Full RSS Feed
Receive
the Free CMSWire NewsletterLast time on the Art of SharePoint Success we concluded our exploration of strategic lenses that I use to help clients understand and articulate their SharePoint related goals by looking at Enterprise Content Management and Collaboration.
In this scintillating installment we are going to delve into the third and final part of the Strategy element, the business case for SharePoint.
This is article number 10 in the series exploring my four point framework for ensuring long term, measurable success with SharePoint. There are four elements to the framework:
- Governance
- Strategy
- Architecture
- Transition
Before we dive into developing that business case….
What is a "Business Case" Anyway?
A business case is the justification for a change project. It tells the story of what, why, when, who, and how. For example:
| What is the current situation? | When will the benefits be realized? |
| Why is the change needed? | Who will realize the benefits? |
| What is being proposed? | Who will do the work? |
| What are the costs? | How will the change be implemented? |
| What are the estimated benefits? | How will success be monitored and reported? |
There are four key reasons to develop a business case, and all are potentially important with regard to a SharePoint initiative:
- developing a business case is an analytical process that helps you to develop a deeper understanding of the current situation and the issues and opportunities you face
- in most organizations a business case is a necessity for gaining funding and approval for a proposed change project
- the business case is key to successfully coordinating and managing different stakeholders because it provides a clear and consistent message
- business cases are used by management to prioritize and select projects
When I am working with clients I explore two dimensions of a business case. I call these the Left-Brained business case and the Right-Brained case. I’ve borrowed these terms from popular psychology in which broad generalizations are made to suggest that the left side of the human brain is associated with logical or rational thought, and the right side is associated with creative or emotional thought.
Getting the correct balance between these two dimensions of a business case and adjusting that balance as you progress is key to getting your project approved. I’ve never seen two situations that are exactly the same when it comes to the business case for SharePoint.
The Left-Brained Business Case
The Left-Brained business case is typically in the form of a well-structured document. It relies mainly on quantitative data, and at its core is a financial analysis of the costs and the benefits associated with the proposed change project. Table 1 presents a brief summary of the five key financial measures that are usually used in the financial analysis of a project.
Table 1: Financial measures used in the analysis of a project
Below is a very simple example of a financial analysis for a project that requires a one off investment of £400,000 [US$ 627,200] and generates a total return of £525,000 [US$ 823,201] over 7 years. (I should warn you that I am by no means a financial analyst!)
Continue reading this article:
Email It
