Today we have a guest post of Bernard Hoefsmit MCR, who has more than 15 years’ experience helping companies meet their goals by effectively aligning technology with businesses objectives.
Do you have trouble writing the first paragraph of your business case for implementing integrated workplace management systems (IWMS) in your organization? Maybe it’s time to try a new approach.
“If the executive summary is hard to write, then the relationship of the proposal to the current situation or the benefits of the project may not be clear,” writes Lewis Cardin, analyst for Forrester Research Inc., author of a guide to writing an information technology business case. Starting with a clearly written executive summary, he covered the basics elements required in his report, “The Components of a Quality Business Case: Don’t Let Your Business Cases Tell Only Part Of The Story.”
IWMS is not widely understood
While that report covers a general technology business case, there are specifics that need to be thought through before starting work on a business case for IWMS. The first specific is to communicate what IWMS means to the organization, keeping in mind that certain business case readers may know little if anything about IWMS.
Although the term IWMS is a widely understood by real estate professionals and creates significant value, in terms of an executive summary it can be difficult to articulate. An executive summary is very important because the value of IWMS needs to be clearly understood, not only in terms of people who are familiar with IWMS, but also business folks who may not have a clear idea of what IWMS is and what it does.
The best way to sell IWMS is not to call it IWMS. A good business case is no different than a sales proposal, pitched to a prospective client company and the nature of the game is that all a client wants to know is ‘What’s in it for me?’ More specifically, they want to know, ‘Can you help me increase revenues for this product line?’ ‘Can you take away my pain point in this area of the business?’ No one is going to ask you, ‘Can you set up IWMS for us?’.
Business Case Best Practice
A good IWMS business case must have a clear description of one or more specific business problems, along with the proposed solutions to those problems, including their costs and risks just like any business case. While four-letter acronyms surrounding IWMS may be constantly on our lips, writing the business case, I recommend it would be better to avoid putting technology up front.
The proposed solution should leverage IWMS best practices, but depending upon the problems being addressed and the audience, they may not be identified as unique to IWMS. It’s often a better idea to identify them with the problem space. Terminology-wise; ‘Business case for Capital Planning Optimization’ or ‘Business Case for Maintenance Cost Reduction’ will go over in the boardroom much better than ‘IWMS business case.’
Return on Investment
The money issues can be tricky, however on the issue of return on investment (ROI), the business case writer can be flexible. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind when planning a business case is ROI, those often-elusive numbers that form the core of any business case.
Estimating ROI for an IWMS effort beyond what you’ll get in terms of department productivity is still considered to be an inexact science. Benchmarks are all over the place and well documented IWMS ROI numbers are seldom available. But, at the same time, ROI calculations don’t have to be an exact science either. It’s important to be able to calculate a return on investment on an IWMS solution, but you don’t need to provide exact numbers down to the penny. In most cases, a “just-good-enough” low estimate of potential quantifiable benefits will do the trick for the majority of IWMS implementations.
On the issue of technical details, while a lengthy discussion of architecture might cause the average business reader to drift off, there is a place for architecture. After creating a basic business case, I recommend telling the reader that they will be provided with a detailed architecture document that will define the technical elements of IWMS.
Business Problems
IWMS is not a “one size fits all” kind of sell and the business case needs to reflect that. Every organization has their own unique “pain points”. As an example, an organization may have recurring bottlenecks in work order management. Another organization may need to decrease the number of days in its cycle time for store development. A good proposal will highlight these points, one project at a time.
Different business problems, or “pain points” also require different IWMS approaches. Two separate IWMS business cases for two organizations may recommend two very different approaches. It’s important to keep in mind that, in real estate, IWMS represents a loosely defined collection of best practices and it’s up to the project manager to know which ones are appropriate for which situation.
The sole purpose of a business case is that of a communication tool, composed in a language that the target audience can understand and with enough detail it facilitates a good business decision. There’s no magic formula when it comes to the size of a business case, as size is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the business case provides the necessary information to enable the task of the business decision. Brevity is always a virtue.
About Bernard Hoefsmit
Bernard Hoefsmit MCR, has more than 15 years’ experience helping companies meet their goals by effectively aligning technology with businesses objectives. He is skilled in complex real estate technology strategies and implementations, outsourcing opportunities, and business process re-engineering projects for clients across North America, Europe and Asia. He can be contacted at http://www.linkedin.com/in/hoefsmit
Related post: http://www.iwmsnews.com/2008/06/increasing-shareholder-value-through-iwms/
Great post!
In today’s capital-constrained economy, business value justification has become critically important.
Clearly articulated business challenges and problems will naturally drive decision makers toward the need for information and process improvements. IWMS solutions provide the infrastructure of a predefined data model, standardized best practices and system support to deliver these improvements in a timely and sustainable manner.
When you develop your business case, consider that most IWMS solutions can be deployed within a modular or phased implementation . As such, provide a range of high, medium and low investment alternatives with associated returns when you go for executive approval.
John Clark
http://www.tririga.com