I always wonder - why does one have to build business cases capturing ROI, strategy, benefits etc to sell the concept of ECM in an organization ? If I tell you where my thought comes from then you will know my question is not silly.
I have worked with business communities of companies to chart their business case and the points they place on the table during the initial meetings are like - "No further questions can be asked on reasoning"
Usually the business case is built during the first stage of Discovery. When asked for reasons, one company said it lost most of its critcal legal documents in a flood. When i heard that I was awe struck. I was wondering why we were even spending that hour on capturing ROI, benefits etc. I mean losing critical documents to flood or any other natural calamity - is that not a good reason enough to go paperless and manage information electronically ? What more justification is required for the CFO offices to approve budgets ?
There was this other time when one company lost millions of dollars because when there was an audit conducted by a regulatory body, the users spent weeks looking for the relevant documentation which they never found. They knew it existed but their search , storage and taxonomy were unyielding. They definitely needed some good content management there. And there I was working with them strategising their business case ! Definitely felt it was a waste of time.
The above two cases and more have often made me question this process for Business case building. If the reason is as compelling as above why should time be sepnt on brain storming, review , presentation and approval. This cycle definitely will run into months. It would be wiser to divert that time into getting the system built. May be its to comply with company policies and process, in which case just have one sheet that lists the problem faced and the loss. Well, thats seldom the case. We do end up building a 20 page presentation on benefits, advantages and so on. Beats me !
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1 comment:
Great blog post!
I think you have to weigh up (I used to be a business analyst) the 'away from' and the 'go to' reasons for change.
The 'away from' are situations such as you described -(losing docs in a flood, regulatory compliance etc) - as soon as people are out of the initial shock and pain, they lose interest.
The 'go to' reasons are aspirational - make more money, improve customer satisfaction etc) - for these kind of reasons people are motivated to bother - to keep driving toward a goal.
The business cases theoretically details that motivation (why and what we are going to achieve).
However I probably also share your experience of reading many many business cases over the years that are complete works of fantasy. Just like most ROI calculations :-)
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