The Value Story in Practice
Global Healthcare Organisation · Healthcare / Life Sciences · Global · Productivity & Collaboration CoE · 3-Year Programme · Completed
CONTEXT
A global healthcare organisation had a Productivity and Collaboration estate that could deliver, but no repeatable way to prove what any of it was worth. Value was argued in cost savings alone. Costing stopped at the build. Run cost stayed on the CoE's books rather than the sponsor's. And nobody had an honest read of how the capability was actually maturing. What the organisation needed was a value story that ran end to end: defined at demand, funded on true cost, cost controlled through run, and proven over time.
WHAT I DID
▪ Anchored demand management on the M30 five-lens value model, so every idea was assessed for Financial, People, Strategic, Risk and ESG, and Technology value. Opportunities were sponsored in the currency each executive actually reads, not just short-term ROI.
▪ Rebuilt the M31 business case on true cost. Build plus run plus change plus governance, not build only. Every case made the Fund, Pilot, Park or Stop call against the cost of doing nothing, so standing still had a price too.
▪ Sized and routed use cases through the CoE process by S, M, L, XL and Copilot. Small work went to citizen makers, medium to the CoE, and larger or Copilot cases went through the Open House gates: Architecture Review Board, Experience Design Board and Business Approval.
▪ Introduced M32 AI FinOps discipline. Workloads were tagged at source, cost was metered by outcome, and showback across teams became the on-ramp to chargeback.
▪ Cross-charged build cost to the sponsoring business function on delivery, and applied a Quarterly Support Charge for run. The people spending the money could finally see it, which meant they could finally own it.
▪ Wired the whole thing to the M33 maturity ladder. Proportionate targets per dimension, an honest baseline, and a regular re-assess, so the value practice climbed the Early to Peak rungs rather than stalling at year one.
OUTCOME
The Productivity and Collaboration CoE moved from being a delivery unit to being a value engine. Demand arrived pre-shaped across five value lenses. Investment cases were argued on true cost rather than build only. Run cost became visible, attributed and paid for by the teams consuming it. And maturity was tracked as an honest signal rather than a claim, with each rung earned and each target proportionate to the risk it was protecting.
WHY IT MATTERS
Most organisations run one part of the money story well and lose the rest. Value gets defined but never funded properly. Funding gets committed but never cost controlled. Cost gets controlled but never rolled up into maturity. Run the whole thread, and every conversation about AI and Power Platform changes.
"Define at demand. Fund on true cost. Cost control the run. Prove it over time. That is a value story."
AT A GLANCE
Client: Global healthcare organisation (anonymised)
Sector and geography: Healthcare and Life Sciences, Global
My role: Value Story lead across demand, investment, FinOps discipline and maturity for the CoE portfolio