Client Engineering is an essential part of IBM’s go-to-market strategy; engaging clients in new ways and demonstrating the value IBM’s technology brings to our client’s business.  We want our clients to have a great experience and there are two ingredients that stand out: speed and simplicity.

That said, we are still a new organization – with exceptional talent – pushing the envelope on how we deliver value, but there’s room and opportunity to improve. To help us, we are introducing the Value Engineering Method.

The Value Engineering Method has a simple message: we innovate to define value and co-create to prove value.  Each of us needs to get smart on this Method and immediately start to integrate it into how we work together and with clients.

Delivering value with speed and simplicity is by nature free of hurdles. It speaks easy to work with, quickly returns value and helps align the teams for innovation and co-creation. What becomes important is executing with speed and simplicity. This is where we turn to the internal portion of the Value Engineering Method for guidance.  It allows teams to follow a simple process meant for the teams to say “how” can we get this done quickly, not a prescriptive process to make excuses that we can’t move forward.

Internally the Value Engineering Method has 4 major phases highlighted in blue in the picture below.

Innovate to define value

Gain alignment from stakeholders on the value they are looking to realize. Determine why the value of solving the problem is important, who needs to be involved on the client side and IBM side and what will need to be proven to realize the value. Our BTL’s, Designers, and Solution Architects play a key role in moving with speed and simplicity.

Prepare to show value

This is where we stand up environments, get or give access to them and ensure everything we need for successful delivery is in place and ready to go. Our Solution Architects, Technology Engineers, Data Scientist and Data Engineers play a key role in how fast the squads can work together to show value.  TechZone will be a critical resource.

Co-Create to prove value

This is where the magic happens, where the squads work heads down to prove the value. It is where we “build” the “A-HA” moment we will deliver to the client.

Transition to deliver value

We are not trying to prove our technology works; we are trying to prove the technology will deliver the value the client needs. In the Transition phase, our squads now provide the bridge to full delivery at scale.  This means they work to transition the knowledge and assets to the client themselves, Expert Labs or IBM Consulting. This phase is considered a warm handoff to another party, potentially playing a supporting role for a short period of time.