM classified their benefits and as their WWPMM guidelines suggested they used KPIs to track their tangible benefits. However, they also gave importance to intangible benefits and used frameworks and stakeholder approach to track intangible benefits and their realisation. This proves that companies that have structured guidelines and methodologies about project and programme management like IBM are already practising BM. This case also proves that benefits maps, hierarchies or dependency networks visualizes the strategic alignment during a change initiative and gives importance to the realisation of both intangible and tangible benefits.

The evaluation process of benefits is complicated due to the variety of stakeholders involved and the difficulty of measurement when it comes to intangible benefits. Therefore “measurement” of intangible benefits is a limitation and should be researched and discussed further. The complex nature of benefits set a limit to quantify it. Defining the benefits according to stakeholders but not only according to the shareholders increases the complexity of intangible benefits. ‘Business as usual’ can discuss that quantifying benefits from shareholders’ point of view (focusing only on cost reduction and profit increase) is a simpler solution. However changing dynamics in the worlds’ economy and ecology prove that change initiatives require stronger stakeholder engagement and therefore more research on linking benefits management and stakeholder engagement is required, not only for non- profit but also for-profit organisations such as IBM.

The economy in developing countries require an emergent approach to strategic change, and companies face strong external forces. These forces can also create opportunistic environment, like it created for IBM in Ukraine and companies in those cases need a process to handle the change and link it to the global vision. Benefits realisation is a process that could be beneficial for those companies that are in emerging environments and its use is expected to become wider as it allows to link the change initiative with vision, objectives and related project management activities.


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