{"id":37808,"date":"2025-01-30T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eptura.wpengine.com\/?p=37808"},"modified":"2025-02-19T10:46:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T15:46:27","slug":"eptura-insights-building-business-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eptura.com\/discover-more\/blog\/eptura-insights-building-business-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Eptura Insights: Building business cases and buy-in for worktech implementations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Change comes with challenges, and many organizations struggle to implement new ways of working. Lasting, positive transformations demand a systematic approach, and building a strong business case is the first step, whether you are implementing new technology or updating workflows. Creating a compelling case often means expanding your understanding of how people and processes deliver value to an organization. Building buy-in requires communicating from a position of empathy. The work is worth it, and successful digital transformations improve facilities and assets, drive investment returns, and enhance employee engagement<\/a>. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Welcome to the first Eptura Insights post, a new series from Eptura\u2019s worktech consultancy, where we help enterprises manage change at every step of worktech implementations. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How to build a successful business case<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

A standard business case is a structured proposal for a project that outlines the benefits, costs, and risks. A strong business case delivers clear answers to critical questions for large, transformational projects. And it\u2019s just as important at the final stages of a project as it is before the project even begins.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the start, it serves as a decision-making tool, providing a clear and concise overview of the reasons an organization should undertake a project. Building a business case gives a company the answer to the fundamental macro-level question: Will the eventual returns justify the initial and ongoing investments of time, energy, and focus? Projects pull employees away from regular tasks and require funding, often initial and ongoing. A business case must successfully argue that all that extra effort and refocused resources are worth it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the life of the project, the business case also serves as a reference point to maintain focus and accountability, especially in large, multi-year transformational projects where distractions and changing priorities are common.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Include many types of value when exploring potential benefits<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Before answering the critical question \u201cShould we do this?\u201d, it\u2019s important for companies to understand that projects can deliver many types of value. Often the easiest to find and quantify are financial. A company looking to maximize its investments in corporate real estate, for example, can calculate how much it can save by reducing operations and maintenance expenses with intelligent worktech<\/a>. It can also calculate the cost savings from mitigating security risks with a modern visitor management solution. In both cases, the connections between actions and savings are direct. The company can see a clear path with concrete steps to cut costs and mitigate the risk of expensive issues.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are also qualitative benefits, which are harder to calculate because the cause-and-effect relationship might be less clear or take more time. So, a project might improve the employee experience<\/a>, leading to stronger job satisfaction and better retention. Because hiring and training new employees is expensive, keeping existing employees happy helps companies save money.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a lot of value in projects that help set employees up for more meaningful, more fulfilling work. In our experience working with organizations to optimize their workplace and asset operations, we see employees who are currently delivering value, but it\u2019s the wrong kind based on their position in the company. If the department relies on a lot of manual data capture, for example, there could be someone at the director level doing basic analytics instead of data-driven strategic thinking. With the right initiatives, they could be delivering more value to the company while enjoying a higher level of job satisfaction.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marry internal and external data to larger goals<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

A comprehensive business case contains careful combinations of data, each with a separate role. It helps you capture the current circumstances, shows you what\u2019s possible, and validates initiatives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Internal numbers can include:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n