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Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case

Expand on the financial model to give your initiative momentum.

  • 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.

Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case Research & Tools

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.


Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

9.5/10


Overall Impact

$12,999


Average $ Saved

5


Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Consumers Energy

Guided Implementation

10/10

$12,999

5

La-Z-Boy Incorporated

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

N/A

It is tough to answer those answers related to financial impact and time saved as this time. I thought Robert did a great job and provided some add... Read More

Department of Energy- Richland Operations Office

Guided Implementation

10/10

$5,000

20

Northwest Territories Power Corp

Guided Implementation

9/10

$2,000

10

The best part of my experience was the flexibility, professionalism, and technical expertise of the assigned research specialist, Carlos. He was ab... Read More


Workshop: Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case

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 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

1.1

Map the decision flow in your organization.

  • Decision traceability
1.2

Define the proposed initiative.

  • Initiative summary
1.3

Define the problem/opportunity statement.

  • Problem/opportunity statement
1.4

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

2.1

Design viable alternatives.

  • Shortlisted alternatives
2.2

Identify the tangible and intangible benefits.

  • Benefits tracking model
2.3

Assess current and future costs.

  • Total cost of ownership
2.4

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

3.1

Determine ramp-up times for costs and benefits.

  • Benefits realization schedule
3.2

Identify performance measures and tracking.

  • Performance tracking framework
3.3

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

4.1

Choose the alternative to be recommended.

  • Final recommendation
4.2

Create the detailed and summary business case presentations.

  • Business case presentation
4.3

Present and incorporate feedback.

  • Final sign-off
4.4

Monitor and close out.

Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case preview picture

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

MEMBER RATING

9.5/10
Overall Impact

$12,999
Average $ Saved

5
Average Days Saved

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.

Read what our members are saying

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

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Get the help you need in this 3-phase advisory process. You'll receive 11 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

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.

Authors

Ilia Maor

Mohammed Alsakka

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
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