Symptom: People cannot argue effectively for strategic projects because value-added benefits are unclear (or "soft").
To set priorities that are aligned with clients' business strategies, people need an understanding of the return on investments (ROI) in projects. ROI is based on estimates of both benefits and costs.
On the benefits side of the equation, simple cost savings are easy to understand. Strategic benefits, termed "value added," are more difficult to quantify.
However, there are methods to approximate the strategic value of proposed investments. It is in the organization's interests to offer people who are trained in methods to help clients justify strategic investments in its products with explicit, quantitative measures of the payoff (including strategic benefits) of proposed projects.
Of course, these services depend on a clearly defined and well trained (internal) Sales (client liaison) function to help clients with this process.
