Building the business case | The Guide to Driving Facilities Transformation

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Hear from Derek Vipond, Sr. Director of Sales, about how to build a world-class business case.
Leverage your data
Companies trying to preserve cash by withholding the necessary budget for facilities will inevitably lean on reactive repairs, suffering the consequences of increased downtime and unkempt appearance. Because the stakeholders that make decisions about your budget in an enterprise or commercial business respond better to value selling and data showing an investment is well spent, you should work to communicate to decision makers that investments in facilities is a straight line to taking care of your customers and achieving their business goals.
This is why it helps to have a software partner with useful data insights from industry peers to make the case for more budget. We’ll show you next how to create a strong business case or proposal to your leadership.
Building the business case for investing in facilities
Step 1:
Provide a compelling outline.
When asking for investment in new software, leadership needs to feel confident that you’ve considered the full impact of your proposal, including implementation and ongoing administration. You should also show what the alternative options may be and why you’ve chosen this path.
Be sure you include the following:
Executive summary
Pain points
Solution description
Summary of benefits
Cost overview
Execution timeline
Project governance
Step 2:
Provide a complete cost breakdown.
Senior decision-makers typically want to see total costs for:
Implementation
SaaS subscription fees
SaaS professional services
Cost of ownership
Step 3:
Quantify the value benefits and return on investment (ROI) of the solution.
Request an ROI model from the vendor specific to your industry that includes the following:
Net direct savings ($) per year
This can be broken into benefit types/categories
The four main types are: Cost Reduction, Productivity Improvement, Revenue Increase, Risk Reduction
Net present value ($)
ROI savings (%)
3-month cost of delay ($)
Payback period (months)
Check for an ROI calculator on the platform’s website.
Step 4:
Get stakeholder support.
Communicate with facilities, operations, finance, and real estate leaders before submitting the business case so they’re aware of the initiative and can help identify blind spots.
Confirm all contributors agree on what your proposal is.
To make these steps easier to follow, the ServiceChannel Business Case Template can get you started.
Use the Template
Common objections to change and how to handle
You probably know that when you propose new ideas for initiatives or investments that there will inevitably be pushback. Here are some common objections from executive committees and how to handle them.
“We don’t have the budget for that.”
Answer:
“Fortunately, the solution will pay for itself. With our potential partner and using our own numbers, we’ve projected $X in annual R&M savings and X hours saved by our onsite staff. We’ve also prepared a business case that breaks down the total long-term costs of this solution in comparison to our existing system, which is much higher.”
“Switching systems takes too long and is too much effort. We’re comfortable with the way things are.”
Answer:
“I understand your hesitation since switching systems can seem can be laborious. Luckily, the partner we’ve chosen has full scale implementation support and a dedicated customer success team that can help us develop a clear 90-day launch plan that covers data migration and training in a way that won’t disrupt our customer experience. Plus, they have a proven track record of successfully doing this with other companies in our industry.”
“We don’t have time to work with you on this right now. There are other priorities.”
Answer:
“I know time and money are tight but I believe you’ll be surprised by how much this will benefit other departments and leaders across our organization. Many of them already agree this solution will solve challenges for them too, both inside and outside facilities. For instance, we’ll have more control of our capital budgets, reduce downtime of critical assets that affect our revenue, and gain more accurate financial reporting for our annual P&Ls.”
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[@todd.westra]

Really insightful tips! Leveraging data and outlining the benefits are key. Love how they address common objections too. 💼💡