Cojent Solutions
Service Offerings:
Value Management 
Ensuring that investments in supply chain
solutions yield significant, verifiable results over their entire lifecycle.
Description
How clearly can your company demonstrate the
strategic, economic, and operational value of its supply chain solutions? Can
your company reliably calculate EVA, ROI, or similar indicators of value for
those investments? Is your multi-million dollar ERP solution actually run with
mountains of paper reports and mysterious Excel spreadsheets?
All too often, one of the most challenging
aspects of implementing supply chain solutions is verifying that you have
delivered the expected results. Research firms agree that investments in supply
chain programs—including IT solutions—fail to achieve the intended benefits in a
significant percentage of cases. ROI projections touted by vendors at the start
of a project are seldom verified or monitored during the lifecycle of the
program. The result? A “black hole” of investment—no one in the organization
can confidently show where, or how, value is being delivered. For a brief test,
check how succinctly your company can answer these questions:
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Where is the link between our
supply chain investments and corporate strategy?
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What strategic and operational
value do these investments exhibit?
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Has this value impact been proven
over time?
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Can we clearly show these
investments’ contribution to revenue growth, profitability, and competitiveness?
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How can we help ensure future
investments deliver both short-term and long-term value?
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How can we quantify value in terms
meaningful to our company?
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What are the signs warning us that
we’re not optimizing value?
Problems solved
We understand the
dilemmas you face. Finance executives want to know whether ROI targets have
been met as a result of investing in supply chain solutions. Operational
managers want to know whether performance metrics have improved. Marketing
executives want to know how customers are being better served. And CEOs want to
know how the solutions drive growth and profitability.
Cojent Solutions
has developed proprietary methods to help your company solve these problems. We
help you ensure that supply chain investments yield significant results over
both the short and long term by:
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creating the capability to measure
and optimize the value of those investments;
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showing the organization exactly
how and where value is being realized;
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measuring value delivery over the
entire lifecycle of the investment—rather than relying on an upfront
“projection” of expected returns;
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giving you the capability to
respond to signals of underperformance before damage is done; and
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paving the way for accelerated
capital budgeting for new initiatives.
Specific Offerings
Cojent Solutions has a
robust methodology for solving these problems. This approach has two primary
components:
1.
Implementing a company-wide
valuation methodology
First, we guide you through
the consensus-building process of defining what “value” means to your company.
We then define what underlying factors drive that value, and establish a process
to continually monitor and track their metrics.
This goes well beyond
establishing an ROI target at the start of a project. It has been abundantly
clear that that approach doesn’t work. You need to have a mechanism in place
that over time provides you with information about the factors driving
value, how those factors are performing, and how they are changing. Only then
will you have the ability to see problems and correct them before they derail
your projects.
We understand the different
(and sometimes conflicting) goals of corporate executives, IT managers, and
operational managers. The Cojent approach takes all of these views into
account. We build a robust valuation tool covering any and all metrics
appropriate to your unique situation, from process KPIs, to total cost of
ownership, to income statement changes.
The next step is to “close
the loop” by linking the set of value metrics to the attainment of corporate
goals. So you can answer, for example: Is our software investment actually
driving higher profitability / customer service / etc., or is it merely a
secondary factor? Are the value drivers we initially established still
applicable, or are others more important now?
2.
Engendering a corporate culture
that optimizes supply chain investments
Having a robust valuation
process is only part of the solution. The hard truth is that if the people in
your company have no compelling reasons to make your investments successful,
it’s nearly impossible to do so. Our approach emphasizes the critical
importance of the organizational challenges you face. We focus on creating a
rock-solid case for action, addressing such vital questions as:
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Why should people care what
happens to our project?
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What incentives can be created for
individuals and groups to help drive success?
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How can we balance conflicting
goals among the participating business units?
“The soft stuff” is nearly always the most
difficult aspect of any project—and usually the main cause of failure. Creating
the environment in which your employees have a vested interest in making your
supply chain initiatives successful is one of our sweet spots. The following
chart outlines pertinent aspects of our unique approach:
Contribution to
Corporate Goals
Cojent Solutions
has solved the Black Hole problem. Our proprietary Value Management approach
gives you the capability to measure and optimize the value of your supply
chain investments over the short and long term. You’ll know exactly what is
driving value, and what is not—in time to correct problems. Instead of finding
out too late that projects don’t yield value, you’ll have advance knowledge of
the right performance metrics. Your company will clearly understand how supply
chain excellence impacts revenue, margins, customer delivery, and other
corporate goals. And when the time comes for allocating investment funds, no
one will doubt where best to spend that money.
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