A business case explains the reasons for undertaking a project or task. It explains how the project will help an organization to achieve it’s underlying goals. A business case is made because whenever resources such as money or effort are consumed, they should be in support of a business need.
A business case can be a lengthy and highly formal document, or it can be a simple short memo or a verbal presentation.
Why make a business case?
A full business case provides managers with the information for deciding whether a project should be initiated. The project team can also use the business case to measure if the reasons behind it still remain valid as it progresses. And that the promised benefits are being achieved.
Business cases for e-mail marketers
Within Email marketing business cases are very common. A financial officer and the management team needs to know the reasoning behind selecting a certain email vendor. A business case might be presented to explain why email marketing should be done in-house or outsourced. Or investments for a particular e-mail campaign, infrastructure, automation of event driven campaigns, gathering extra profile information or email addresses etc,etc.
Information included in a formal business case
(depending of information available and size of the project)
- Reference – the projects background
- Value proposition – the expected business benefits Cost and ROI scenarios
- Focus – The options considered, with reasons for preferring one over the other and the scope of the project
- Gap analysis – The risks involved with not doing the project
- Deliverables – Outcomes, deliverables and benefits planned
- Expected costs – Workload and required resources
In some cases the email vendor, an email marketing agency or other stakeholders might write the business case. Often it is not the internal project leader that writes it. Approaches to business decisions might also include a pilot project, trial versions of email tools or a proof of concept.
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