Beneficial Intelligence

Value for Money

November 27, 2020 Sten Vesterli Season 1 Episode 22
Beneficial Intelligence
Value for Money
Show Notes

In this episode of Beneficial Intelligence, I discuss getting value for your money. It's Black Friday, and all shops are offering incredible deals. Unfortunately, they don't necessarily provide value for money, because prices have been creeping up for months in order to be able to fall today. 

Similarly, we are building a lot of IT systems that don't provide value for money. We just got an app here in Denmark that will allow you to keep your driving license on your phone.  I don't replace the plastic card you already have, so the only people getting value from this is the people who remember their phones, forget their license, and get pulled over. 

Is it really a good use of $7 million to build a system to prevent a few forgetful drivers from getting fined for driving without carrying their license? Or could that money have been spent better on more Coronavirus vaccines?

All IT projects should publicize the value they are providing so they can justify the cost. If you make that the standard, then the white elephants without a business case will stand out, and you reduce the risk of building systems that don't provide value for money. 

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Beneficial Intelligence is a weekly podcast with stories and pragmatic advice for CIOs and other IT leaders. To get in touch, please contact me at sten@vesterli.com