Building benefits governance for a large-scale corporate services transformation
As the portfolio’s benefits lead, I am building the method that will show, with evidence, what a major investment in Finance, Commercial and HR modernisation returns, including the hardest part: workforce savings.
Case study · In progress · Last updated October 2026
Engagement snapshot
- Client
- UK central government organisation
- Programme
- Finance, Commercial and HR modernisation on a cloud ERP
- My role
- Portfolio benefits lead
- Duration
- 18 months so far
- Status
- Method with the board for verification and validation
The challenge
Proving workforce savings across a large, complex organisation
The programme will change how corporate services work across a large public sector organisation. The benefits case rests heavily on workforce savings, which are notoriously hard to evidence.
Scale and complexity
Benefits must be traced across workstreams, functions and a very large workforce.
Articulating realisation
Showing credibly how each benefit will be realised, measured and tracked after go-live.
Delay risk
Any slip in delivery can shrink benefits or push their realisation further out.
Cashable or not?
Separating cashable from non-cashable value in FTE savings, in a way Finance accepts.
How the benefits fit together
Four workstreams, one line of sight to the business case
Each project has its own benefits. All of them roll up into the eight programme benefits that the business case committed to, so nothing floats free and nothing is counted twice.
The hardest part
Not every FTE saving is money in the bank
Workforce savings are the biggest benefits, and the easiest to overstate. I am making the distinction explicit, so the board knows exactly what kind of value each saving represents.
Cashable
FTE reduction
Posts are removed and the budget line genuinely falls. This is money that can be taken out or reinvested.
Evidence: budget and establishment data
Non-cashable
FTE release
Time is freed and people are redeployed to higher-value work. Real value, but the budget does not fall.
Evidence: workload and redeployment data
What I am doing
Building the controls before the benefits arrive
Set the standard
I lead the programme’s benefits Centre of Excellence and developed its benefits strategy, framework, templates and guidance.
Rebuilt the core tools
I redesigned the benefits tracker into one integrated register, benefit profiles, RAID log, dashboard and change log.
Assured the model
I carried out an independent assurance review of the benefits reprofiling model and resolved what it found, so forecasts rest on one auditable version.
Analysed workforce benefits
I assessed FTE reduction and release across Finance, Commercial and HR, and briefed senior leaders on confidence levels.
Quantified the cost of delay
I measured how much delivery delay erodes the benefits, and how each further slip adds to it. Extending the realisation period protects the total but makes the timing of full realisation less certain. The board now sees that trade-off clearly.
Clarified ownership
Benefits and their measures sit with Benefit Owners in the business. My role is governance, coordination and challenge.
Where it stands
The method is now with the board
This is a live engagement. I will update this case study as the board completes verification and validation and benefits begin to land.
Last updated: October 2026.
Consultant’s view
“Involve benefits management in design, not just reporting. A business case sets benefits from the top down; design teams need to see them from the bottom up, so they build toward the outcome rather than just the output.”
Oladapo Famuyiwa, Lead Consultant, BOF ConsultsIs your benefits case built to survive scrutiny?
I offer independent benefits health checks, framework set-up, model and forecast assurance, and interim benefits leadership.
Book a benefits health checkRead my full benefits approachClient name withheld to respect confidentiality. This case study contains no official-sensitive or client-confidential information and reflects my own perspective as an independent consultant.
Work with a Partner Focused on Value, Not Just Delivery
If you are responsible for significant investment, complex change, or professional development, BOF Consults is ready to support you.