Baker Tilly (formerly Beers + Cutler) was engaged by a large Federal agency to design and implement a new independent organization that characterizes, quantifies, and tracks different aspects of IT product’s effectiveness to assess that IT investments are on-track and in alignment with user needs. Additionally, Baker Tilly helped the client design and implement two functional domains within the product effectiveness organization, benefits realization and customer satisfaction.

The mission of the Benefits Realization domain was to help achieve the maximum business value from IT investments through the independent identification, measurement, and analysis of an IT product's business benefits. In addition, the Benefits Realization domain team enhanced the business cases developed to justify IT investments by articulating the benefits expected for each specific project.

The Customer Satisfaction domain was established to independently assess end-user / stakeholder satisfaction levels and evaluate an IT product’s surrounding processes in order to support the improvement of IT investment and services. The Customer Satisfaction domain implemented a repeatable feedback process that provided management with large scale empirical data to enhance the effectiveness of IT investments.

Baker Tilly completed multiple engagements under each domain to prove out the concept, demonstrate the value, and refine the process. Specific benefits resulting from these initial engagements included:

• Improvements to Intensive Care Unit IT products that monitor patients’ vital signs
• Increased safety of medication administration in hospitals through the implementation of Bar Code Technology
• Increased efficiency of non-client healthcare claims processing
• Increased number of users using core informational websites

The client plans to expand the execution of the Benefits Realization and Customer Satisfaction engagements across their enterprise. The product effectiveness organization promotes evidence-based decision making by providing timely and relevant information to leadership about their organization's performance. They also increase transparency and accountability to maximize the government's technology investments.

Read more about Baker Tilly's services for federal government agencies.