SVPMA Monthly Event - Gaining Competitive Advantage through Benefits Realization with Prashanth Naidu, Hitachi Data Systems August 1, 2012

Organization: SVPMA - Silicon Valley Product Management Association
Topic: Gaining Competitive Advantage through Benefits Realization
Speaker: Prashanth Naidu, Director, Office of CIO, Hitachi Data Systems
Date: Wednesday, August 1st
Time: 6:30pm - 9pm
Location: Network Meeting Center at the TechMart - 5201 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara
Cost: Free for Members. $30 for pre-registered non-members before the day of the event. $40 on the day of the event
More info: http://svpma.org/events/monthly-meetings/

Presentation:
Ever wonder how your customer makes his/her buy decision or manage their projects to assess, adopt and deploy products you are developing?

Asking if a product or a service was delivered on time and within budget after it is rolled out is no longer sufficient. The more prevalent question asked today is whether it delivered "business value". Interestingly this is how your customer is validating the value justification of their own investments as well!

It is important to ensure that value proposition is what drives the investment approval for new product/service delivery or enhancements to existing products/services. Once it has been delivered, it is critical to measure the benefits wherever possible and ensure they are tracked and compared with the forecasts made in the original business case. In this session, you will get the customer perspective of how decision cycles are made.

The session will discuss:
• A portfolio management strategy for efficient product delivery that creates measurable value
• Definition of an engagement model that ensures consistent communications and sponsorship from all levels of management
• Metrics driven approach to facilitate a transparent discussion around benefits realization (using techniques such as value mapping)

About The Speaker:
Prashanth Naidu leads the functions of Strategic & Financial Planning, Investment Governance, Portfolio Management and Executive Communications at Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), reporting to the CIO. He works closely with the leadership team to develop detailed financial plans that meet the needs of various business functions, implement business metrics dashboards that enable executives to measure ROI and establish governance activities that ensure cross functional alignment and discipline.

During his tenure with Fujitsu America, Prashanth managed cross-functional virtual teams and built expertise in shared service delivery using corporate methodology and industry best practices. He was also involved in contract negotiations with outsourcing vendors that resulted in significant cost savings for Fujitsu. Prashanth comes from a management consulting background and his experience at Boeing includes business process architecture, balanced scorecards and supplier management.

Prashanth has a graduate degrees in Computer Engineering and Business Administration from the University of Kansas.

Official Website: http://svpma.org/events/monthly-meetings