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Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case
Expand on the financial model to give your initiative momentum.
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Contributors
- Dean Potash, Senior Director, Enterprise Infrastructure, PotashCorp
- Maha Nassir, Business Systems Analyst, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry
- Scott Wagner, Director, Global Infrastructure & Security, SAF-HOLLAND
- 6 anonymous contributors
Your Challenge
- Enterprise application initiatives are complex, expensive, and require a significant amount of planning before initiation.
- A financial business case is sometimes used to justify these initiatives.
- Once the business case (and benefits therein) are approved, the case is forgotten, eliminating a critical check and balance of benefit realization.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
1. Frame the conversation.
Understand the audience and forum for the business case to best frame the conversation.
2. Time-box the process of building the case.
More time should be spent on performing the action rather than building the case.
3. The business case is a living document.
The business case creates the basis for review of the realization of the proposed business benefits once the procurement is complete.
Impact and Result
- Understand the drivers for decision making in your organization, and the way initiatives are evaluated.
- Compile a compelling business case that provides decision makers with sufficient information to make decisions confidently.
- Evaluate proposed enterprise application initiatives “apples-to-apples” using a standardized and repeatable methodology.
- Provide a mechanism for tracking initiative performance during and after implementation.
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should build a business case for enterprise application investments, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand how we can support you in completing this project.
1. Gather the required information
Complete the necessary preceding tasks to building the business case. Rationalize the initiative under consideration, determine the organizational decision flow following a stakeholder assessment, and conduct market research to understand the options.
2. Conduct the business case analysis
Conduct a thorough assessment of the initiative in question. Define the alternatives under consideration, identify tangible and intangible benefits for each, aggregate the costs, and highlight any risks.
3. Make the case
Finalize the recommendation based on the analysis and create a business case presentation to frame the conversation for key stakeholders.
Guided Implementations
This guided implementation is an eleven call advisory process.
Guided Implementation #1 - Gather the required information
Call #1 - Scope the decision making process and proposed initiative.
Call #2 - Identify the main stakeholders, their role, and context.
Call #3 - Determine what information to collect and the sources to find it.
Guided Implementation #2 - Conduct the business case analysis
Call #1 - Ideate and choose the alternatives to analyze.
Call #2 - Identify tangible and intangible benefits.
Call #3 - Identify one-time and ongoing costs.
Call #4 - Create a financial business model.
Call #5 - Build performance measures into the case.
Guided Implementation #3 - Make the case
Call #1 - Choose the recommendation.
Call #2 - Compile detailed and summary presentations.
Call #3 - Close out and monitor the business case.
Book Your Workshop
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Plan for Business Case Development
The Purpose
- Complete the necessary preceding tasks to building a strong business case.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Alignment with business objectives.
- Stakeholder buy-in.
Activities
Outputs
Map the decision flow in your organization.
- Decision traceability
Define the proposed initiative.
- Initiative summary
Define the problem/opportunity statement.
- Problem/opportunity statement
Clarify goals and objectives expected from the initiative.
- Business objectives
Module 2: Build the Business Case Model
The Purpose
- Put together the key elements of the business case including alternatives, benefits, and costs.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Rationalize the business case.
Activities
Outputs
Design viable alternatives.
- Shortlisted alternatives
Identify the tangible and intangible benefits.
- Benefits tracking model
Assess current and future costs.
- Total cost of ownership
Create the financial business case model.
- Impact analysis
Module 3: Enhance the Business Case
The Purpose
- Determine more integral factors in the business case such as ramp-up time for benefits realization as well as risk assessment.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Complete a comprehensive case.
Activities
Outputs
Determine ramp-up times for costs and benefits.
- Benefits realization schedule
Identify performance measures and tracking.
- Performance tracking framework
Assess initiative risk.
- Risk register
Module 4: Prepare the Business Case
The Purpose
- Finalize the recommendation and formulate the business case summary and presentation.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Prepare the business case presentation.
Activities
Outputs
Choose the alternative to be recommended.
- Final recommendation
Create the detailed and summary business case presentations.
- Business case presentation
Present and incorporate feedback.
- Final sign-off
Monitor and close out.
