While your company may not have a culture of writing a formal business case, putting your thoughts in writing can help you to consolidate your thoughts, data, and ideas into a single location.
When putting together business cases, some areas to think about are:
- Current Situation/Business Need
- Objectives
- Risks
- Proposed Strategy
- Justifications and Impacts
- Expected Results
- Selecting Meetings Technology
- Recommended Rollout Plan
As you put your business case together, one important point to remember is the cost of doing nothing. Based on today’s current situation, are you exposed to a large risk? Are inefficiencies impeding organizational growth? Think back to why you are doing this in the first place and articulate not just what needs to change, but also why the status quo is actually harmful.
When you present your case to executives, keep your business and the executives’ personalities in mind. How do they best digest information? How much time do they have to listen? One of the most frequent missteps I’ve heard from clients is attempting to present too much information. Most executives will have ten, maybe fifteen minutes to hear your case.
There is a common misconception in the industry that if you can’t get an executive mandate for meetings management, you’re doomed. While an executive mandate certainly speeds up the adoption process, some companies just do not have a mandate culture. Others need to see some level of success before a mandate is issued. So if you can’t get time with executives, or don’t get a mandate on the first go-round, don’t let it slow you down!
Kiewit, our SMM Program of the Year Plannie winner, had an unofficial SMM program in place for two years before executives heard their business case. At that point, the team had a solid foundation in place and case studies of success. Once the executives saw the unofficial benefits, it became a no-brainer to mandate the meetings management program across the organization.
