Presenting Compelling

a Business Case

Otto Tawanda Chisiri

Otto Tawanda Chisiri . All rights reserved.

Presentation Agenda

Introduction and Methodology

Initial Approach

Quantifying Your Investment

Common Pitfalls

Presenting the Business Case

Conclusion
Justifying Investment

Best Practices in justifying the investment

• Building a compelling business case behind the
investment
• Clearly defining the goals and benefits
• Think of the investment not as an (department) e.g.
I.T H.R investment but as a Business investment
• Grow Sales
• Control Costs
• Manage Assets
• Manage talent
3
Justifying the Investment

• Components of a Strong Business Case

 Identify Business Drivers
 Like.. “Reduce support call handling by X% by pushing relevant
support information to the web site”
 Define the duration and cost
 A timeline for reaching project goals
 Identify the project risks
 A plan to overcome potential challenges
 Provide Success Criteria or Metrics
 How do we measure our goal of reducing call handling?

4
Justifying the Investment

Components of a Strong
Business Case
• Build the team
• Work closely with Business teams
• Build a collaborative environment
• Include different levels of the
organization to achieve “buy in”
5
 Hard Benefits

Business cases will vary by application and are usually classified as either
•a “hard” or “soft” benefits

Increased Sales
Revenue Lift

Faster Time to Market

Increased Process
Efficiencies Deployment of Products /
Services
Drive Cost Down

Consolidation of
Legacy Systems Increased Process
Efficiencies

Reduction in Paper Task Automation

Reduced Human Error

 Soft Benefits

Soft benefits are difficult to quantify but are often as important as hard
•q benefits

Improved Security Greater Customer Satisfaction & Improved Customer Service

Loyalty

Brand Consistency Better Team Knowledge Management

Collaboration

Putting Business People in

Improve Your Business & Enhanced
Control
IT Agility Communication

Fewer Lost Robust Versioning, Tracking,

Documents and Reporting
 Understanding The Enterprise Organization

Do not try to solve a business problem with a technical solution

without understanding your overall strategy

IT HR

Suppliers Strategies Customers

Product
Dev Marketing
Systems / Tools

Business/IT Stakeholder Interviews

Identify Current Limitations Business Processes

Gather Business Requirements

Global Teams
 Quantifying Your Investment – Be Realistic

• Revenue Opportunities – Difficult to Justify

 Resource Time Often Repurposed
 Other Initiatives with Common Projected Benefits
• Cost Savings - Easier to Quantify
 Known Process Time/Volume/Cost
 Hard Dollars /Contractor Salaries)
 Maintaining disparate systems
 Minimizing point solutions
• Common Pitfalls
 Underestimating the Project Investment
 Internal Resources, Professional Services, Training, Testing, System Integration
 On Average Projects are183% Over Budget
 Unrealistic Roadmap – Analyze, Understand Strategy, Build ROI, Prioritize
Appropriately
 Overstating Process Efficiencies, Cost Savings, Revenue & Growth
Projections
 Not Knowing Interdependencies with Other Projects
 Not Accounting For Ramp Up, Learning & Adoption
 Presenting The Business Case

• Current State Analysis

 Problem
 What You’re Solving For
• The Solution
 Recommendation
 Value of Investment - Benefits
• Future State
• Time Sensitive – Why Now?
• Financials
 Business Case Summary
 Sensitivity Analysis
• Implementation Approach & Next Steps
• Appendix
 Business Case Details
 Vendor Information
 Research
 Setting The Project Up For Success

Why Implementations Fail

•. Anchor Adoption Pillars of Success

Declaring victory too soon Renew sense of

urgency
Not systematically planning for and
Execution Implementation
creating short-term wins Planning

Not removing the new obstacles

Leverage Governance
Under-communicating the vision Governance Processes
by a factor of ten

Build a framework for

tomorrow (Holistic)
Lacking a vision Roadmap
Understand Current
State

Get a committed
Not creating a powerful
enough guiding coalition executive sponsor
Foundation
Not establishing a great Create a solid business
enough sense of urgency case

“Why Transformations Fail,” John P. Kotter, Harvard Business

Review,
Execution & The Business Case

•1

Impacts the Business Case

Map Future State Process

Project Budget Actuals

Execution Change in Strategy

Requirements Not Met

Measure Efficiencies
Conclusion: Apply The Solution To Your Business Processes

1. Understand The Organization & The Strategy

2. Conduct Stakeholder Interviews
3. Document The Current State
4. Analyze The Results
5. Quantify Your Investment
6. Present The Business Case
7. Set The Project Up For Success
A business case is unique to an
individual company in addition to
each implementation, therefore
associated costs / savings / benefits
will be unique as well
 Success Equation

Start with:
A recognized quantifiable strategic problem or opportunity

+ Alternative Analysis
+ Compelling Economics
+ Credible Pre-sold Supporters
+ Identified Funding Source

All in a clear, concise, convincing case

= An Approved Project!
 The end

Thank you for your

valuable time

Otto Tawanda Chisiri . All rights reserved. 2–15