The Business Case
The Fundamentals
What is a business case?
A business case outlines the value proposition of your digital workplace. It contains necessary information about cost and resource requirements, benefits and risks involved, evaluation of issues, recommended solutions and a clear path to return on investment (ROI). It is most helpful in assessing the weight of risk, the cost of mitigating them, and the level of management’s risk tolerance.
Why do you need a business case?
A business case is one of the best tools to:
- Articulate your value proposition to key stakeholders
- Ensure necessary support in the organization and set clear business objectives
- Secure senior-level buy-in, budget, and commitment
- Outline scope, including resource requirements, timeline, and cost
- Evaluate options and make recommendations
- Identify and manage the risk associated with the project
Building your business case
Building a business case requires planning and a solid framework which appeals to your executive team and/or sponsor. Depending on your organization and the project, your business case can vary from simple to complex. Generally, you need a business case to justify the resources or expenditures required to support a project and the project owner writes the business case with support from key stakeholders (e.g. domain experts) such as:
- Executive sponsor
- Finance
- IT
 | Playbook Tip: Five questions your business case should answer
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Don't have time to write a business case?
In some cases, you might not have the time or resources to put together a thorough business case for your digital workplace. If you're in a situation where developing a business case simply isn't feasible, we recommend that you build use cases instead.
The Building Blocks
Key building blocks of a business case
We recommend keeping your business case (or use case) simple and precise. Using the following three documents to articulate your case, you'll be able to appeal to different executives and stakeholder groups to ensure the purpose, impact, and value of your digital workplace project is communicated accurately and effectively:
- Business Case
- Executive Presentation
- Financial Model
 | Business case documentThis is your actual business case. It outlines the reason(s) why you are proposing a digital workplace for your organization. Key components of your digital workplace business case should include:
A business case is typically in the format of a Word document. Include a cover sheet, table of contents and references. |
 | Executive presentationThis is your "pitch deck" for the executive team. It provides a high-level summary of:
An executive presentation is typically in the format of a PowerPoint presentation. Don't forget to include your notes and aim for no more than 10 slides. Keep it simple and precise. |
 | Financial analysisThe goal of your financial analysis is to summarize both the costs and the measures of success of your digital workplace project. It is impossible to measure success without some form of predetermined results. Results can be obtained in a variety of ways like number of logins, engagement levels, time spent on the site, surveys, etc. What matters most is that you determine what success looks like, and how to prove it was achieved. It should provide a summary of all expected costs associated with the project and potential revenue increases and/or cost reductions. Think about creating a sample budget and cost/benefit analysis for your digital workplace initiative. Include costs such as:
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