Strategic Resource Allocation

Prism’s systems analysis matrix is an efficient and powerful tool for aligning resources with newly prioritized strategy. The matrix is used after a planning team completes the strategic “Opportunity Profile”.

Newly weighted strategies are dropped across columns at the top of the matrix. The organization’s functions and their costs are listed down the side. The planning team then uses Prism’s group decision support system to assess the degree to which each function contributes to each strategy on a 1 to 9 scale. After the group votes each cell, a histogram shows the degree of agreement. If there is disagreement, the group discusses and revotes the cell.

Once voting is complete, the matrix calculates the relative worth of each function. The average raw score in each cell is multiplied by strategy weight. The sum of the weighted scores across each row shows the relative worth of each function in terms of its contribution to the organization’s total set of strategies.

The matrix also calculates the relative value of each function by subtracting its cost from its worth. A positive value suggests that a function is worth more than it costs. A negative value suggests that the function costs more than it is worth, inviting it to better contribute to the entire set of strategies and increase its worth. Or it suggests a need to reallocate resources.

Finally, the matrix assesses the gap between the current and required resources to implement each strategy. The sum of the raw scores in each column equals the organization’s potential contribution to implement that column’s strategy. This organization “effort” score minus strategy weight displays resource misalignment or “opportunity”. A negative suggests the organization’s total resources are not aligned to implement the strategy. A positive suggests the organization may be over-resourced to implement the strategy – another opportunity to reallocate. If the value is close to zero, the organization is resourced appropriately to implement the strategy.

Sample case study: Strategic Resource Allocation with Prism