What methodologies are you using to evaluate trade-offs between emerging opportunities and essential infrastructure modernization? Can you share examples of how you've prioritized competing demands?
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We consider long-term return on investment, though immediate cost benefits often take precedence. For example, we introduced a tool to evaluate digital employee experience, which provided valuable endpoint insights. By demonstrating ROI and supporting team maturity, we justified the investment. When forced to choose between endpoint support and ITSM tools due to budget constraints, I prioritized automation and support time savings, given similar costs.
No specific methodologies are in use. The focus is on integrating AI into our business, prioritizing opportunities that offer the greatest impact. As a Microsoft partner, we piloted Microsoft Copilot to explore its daily business applications. Prioritization is opportunistic by identifying the biggest benefit and acting quickly, rather than overanalyzing and missing opportunities.
ROI analysis is essential, especially since there is often a tendency to react quickly to market changes or new regulations. We evaluate whether there are particular markets we want to be in, considering the regulations and legal implications of serving those markets and customers. We also assess product capabilities, customer adoption, and demand. Our approach involves thorough analysis, but we strive to make decisions quickly to avoid analysis paralysis. It is a balance between conducting the necessary ROI analysis and making timely, effective decisions.
We focus on cost-benefit analysis and ROI. Our process is relatively fast—I run a meeting once a week where requests from group businesses are triaged. Four board directors are involved, but responsibility is devolved to me so we can act quickly. While this pace is not our usual operating behavior, it allows us to respond efficiently in the current environment.
We use a product portfolio management framework and an IEEE product operating model. Trade-offs are evaluated based on technical criteria such as total cost of ownership, impact, reduction of technical debt, business value realization, and future technical optionality. For instance, when considering GenAI-based customer service features versus migrating an on-premise database to the cloud, we model the cost of delay for modernization. If delaying modernization increases operational risk or technical debt, foundational work is prioritized, while emerging opportunities are broken into MVP phases for phased investment.