01Business problem
The European operations of a global machinery manufacturer were spending significant amounts on technology every year, across dozens of factories, sales offices and teams. Nobody had a clear picture of what was being spent, by whom, or, more importantly, what value it generated for the business. Every team kept track in their own way, captured in one historic document that only a handful of people understood. A document so complex that maintaining it had become a job in itself: one person, full time, doing nothing but moving numbers in and out. And despite all that effort, nobody at the centre could tell you what the total was or whether it made sense.
02Intervention
Rather than bringing in a ready-made solution, we sat down with the people who actually deal with these costs every day and built the framework together. We asked simple questions: what do you spend money on, who owns it and how does it connect to what the business does. Each session added a new layer of clarity.
03Role of data & AI
Before you can manage costs you need to agree on what to call them. We created a common vocabulary for every type of IT spend across the organisation, borrowed the relevant rules from established accounting and technology standards and made sure the result matched how the organisation already thought about its work rather than forcing it into an unfamiliar mould.
04Adoption
Because the people who use the framework helped build it, it reflects how they already work. Everyone submits their budgets in the same format. The same cost categories mean the same thing whether you are sitting in a factory in France or a sales office in Germany.
05Measurable impact
For the first time the organisation has one agreed view of what technology costs, who is responsible for it and where the money goes. That shared picture makes it possible to have honest conversations about where to spend more, where to spend less and whether the money being spent is delivering value.
06Time to value
The first results were visible before any new technology was put in place. The clarity came from agreeing on the structure, not from building a system.