At the end of last year, our CTO, Olivier Liechti, delivered a thought-provoking talk at Backstage Con that explored a critical question: “Are we doing the right thing?” This question goes beyond the technical craft of software development to focus on how businesses can ensure their investments in technology translate into real, measurable value.
Olivier shared Avalia’s journey of using Backstage, traditionally seen as a developer-centric portal, to build something far more powerful—a platform that connects business objectives with IT efforts. This approach has helped major clients like Romande Energie in Switzerland and CNP Seguros in Brazil tackle complex challenges around software portfolio management and strategic decision-making.
Key Challenges Addressed
Explaining and Quantifying IT’s Business Value: A recurring pain point for many organizations is demonstrating the tangible value IT delivers to the business. Olivier explained how Avalia worked with leadership teams to build a model that translates technical metrics into business-relevant insights, making the value of IT initiatives clear and measurable.
Prioritizing Investments: With more demands than available resources, prioritization becomes crucial. Avalia’s platform allows companies to evaluate projects not only by technical feasibility but also by their strategic impact, ensuring resources are focused on what truly matters.
Moving Beyond Static Tools: Many companies still rely heavily on spreadsheets and static diagrams for portfolio management. While these tools work, they’re cumbersome and difficult to maintain. Avalia’s solution replaces these outdated tools with dynamic, real-time dashboards and visualizations, streamlining collaboration and decision-making.
The Solution: A 360° Digital Portfolio
Avalia’s solution, built on Backstage, provides a 360-degree view of an organization’s digital portfolio. By integrating real-time data streams and user-defined metrics, it enables leadership teams to:
Visualize progress and risks in real-time.
Drill down from high-level strategic goals to individual projects and teams.
Make better decisions using customized dashboards designed for specific meetings or planning sessions.
Olivier demonstrated this with examples, showing how their platform enables C-level executives to interact with data meaningfully. For instance, one view allows leaders to see how each project contributes to strategic pillars like societal impact, environmental goals, and financial performance. Another visualization uses a radar chart to help prioritize projects based on their risk and expected return.
Building Trust and Co-Creating Solutions
One of the key takeaways from Olivier’s talk was how trust was built with Avalia’s clients. Moving from familiar tools like spreadsheets to a new digital system isn’t easy. It took nearly a year of conversations, prototypes, and collaboration before the clients fully embraced the solution.
Avalia’s approach is not about imposing a one-size-fits-all tool. Instead, it’s about co-constructing the solution with clients, tailoring it to their specific processes and needs. This collaborative approach ensures that the platform delivers real value from day one.
Why Not Use Existing Portfolio Tools?
When asked why Avalia didn’t simply adopt an existing portfolio management tool, Olivier explained that while those tools provide dashboards, they don’t offer the flexibility to create custom user interfaces tailored to specific decision-making scenarios. Avalia’s solution, built on Backstage, combines data visualization with full customization, making it a perfect fit for organizations looking to bridge the gap between IT and business.
Final Thoughts: Are You Doing the Right Thing?
Olivier ended his talk by emphasizing the importance of continuously aligning IT efforts with business goals. With Avalia’s platform, organizations can not only track what they’re working on but also ensure they’re working on the right things—delivering maximum impact for their stakeholders.
If you’re interested in learning more about how Avalia can help your organization transform its IT strategy into measurable business value, don’t hesitate to reach out!
This approach to using Backstage represents a game-changing way for businesses to gain clarity, prioritize effectively, and, ultimately, answer the question: Are we doing the right thing?