Business Value Mapping in IT Services

Business value in IT is never abstract; it emerges when technology choices are read through stakeholder needs, measured in outcomes that matter, aligned with business services, and communicated in a language that speaks to shared objectives. The key is not in technology alone but in the way it reflects what stakeholders truly value. Numbers confirm this perspective: according to Gartner, companies that translate IT impact into business terms increase executive confidence in digital investments by over 30 percent. This means that alignment between IT costs and business services is not a technical exercise, it is a way to ensure that every decision resonates with objectives that matter at the organizational level. Building value narratives that address both change and continuity strengthens this approach, because it provides leaders with a clear picture of how technology supports evolution while sustaining daily operations. Communicating this value in the language of stakeholders is essential. If those who fund IT understand the link between investment and strategic outcomes, the conversation moves from cost to shared value creation. #DigitalTransformation #ITStrategy #BusinessValue #Stakeholders #TechnologyLeadership

Cloud spend should map to business value. If it does not, modernization is merely a show. TLDR: Winners do not adopt tools. They connect people, process, and technology to outcomes, measure relentlessly, and scale what works. A quick reality check: CarMax tied Azure, data, and AI to revenue. More customers completed steps online, omni adoption rose, and digital drove a larger share of sales. That is modernization tied to outcomes, not tool shopping. Here is the 5-move transformation playbook: 1. Start with outcomes Run a short maturity scan across customer, operations, data, and security. Tie each gap to a metric you can move in two quarters. 2. Fund a value narrative Back three to five outcomes, not a project list. Add stage gates tied to measurable progress. 3. Put FinOps in from day one Automate cost visibility, right-size weekly, and make cost per unit of value a team KPI. 4. Automate for flow AI and RPA remove toil, but the real win is end-to-end flow that frees people for higher-value work. 5. Shrink time to value with low code Use it to knock down the backlog and ship fast wins. Do this in 30 days: • Pick three metrics to move and publish the scoreboard • Automate the first 30% of one manual workflow • Run a weekly FinOps review and make one optimization call 🔁 Save | Repost | Subscribe to my newsletter for more insights. #DigitalTransformation #CIO #TransformSmarter

The hidden revenue leak in your ITSM maturity gap. Fortune 500 companies lose an average of $3.1M annually through service management inefficiency. Mid-market companies? A staggering 9% of annual revenue. And 87% of CIOs don't know where these leaks are happening. Here are three capability gaps that consistently drain revenue: 1. The Data-Decision Disconnect → Low maturity: Tracking ticket volumes and SLA percentages → High maturity: Mapping service performance to revenue impact → Reality check: 78% of IT leaders can't quantify how service disruptions affect customer revenue (HDI) 2. The Resource Allocation Blind Spot → Low maturity: Spreading resources evenly across all services → High maturity: Aligning top technical talent with highest-revenue business services → Business impact: High performers generate 36% more revenue per technical staff member 3. The Knowledge Circulation Failure → Low maturity: Knowledge trapped in silos and expert minds → High maturity: Knowledge captured and deployed at human+AI service points → Result: Top organisations resolve 72% of incidents without escalation or human intervention 💡 The most mature organisations integrate AI not just for automation, but for continuous service pattern analysis that prevents future revenue leaks. The financial difference between basic and mature ITSM: • 21% higher service availability (direct revenue protection) • 3.8x better business continuity during disruptions • 117% higher EBITDA in service-based divisions (SPI Research) For IT, Service Manager and PS leaders with P&L responsibility, the path forward is clear: 1. Identify your highest-revenue service lines 2. Map their ITSM maturity against business outcomes 3. Target capability gaps in those specific services first 👉 What's your most important business service and how do you measure its ITSM maturity? Share below. ♻️ Share this with a leader who needs this reminder ➕ Follow me for more ITSM/ESM insights

The #1 BA activity I do at the start of every project? Map the ”end-to-end” value stream / process. When I was a junior BA, I thought being proactive meant diving straight into process mapping when capturing current state. So I’d jump in and start documenting how Team A did their thing… Then Team B… Then Team C… But something always felt off I was missing the bigger picture. It wasn’t until I discovered Value Stream Mapping that it all clicked. Here’s what I learned: ✅ A value stream shows the entire flow - from the very beginning (e.g. customer request) to the very end (e.g. customer fulfilment). ✅ It spans all the teams, departments, and processes involved. ✅ And it’s often in the handoffs where the real issues and inefficiencies live. Now, before I go deep into any process, I always start with the end-to-end value stream. Here’s why it works:  → It helps us surface pain points early → Brings stakeholders into the same conversation → Highlights where work gets delayed, duplicated, or dropped → Drives the right conversations for future state design → And gives us a goldmine of requirements to start building our backlog And the best part? It doesn’t need to be fancy. Post-it notes or a simple Miro board are more than enough. Just get the right people in the room, make it safe to speak honestly, and map what’s really happening (not what should be happening). This shift completely changed how I approach discovery / planning for new projects. Let me know in the comments if you'd like a copy of my training guide on how to run a structured value stream mapping session - happy to share it with anyone who’s keen. Repost if you found this helpful. Follow → @Matthew Thomas Holliday for more tips and insights. #BusinessAnalysis #valuestreammapping #BA #VSM #BAtools