Why this is important

Create a persuasive business case to get approval and funding for your ServiceNow® investment. Learn to develop recommendations that align with your organization’s strategic objectives and business issues, create financial justification with quantified cost and expected benefits using the best available data validated, and finally, communicate a cohesive, concise value-for-the-business story tailored to your audience.

Steps covered

1. Identify key issues and business improvement areas
2. Develop recommendations
3. Construct the business case
4. Socialize, communicate, and finalize
5. Monitor and manage your value realization

Key takeaways

The most important things to know
When you create a business case:

• The process of creating the business case is more important than the actual numbers in the business case. The process allows you to get agreement on the problem you’re trying to solve, identify and highlight a value gap, and then quantify it.
• The most persuasive business cases are cohesive stories that start with clear business objectives and challenges to resolve, are based on a comprehensive understanding of costs, and define credible measures of expected benefits and value.
• Along with the investment approval committee members, the stakeholders for your ServiceNow business case should include process owners, service owners, service desk managers, functional leaders, and everyone else who is a critical decision-maker in implementing and adopting the ServiceNow capabilities you recommend.
• Along with the investment approval committee members, the stakeholders for your ServiceNow business case should include process owners, service owners, service desk managers, functional leaders, and everyone else who is a critical decision-maker in implementing and adopting the ServiceNow capabilities you recommend.

The payoff of getting this right
The business case provides justification for key business stakeholders and your investment approval committee to:

• First, approve funding for your ServiceNow relationship by showing that the investment provides a positive return
• Second, prioritize funding for ServiceNow relative to other projects by creating alignment with key strategic outcomes and building consensus with key stakeholders

A strong business case will help you expand your ServiceNow investment by building buy-in and enthusiasm among your key stakeholders and leaders. It also lays the foundation for measuring value realization to build credibility and buy-in for future expansion.