The Analytics Revolution

CHAPTER 4 Want Budget? Build the Business Case!

As an organization evolves to operational analytics, various investments will be required. These investments include the people, tools, and technologies that must be put in place in order to implement operational analytics successfully. The process of making analytics operational will be neither cheap nor easy, but with the right discipline it can pay off. Of course, getting the agreement and approval for the investments required is no easier today than it ever was. Therefore, building a business case for operational analytics is critical.

In this chapter, we lay out concepts and frameworks to assist you in building the business case for operational analytics in your organization. Many of the concepts can be applied more broadly to investments in analytics. The good news is that if time and care are taken to develop a business case and ensure that it accounts for some of the unique aspects of analytics, you and your organization can be successful.

Setting the Priorities

Before starting on a business case for operational analytics, it is necessary to lay out what investments the business case will address and how the business case will address them. As with anything, the direction and tone of a business case can be as important as the supporting facts and figures. In this section, we discuss how to start with the right perspective to give your business case the maximum chance to succeed. A few small adjustments to common practices ...