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The Better Business Analysis 
Institute presence. 

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The Better Business Analysis 
Podcast with Kinsman Walsh. 

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Hi everybody and welcome back to
the Better Business Analysis 

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Podcast, Benjamin Walsh. 
And today we are going to go 

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into something that some people 
hate, other people and you know 

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it's a lot of us are just 
somewhere in the middle as is. 

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It's kind of a means to an ends 
and that is the business casing 

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process. 
Look, we've touched on the 

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business case process, the fact 
that it fits in our strategic 

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and enterprise analysis phase 
and our delivery journey. 

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If you're following the bit of 
business analysis, delivery 

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journey which you should be by 
now because it's the best out 

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there. 
Now what we do when we do a 

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business case is we are trying 
to justify spending money or 

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doing a change. 
You know it involves doing 

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something we called cost benefit
analysis and and that involves 

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variables around cost and also 
benefits And that that scenario 

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that BA as playing in terms of 
benefits realization and making 

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sure that we are actually 
getting benefits from any change

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we want to do. 
But it also involves other 

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aspects in terms of different 
kind of sub cases in terms of 

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justifying the change. 
So we're going to talk about 

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business cases today. 
For some of you this will be 

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something that you can listen to
later at night to help you sleep

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and for others of you you're 
going to be sitting there taking

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notes. 
So I appreciate this is not the 

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most exciting topic, but 
nonetheless it is quite 

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critical. 
B as who can write business 

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cases effectively, it will make 
your job easier and there are 

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actually roles specifically 
designed for people who can 

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write business cases. 
You can actually get certified 

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as well and they generally get 
paid very well for doing just 

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this one thing, which is pretty 
much writing business cases all 

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the time. 
And I know of consultants in New

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Zealand who maybe would pick up 
four times the salary of a, you 

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know, a junior BA by just doing 
this, this one thing. 

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Well, very well. 
So they have to both be good at 

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business case writing and also 
the political sell, which is a 

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lot of what business casing is 
all about. 

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So Yep, this episode is all 
around business cases, and we'll

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get started with defining what 
that actually means. 

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I guess one way of looking at a 
business case is the fact that 

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it's usually a document. 
OK, you can't get away from it. 

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So as much as agile and Better 
Business analysis has moved away

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to visual techniques, kind of 
only minimum documentation. 

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Enough documentation to get the 
story across. 

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Not, you know, wasting our time 
on on action versus mode motion.

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Of course action is just doing 
things and motion is moving 

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things forward and that's what 
we promote here at the Better 

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Business Analysis Institute is 
not just doing stuff, doing 

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stuff that adds value. 
Now, yes, but I'm sadly a 

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business case is a document, 
it's usually an official 

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document. 
Think contracts, think 

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procurement processes. 
Think all those things which 

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become regulatory and important.
And there are good reasons for 

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it. 
We're seeking money in the 

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public service. 
It is taxpayers money. 

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It's your money and my money and
it's justifying spending it. 

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So for me, some of those 
barriers for pulling down funds 

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or or accessing funds to do some
stuff should involve some sort 

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of rigor. 
Now I say that and then you know

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you're 100 days into trying 
getting a business case out of 

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the line and you hate the 
process completely. 

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But that's more around the 
process that the organization 

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has put in and the various 
checkpoints and and who's 

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evolved. 
And generally to be honest, most

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of the time that's political 
bollocks. 

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So what we're actually going to 
focus on is the document itself.

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It's a hard deliverable which is
quite nice. 

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It is not the one of the good 
things about it is there is 

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generally A detailed template 
which you can work through. 

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You can download one off the 
Internet. 

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If you've never experienced the 
business case before, have a 

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look in the UK and in New 
Zealand and I'm sure there are 

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some in the states, but there is
a process called the ironically 

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the bit of business case 
template. 

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Nothing to do with the 
institute, but also a nod 

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towards that when we named our 
institute the, yeah, the bit of 

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business case template and it is
quite good in terms of having 

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scalable different templates 
based on the size of the ask of 

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money that you're asking for, 
the size of the change. 

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So that's quite, if you look at 
those templates, it will give 

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you an idea about what we're 
talking about today. 

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So I think that's really 
important. 

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OK. 
So we've just said that a 

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business case is a document and 
outlines the justification for 

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the proposed project or 
investment change. 

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I'm going to say this could be a
product project, investment 

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infrastructure project. 
It needs to be persuasive and 

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well written. 
So there you go, Persuasive and 

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well written and should provide 
all the information that 

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decision makers need to make an 
informed decision. 

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So in terms of what a should a 
business case should feel like 

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read like they that is you've 
just defined the characteristics

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of a Better Business analyst 
right. 

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Better Business analysts are 
persuasive. 

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They know how to write and when 
I say well written, it's not you

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know we're we're not writing the
next Booker Prize you know book.

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What we are doing is that we're 
articulating the case in very 

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simple terms also well written 
meaning easy to understand and 

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it needs to provide all the 
information and and some BS get 

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caught on caught up on all so 
all meaning it doesn't have to 

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you. 
You don't have to have spent 

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three years writing this thing 
that decision makers and so it's

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about knowing your audience. 
It's not you know every single 

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person or Bob and finance who 
loves a great spreadsheet even 

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though business cases generally 
do have a table and them and 

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refer to spreadsheets. 
It's not about that. 

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It's about generally a 
management team making a 

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decision. 
So what do they want to say? 

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And remember as you go up the 
food chain and any organization 

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here in New Zealand we're, we're
quite small. 

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We're talking to a friend and 
and hungry about that. 

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But in say the States in America
where a lot of my listeners are 

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and you know outside of New 
Zealand there's so many tears 

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that you get lost in the in the 
game. 

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And so by the time you get up to
the tier, the top tier, you need

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to talk in terms of you know, 
red, amber green, I I used to 

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talk about it. 
That is you almost need to go up

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to kindergarten level because 
the not because necessarily the 

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people that run companies are 
stupid because they're not. 

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It's just that they're absorbing
so much information. 

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So you need to be able to 
articulate your case very simply

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in terms of is this going how 
does this hit the bottom line? 

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Is it going to save us money? 
Is it going to improve things Is

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it going to reduce risk? 
Does it mean if the savings 

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doesn't mean me investing more 
doesn't mean getting more 

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customers. 
What lever? 

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That's always what managers say,
what lever are we going to pull 

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and and a redam the green in 
terms of tracking where things 

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are and you know basically how 
much. 

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So if you can't articulate that 
in the business case then don't 

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worry about the rest of the rest
of the analysis is is is 

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irrelevant. 
So the fact that you love your 

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30 tab excel spreadsheet that 
you know points to a number that

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looks good, it's just the total 
that needs to go you know to or 

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or you know the the base numbers
or ratio or cost and benefit 

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totals that need to go to 
management. 

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They don't really don't they 
have to trust you that you've 

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done that spreadsheet correctly.
Obviously if something goes 

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wrong they might you know ask 
that you've done that work. 

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But just be aware that trends, 
putting, copying and pasting 

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that table into your business 
Case No one's going to look at 

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it. 
They're looking at the bottom 

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line. 
OK, cool. 

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So just I just wanted to touch 
on that in terms of some people 

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just going to the NTH degree, 
the steps to writing a business 

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case involve defining the 
problem and opportunity. 

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So B as problem statements and 
opportunity just being an 

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inverse of problems, how you're 
going to take take advantage of 

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the problem? 
Two, it's in identifying 

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alternative solutions. 
So generally three options and 

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sometimes we do a do nothing and
then #3 is recommending A 

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preferred option. 
And then we describe the 

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approach for implementing the 
preferred solution and then we 

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analyze the financial impact of 
doing that. 

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Usually you've got an exec sum 
at the front, like I said and 

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then we then there's a process 
of approvals. 

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So that's basically the business
case process. 

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Each template talks to other 
sections and ABA of course is 

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great at gathering the 
information. 

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You know, analyzing and 
gathering, collecting 

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requirements and just data. 
This is you know the true in the

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business BA who's connecting 
data, looking at market trends, 

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customer needs, processes like 
really hard numbers that come 

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out of our analysis defining the
problem or opportunity of course

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identifying and and evaluating 
the different options and we'll 

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talk about solution options 
here. 

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They might not be necessarily 
and this is a hard point. 

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This is a bit of a gotcha 
sometimes in business cases 

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depending on where you are in 
the process and when we talk 

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about solutions here, it could 
just be a do nothing change of 

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process, you know go change of 
process a little bit or 

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completely rewrite the process. 
It may not just be IT system 

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excess rules versus dynamics for
example or no serum. 

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So it depends on the type of 
business case. 

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We'll get to that point a bit in
terms of evaluating solutions 

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and obviously you need an 
architect to do that and it's 

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technology recommend a solution 
how you came up with that has 

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been the option. 
So you provide basically cost 

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benefit analysis across each of 
your generally three options and

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there's always a trick of three 
which we'll come back to. 

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And then you know the BA can you
know do that. 

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And of course they can help work
with a project manager generally

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or a program manager outlining 
the resources needed, the time, 

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budget allocation risks, all the
rest of it, basically a project 

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plan copying that in there. 
And then they generally a 

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project manager, maybe ABA will 
work with a financial analyst to

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work out all the economic 
numbers like cost, benefits, 

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return on investment, break even
points and all the rest of it. 

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And then the BA can write and 
put that all together. 

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And I have found and they can 
also present back and I have 

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found that like times the pin 
holder here is the project 

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manager, which is interesting 
because they just exist before 

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they get resources and the first
bit resource they get is ABA. 

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But BA is a very much, very good
at doing this process. 

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Actually they should own it in 
my view. 

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So I think let's we've covered 
briefly what a business case is 

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about how ABA can contribute, 
what the various steps are 

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generally in terms of writing a 
business case. 

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But we're going to look under 
the covers a little bit both in 

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terms of the sections of a 
business case, but also some of 

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the stage gates that we go 
through. 

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If you are from a project 
management background or maybe 

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maybe you're not. 
So you've worked in a what's 

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called a Prince Two environment 
or even APMP environment. 

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Prince Two and PNP are project 
management methodologies and 

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both of them have a concept of 
kind of different stages that 

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you go through. 
It's heavily linked to the 

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business casing process or 
stages or work packages within a

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a project basically saying there
are different stages or phases 

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that a project goes through and 
we should justify the spending 

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or the continuation of the 
project at various points. 

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So if you from ABA perspective, 
you know there's the kind of 

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there might be a feasibility 
study, there might be the high 

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level analysis, there might be 
the detailed analysis and then 

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there might be the 
implementation phase for 

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example. 
And those they generally align 

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with what we what we those 
project phases generally align 

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with business case phases to 
seek more money to continue on. 

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And so your analysis is 
sometimes used for that. 

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So high level analysis, BA 
analysis combined with maybe 

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architectural analysis if it's 
an IT project and possibly even 

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some quotes for cost on 
implementation that might go 

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into your high level analysis 
pack. 

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So they might, they may that 
your work goes into the business

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case and the business case is 
kind of saying well we have we 

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know a bit more now thanks for 
the money that paid for that 

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previous phase which we also 
justified in a business case. 

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We have now done high level 
analysis, you know and and the 

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problem with high level analysis
is of course you're not 

232
00:13:57,760 --> 00:14:00,440
producing anything at the end of
it in terms of an asset. 

233
00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:04,320
So sometimes getting this 
funding is hard and that's why 

234
00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:09,160
this high level business case 
process, high level business 

235
00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:13,840
analysis process is sometimes 
best done by what I would call 

236
00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:16,400
an enterprise BA or someone 
who's across the business who 

237
00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:19,040
that's their job, right. 
So they're a permanent employee 

238
00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:21,600
and they do that. 
And then once you've justified 

239
00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:24,600
it, you might hand it off to 
contract BAS to actually 

240
00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:27,080
implement the project once 
you've justified that it's worth

241
00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:29,360
doing. 
So sometimes this phase is used 

242
00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:31,680
for feasibility. 
You've done some high level 

243
00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:35,040
analysis, is it worth doing you 
know what are the proposed 

244
00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:38,000
solutions And then you know at 
the end of this phase you should

245
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:42,320
really be giving a a go no go 
approach for doing the full, the

246
00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:45,360
full project. 
I think when I was in vendor we 

247
00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:51,560
used to guesstimate 20%, So 20% 
of the time of the total time, 

248
00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:55,160
sorry of the project would be BA
time is a good estimate. 

249
00:14:56,040 --> 00:14:59,800
So the upfront analysis will be 
a portion of that and so you 

250
00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:02,160
could come in and maybe it's a 
fixed price. 

251
00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:06,880
So you might say, OK, we go to 
spend 2 weeks, you know, two 

252
00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:09,920
weeks Sprint doing high level 
analysis and then we'll come 

253
00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:12,160
back to you and tell you it's 
worth doing this project. 

254
00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:18,800
And then that that sets the 
signs of what benefits would you

255
00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:22,280
get out of doing this piece of 
work, what are, what are the 

256
00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:26,960
costs involved And of course a 
lot of those costs people cost, 

257
00:15:26,960 --> 00:15:31,280
but they are usually associated 
with implementing a solution of 

258
00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:34,920
some description. 
And so you are, you know, using 

259
00:15:34,920 --> 00:15:37,680
your, you've got your 
requirements which are applied 

260
00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:41,760
to by an architect and the 
architect will say how they're 

261
00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:44,480
meeting those requirements. 
And each one of those replies 

262
00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:48,360
equals the sum of money and then
the total of that equals the sum

263
00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:50,840
of money. 
And then that goes into this 

264
00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:53,280
kind of cost model. 
So that's how much it cost to 

265
00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:56,400
meet the requirements. 
Generally technical components 

266
00:15:56,400 --> 00:16:00,160
come from that and then the 
project manager says I need 1BA1

267
00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:02,600
architect, you know, three 
division, a Partridge and a pear

268
00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:05,640
tree and my own cost and then 
that gives you the total. 

269
00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:06,920
So that's the cost of the 
project. 

270
00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:10,880
And then the capital cost is the
cost of meeting the requirements

271
00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:14,200
if it's a new thing that you're 
introducing a new asset, a new 

272
00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:16,840
product. 
And then the benefits is what 

273
00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:18,960
you should have modeled before 
you even started the process 

274
00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:22,920
back in strategic and enterprise
analysis, which was the why. 

275
00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:28,960
So why are we doing this? 
We're reducing the number of the

276
00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:31,960
time it takes to answer customer
queries by implementing A serum 

277
00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:37,480
system by 20%. 
And if you were an organization 

278
00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:40,560
that went down the FDE saving 
route, which we'll get to in a 

279
00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:44,040
minute, but effectively a lot of
projects never result in 

280
00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:49,440
actually removing staff or they 
usually result in reallocating 

281
00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:51,000
those staff. 
But let's say you had a call 

282
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:54,040
center 100, a hundred people in 
there or getting paid 100,000 a 

283
00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:59,560
year and you reducing that by 
20%, that 20 staff 20 * 100,000 

284
00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:01,920
equals $2,000,000 per annum. 
OK. 

285
00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:06,000
This is what we're talking about
over a five year period or 

286
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:09,920
ramped up over a five year 
period is $10 million. 

287
00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:12,720
Sometimes the asset might last 
for five years of its IT. 

288
00:17:12,839 --> 00:17:15,839
So the CRM system lasts once 
you've implemented it which 

289
00:17:15,839 --> 00:17:18,960
takes five years at the end of 
the once you've got it in there 

290
00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:21,079
at the end depreciates over five
years. 

291
00:17:21,119 --> 00:17:23,560
I'm, I'm probably losing you 
some of you at the moment but 

292
00:17:23,560 --> 00:17:26,680
this, this is kind of the point.
So we've got 10 million there 

293
00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:28,160
and then another five years of 
that. 

294
00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:31,280
So, so this is kind of how it's 
calculated. 

295
00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:35,000
So the $2,000,000 saving by 
ripping out those resources will

296
00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:38,120
ramp up over five years because 
you haven't actually implemented

297
00:17:38,120 --> 00:17:41,720
the saving of 20% until year 
five. 

298
00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:46,040
So that goes into a spreadsheet 
over time ramping up and then 

299
00:17:46,120 --> 00:17:49,000
for the next five years from 
there you're actually banking 

300
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:53,920
year on year the saving of that 
$2,000,000. 

301
00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:58,000
So that last five years of asset
is 10 mil. 

302
00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:01,720
So somewhere in the region up 
there you work out a figure 

303
00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:07,880
which works out, you know let's 
say $50 million in cost saving 

304
00:18:08,120 --> 00:18:12,080
by doing this piece of work and 
that is your kind of cost, 

305
00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:14,320
sorry, that's your benefit. 
That's how much you're 

306
00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:17,480
benefiting from reducing those 
staff numbers. 

307
00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:20,720
Basically getting rid of staff 
by putting in the system in, but

308
00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:24,360
of course putting in the system 
in costs money and that needs to

309
00:18:24,360 --> 00:18:26,640
be maintained. 
So you might have an ongoing, 

310
00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:28,960
you know, I don't know if it's 
Salesforce, Salesforce 

311
00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:32,640
administration teams and other 
five resources, hence the 

312
00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:34,400
reallocation. 
You may be getting rid of 

313
00:18:34,840 --> 00:18:39,160
contacts into staff which are 
100,000 and you're hiring 5 

314
00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:42,320
Salesforce staff that are on 
double that salary, right. 

315
00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:44,560
This is this. 
This is the interesting factor 

316
00:18:44,560 --> 00:18:47,840
with technology that generally 
you need people to you know 

317
00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:50,560
operate it and that goes. 
The cost is generally more 

318
00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:56,080
expensive, but either way the 
the cost of the project may be 

319
00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:01,360
$40 million. 
So you take the $40 million of 

320
00:19:01,360 --> 00:19:05,680
the money that it cost that 
that's the resources, buying the

321
00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:09,200
cap, buying the licenses over 
that same period and it cost $40

322
00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:12,760
million, but you get to save $50
million. 

323
00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:17,640
So it's a net positive, which is
50 -, 40 = 10 million in savings

324
00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:20,240
over 10 years. 
And that's your cost benefit 

325
00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:22,400
analysis. 
So really you're you're doing 

326
00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:25,600
this and I probably lost you. 
There's a lot of techniques and 

327
00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:28,600
ways of doing this and it gets 
to an accounting level, but 

328
00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:31,720
effectively you're working out 
to simply a balance sheet 

329
00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:34,760
equation of how much are you 
going to gain. 

330
00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:37,320
So how much you know what's the 
benefit, how much you're going 

331
00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:43,360
to get by doing this generally 
in staff reduction or time or 

332
00:19:43,800 --> 00:19:47,280
you know not paying licenses or 
removing something and that 

333
00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:52,280
equals an amount that's the 
benefit and then you'll and then

334
00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:55,320
there's going to be a cost to do
the thing and support it 

335
00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:57,560
ongoing. 
So it's called CapEx and OpEx 

336
00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:00,240
and you and you take the first 
number you minus the second 

337
00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:03,080
number and if that's a positive 
number then that's very good for

338
00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:04,960
you. 
And that basically means the 

339
00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:08,760
case, the business case, it's 
where the word comes from for 

340
00:20:08,760 --> 00:20:12,000
doing this bit change for 
actually supporting this project

341
00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:15,720
is positive. 
And so therefore generally if 

342
00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:21,000
that number is is is positive. 
Then your project should be 

343
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:23,040
justified from a financial point
of view. 

344
00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:27,840
And of course it's not all 
financial for it's not all about

345
00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:31,120
finance and some. 
Right at the moment I'm helping 

346
00:20:31,120 --> 00:20:34,360
write a business case for for a 
government department and it's 

347
00:20:34,360 --> 00:20:38,640
an it's a need to uplift their 
infrastructure and their data 

348
00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:43,400
space. 
And the benefit is in the data, 

349
00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:45,240
right. 
Forget about the, you know 

350
00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:48,520
removing staff and the doing the
thing and adding up. 

351
00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:52,160
So the the cost benefit analysis
I've just talked about is less 

352
00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:57,080
is less positive and you know 
you can play with numbers, but 

353
00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:00,880
one of the, one of the the 
positive return that's really 

354
00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:05,160
hard to quantify financially and
of course business cases, this 

355
00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:10,640
is only a portion of the of the 
of the story is that the value 

356
00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:12,520
will be the access to 
information. 

357
00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:15,360
And because they're a public 
service, they're not selling 

358
00:21:15,360 --> 00:21:18,280
this information, they're using 
it to make better public 

359
00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:21,520
services and make informed 
decisions and answer requests 

360
00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:25,240
and things. 
It's hard to quantify how do you

361
00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:27,880
quantify that in terms of money.
And there are models that are 

362
00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:30,640
now being introduced to modify 
that to talk about that talk 

363
00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:34,120
about information value. 
And you know we can maybe show 

364
00:21:34,120 --> 00:21:37,120
that as well as our financial 
model maybe it's not positive we

365
00:21:37,120 --> 00:21:41,320
can have this model and show hey
this is the model we use to show

366
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,240
how that credit our information 
is and how long it takes to 

367
00:21:44,240 --> 00:21:48,320
access that information. 
When we when we implement you 

368
00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:52,440
know this new CRM system, if 
that's what we're doing, this is

369
00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:55,480
kind of like the audit and and 
it's got a score of you know, 

370
00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:59,000
it's a got a bad score, a red 
score and if we do it, it's got 

371
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:03,240
a green score and it's a good 
thing and you know and and and 

372
00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:05,480
don't and then that's the other 
part of the business case and 

373
00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:08,560
this is what we talked about in 
terms of the exec. 

374
00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:11,200
They want to see the positive 
cost benefit analysis, generally

375
00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:15,080
positive and they generally want
to see things like, you know, 

376
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:22,480
happier staff retention, time 
saving and you know, quality 

377
00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:24,360
information to make informed 
decisions. 

378
00:22:24,360 --> 00:22:28,040
And any leader who's got a 
digital background or at least 

379
00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:32,320
understands great data, they 
should realize that that does 

380
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:36,000
translate into financial 
benefits or at least optionality

381
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:41,080
when it comes to resourcing or 
building their team because if 

382
00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:44,200
you don't have information, you 
know it's very hard to to do 

383
00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:46,600
anything else. 
So anyway, that was my side rant

384
00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:50,200
around information value and I 
think I've given you a pretty 

385
00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:56,200
good rundown on purpose, complex
example of cost benefit analysis

386
00:22:56,200 --> 00:22:59,240
and that's a large part of the 
business case and how your 

387
00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:04,360
analysis feeds into that. 
And as I said you would do this,

388
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:08,080
you generally come up with 
really rough numbers for the 

389
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:10,560
first business case. 
It's usually, sometimes they 

390
00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:12,880
call it an appraised business 
case, sometimes they call it an 

391
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:18,120
initiation business case to like
initially justify even looking 

392
00:23:18,120 --> 00:23:20,920
at this problem. 
And your business case is 

393
00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:23,680
generally in a stack, a pile 
against another 50 or whatever 

394
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:25,480
or you know in some businesses 
500. 

395
00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:28,320
So that you know it might be a 
one page that the exec team 

396
00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:30,840
looks at and they work out OK. 
Well, this is a problem for us. 

397
00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:33,160
Data is bad. 
We had some data breach that's 

398
00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:33,760
really bad. 
OK. 

399
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:38,040
So the data project looks good. 
We know that customers are 

400
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:40,040
really important. 
We know that the contact center 

401
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:42,520
is too big. 
Reducing customer, OK. 

402
00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:44,960
One of our problems is the 
number of staff we have in that 

403
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:47,240
area. 
We need a cost cut and you know 

404
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:50,280
we don't have an integrated 
serum system. 

405
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:53,200
So you know, responding and 
getting back to customer 

406
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:55,760
requests has cost us a lot of 
money across the enterprise. 

407
00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:58,720
That project there and 
implementing the serum, that 

408
00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:01,120
looks like a good idea. 
OK, cool. 

409
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:04,480
Kind of neutral cost benefit 
analysis. 

410
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:06,840
Cool. 
Oh, no, no, it is positive Cool.

411
00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:09,480
OK, well, that's going to make 
the cut and then they whittle it

412
00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:12,840
down till they have their five, 
you know, business cases they're

413
00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:15,360
going to support. 
That's going to cost us, I don't

414
00:24:15,360 --> 00:24:18,160
know, 500 million to invest in 
all these things. 

415
00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:20,840
It's generally billions of 
dollars when we get to this 

416
00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:23,800
level, even in a small country 
like New Zealand. 

417
00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:27,960
And then you're going, Yep, OK, 
we're going to invest in that. 

418
00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:29,960
Sorry. 
And what they say is they're 

419
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:36,960
going to commit to how much it 
would cost over the whole life 

420
00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:40,160
of the of the business case. 
So what I'm trying to say there 

421
00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:43,840
is the first business case says,
look, if we do this project, 

422
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:45,960
it's going to cost us $50 
million. 

423
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:47,680
Sorry. 
In that case, we said 40 million

424
00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:49,800
before. 
So I'll say $40 million to do 

425
00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:51,760
this project. 
OK. 

426
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:54,440
And they'll say cool, you can't,
you have approval. 

427
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:55,920
Thank you. 
You've done a great job 

428
00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:58,840
explaining why this is a 
problem. 

429
00:24:59,120 --> 00:25:02,160
Here's 40 million. 
We commit to giving you $40 

430
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:06,080
million if you can, at these 
various stages along the 

431
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:09,840
project, continue to justify 
that what you've said upfront is

432
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:13,840
true and that you can show the 
benefits and get very, you know,

433
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:18,280
you can start to show us how you
can do this project. 

434
00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:22,680
You keep to the budget, the $40 
million budget and that that $50

435
00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:26,760
million in savings, it starts to
get realized along the way and 

436
00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:28,880
so that that is the business 
case process, OK. 

437
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:32,680
And you you basically take the 
the first business case you 

438
00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:35,440
write the justification for even
doing the analysis, high level 

439
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:38,800
analysis and then you evolve it.
So it just gets bigger and 

440
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,760
bigger and bigger as you go 
through various stages. 

441
00:25:42,120 --> 00:25:45,640
And as I mentioned upfront with 
the the Better Business case 

442
00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:49,080
process, for example, depending 
on how much money you're asking 

443
00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:53,640
for, you may have to write more,
justify more or you might have 

444
00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:57,080
to justify less. 
And I'm, I'm going to throw a 

445
00:25:57,080 --> 00:26:00,280
side note here, which is 
something I've talked about 

446
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:04,320
before and I'm really passionate
about if you're on a startup 

447
00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:06,600
company, right. 
And so this, this process 

448
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:11,520
matters the the bigger the 
company or the OR the money the 

449
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:15,640
source of funds you're spending.
If you're in a startup business 

450
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:19,200
or a medium sized business, you 
do this process anyway, you 

451
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,720
should be doing this process and
I wouldn't necessarily mean the 

452
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:26,000
integrate you might need to if 
you're seeking investment from a

453
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:30,080
financial firm and like I said, 
it's really you're just doing, 

454
00:26:30,120 --> 00:26:32,280
you know how much money we're 
spending, what's the benefit? 

455
00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:34,400
That's it. 
So could the fact that we're 

456
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:36,760
thinking about you know when you
get to corporations and you're 

457
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:43,920
writing fifty 100 pages plus you
know 200 spreadsheets, the lean 

458
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,320
business case, lean or lean 
business case or lean canvas, 

459
00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:51,200
there is a lean business case as
well is the same thing. 

460
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:54,920
It's just much more cut down and
you've got a lot less variables 

461
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:58,240
to talk about, a lot less risk, 
a lot less assumptions built in 

462
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:01,120
because you're so small there's 
only you know three or four of 

463
00:27:01,120 --> 00:27:04,800
you you can the the numbers will
be more accurate. 

464
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:08,880
Therefore you don't need to 
justify your models as much and 

465
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:14,040
you know it could be A1 pager. 
And I'm also very, very keen on 

466
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:17,360
this process that first Phase I 
talked about that even 

467
00:27:17,360 --> 00:27:20,400
justifying spending money to 
even look to see if the problem 

468
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:22,840
is what we thought it was and 
how much it was going to cost to

469
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:26,520
solve the high, what I call 
strategic and business 

470
00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:30,720
enterprise analysis. 
That should be cheap, that 

471
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:32,960
should be cheaper. 
I mean at the end of the day the

472
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:35,760
exec team is looking, if our 
audience is having to look at 

473
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:38,520
500 of these to widdle them down
to the five they're going to 

474
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:41,080
invest in. 
You know a one page business 

475
00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:44,360
case should be enough at that 
start point as long as it's 

476
00:27:44,360 --> 00:27:46,760
consistent and the analysis 
behind it. 

477
00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:50,680
You know, maybe again as 
consistent and valid. 

478
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:54,600
Then maybe all they need to see 
is A1 pager to justify looking 

479
00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:56,960
at this problem. 
Then you know, then you might 

480
00:27:56,960 --> 00:27:59,040
move into a five page which is 
this case. 

481
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:01,680
And then as you get further down
you might get moved to a 20 page

482
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:05,680
business case for example. 
And you know if you're if you're

483
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:10,480
taking, if if you're a business 
and you're taking 10% of your 

484
00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:14,360
revenue and you're investing it 
in terms of these projects, then

485
00:28:14,360 --> 00:28:18,960
you know you don't you you need 
to make an informed decision and

486
00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:22,000
that's what it's all about. 
So hopefully I've explained to 

487
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,640
you what a business case is. 
I'll point you to the Better 

488
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,920
Business case templates. 
Look online, you'll find them 

489
00:28:28,120 --> 00:28:30,200
either here in New Zealand or in
the UK. 

490
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:34,400
Some of them are scary. 
We could work. 

491
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:37,160
I don't, I don't want to work 
through a template today. 

492
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:41,480
I think we can do that if you 
want to, that that's almost 

493
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,960
something we do in the Level 2 
course. 

494
00:28:46,160 --> 00:28:49,000
But I think I've given you a 
good justification about what a 

495
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:53,440
business case is for why we do 
it, what stages are that we go 

496
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:58,480
through and ultimately, 
hopefully you as ABA can see the

497
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:00,040
value that you can add.