What is the ‘right’ decision? At Allovance, we define the right decisions as those that align most to your strategic priorities. In an ideal world, we would all have the money to do everything we want. In reality, we have limited resources (capital, time, labor) to complete all of our projects, initiatives, strategies, etc. and thus choose a portfolio that we think is ‘right’.

Based on extensive research in decision-making during his Ph.D., Sherif Farghal created a methodology that would allow users to create priorities (even subjective ones), quantify those priorities, then score projects against those priorities to determine their impact. This holistic approach to prioritization integrates principals from psychology and statistical analysis, removes biases from the process and allows subjective factors to be included in the decision-making process.

Allovance helps users be more purposeful in allocating their limited resources to the projects that will have the most positive impact on their strategic priorities or goals.

We understand the frustration of trying to create a multi-year capital improvement plan using various tools such as excel. Switching from software to software making conversions and trying to tie it all together in a comprehensive plan is often frustrating and time consuming. Allovance allows organizations to combine all of the functions of their various tools into one comprehensive Strategic Planning and Capital Allocation tool.

From setting your priorities to choosing strategies that align to your priorities and everything in between, we provide cities with a collaborative, visual and easy to use process to successfully create strategic & capital plans, but also justify their decisions and projects to the communities they serve, state and federal compliance agencies, and other stakeholders.

We’ve all been through this process before. You pay thousands (or hundreds of thousands) for a consultant to come help you create a strategic plan. What do you end up with? A 100-page static document that sits on a shelf and is seldom referenced. We understand the dynamic nature of decision making and strategic planning, and we think the software you use should be able to take that into account.

As priorities change, or new projects get added, you can easily adjust the plan to fit the dynamic nature of the organization. Additionally, our goal is to empower users within the organization to continue the process, so you don’t have to rely on consultants every time you want to make an adjustment.

If your roof is on fire and is going to collapse, it is quite vital that you put out the fire and fix that roof. It is not strategically important to do this, as it will not make your organization the best organization in the world, but it is urgent because the need is immediate and the costs of not doing so are catastrophic. Is it Important? Or is it urgent? Criticality of time makes a project urgent, but not necessarily important.

Allovance measures each project on three lenses: Strategic Value (importance), Urgency, and Complexity. Many other tools and methodologies combine these three lenses into one overall score. At Allovance, each of these lenses can be considered separately (or together) when assessing a project.

The end goal with any strategic plan is to align the projects with the goals. In other words, you want to make sure that the work you do on a daily basis impacts or aligns with the priorities or goals of the organization. That link between work and priorities is missing for many reasons such as:

1. No communication between strategic team and other organizational members
2. No tool to accurately measure the impact of work on priorities

These were major considerations in the creation of Allovance. By identifying and setting priorities during the first step of the process, we can eliminate the biases that come from selecting projects solely based on “expected ROI” or other financial criteria. Towards the end of the process, each project will be scored against all the priorities that were identified to come up with the project scores. Ultimately, you are able to see which priorities are impacted when you select a project (or portfolio of projects) and the extent of that impact both in terms of Strategic Value and Budget.

No department should be a silo. Each functional area should be able to link their work with the goals and priorities of the organization. Most current department planning activities and programs do not take this into account. Wouldn’t it be nice to compare multiple portfolios of projects in regards to their impact on organizational strategic priorities?

The process of allocation usually happens in a number of different ways. This may take the form of meetings where the loudest or most senior person in the room decides which projects to implement or excel sheets where each project is inconsistently ranked and then the projects with the highest ranks are implemented. Both of these methods introduce many decision-making biases, and also do not provide a structured, repeatable, dynamic process for project prioritization. Allovance helps identify and remove biases in the decision making process so that you can be sure you are proceeding on the path that is best for your organization.