From Idea to Action - Build a Compelling Case that's Impossible to Ignore

It's a harsh reality but nobody wants to put together a business case. That's why we've put together a resource pack to help you build a compelling business case for SFG20 in your organisation. Want to know about putting together a successful business case? In the next half an hour I will walk you through how to step into the shoes of your stakeholders and present a business case successfully to get the approval that you need. This even comes with a savings calculator so you can figure out how much time and money you can save by using SFG20. Let's jump over to the webinar to find out more, but if you've got any questions let us know in the comments.

Nobody Wants to Build a Business Case

Building a business case is tiring. It's also time consuming and if I'm perfectly honest it's pretty boring to do. Before joining SFG20 I put together hundreds of business cases and each one takes more time than you think it's going to do, so you have less time than you actually need. When you're spending time on the business case, the rest of your day job is piling up. The to-do list gets longer, your working hours get longer, and let's face it—you can spend weeks and weeks putting together the business case only for the decision to not be the outcome that you were hoping for.

Now let's face it, and this is a harsh reality, but nobody wants to build a business case. The question you probably find yourself asking is how can you go from zero to having your business case for SFG20 in as quick a time as possible? Now we want to remove some of that stress for you, so we've built a resource pack to help you, and throughout this webinar I'll run through some of the resources as well as some of the actionable items that you can use to get your business case up and running in no time at all.

Your time is at a premium, and you can protect that time by using these resources to go from a quote from our sales team through to running live with SFG20 as quickly as possible. So let's jump into some of these resources that are going to make your life easier when putting together your business case.

Free Business Case Resources

So it all starts with our e-guide and to make this easy for you it is all in one download and you're going to be able to access the rest of this pack through the e-guide. Now in my experience most organisations require a written business case before you're given the opportunity to present it to the key stakeholders and decision makers. This resource pack specifically takes you through that journey.

The e-guide gives you all of the considerations that you might need to present your business case successfully, and the written business case has the complete narrative of why SFG20 is your recommendation. It gives you the benefits and understands why that's important to your organisation, and also we go through the risks of non-compliance so that you can share with your stakeholders the real reason why you need this.

So you can use that written template to craft the narrative, even if you're only required to present your business case. Now all you're going to need to do with these resources is add the context from your organisation. That goes for the presentation template too, and that is just a set of slides that you can use to guide a conversation with your stakeholders.

Finally—and you've probably seen the savings calculator in the corner there and immediately got excited about that—we've put this together to help you define how much time and money you could save by adopting the SFG20 standard. This is going to be a critical piece of information to include in your business case.

You might be thinking now, "Where can I get these resources?" But don't worry about that, because immediately after this webinar you will receive these resources straight to your inbox. So you haven't got to go searching for them, and you'll be prompted first of all to download the e-guide where you will find the rest of the resources.

Free Business Case Guide

The e-guide is going to give you considerations on the common pain points that facility managers face and their consequences. It's going to run through some of the key information that is going to convince your stakeholders to adopt SFG20 and that it is a no-brainer.

You're going to be able to look at how you overcome the biggest challenges that people face when implementing new FM software based on some survey data that we've collected, and also look at the ways that you can save money through SFG20—which is always important. Then finally some bits and pieces on how you can present your business case.

Essentially, the e-guide is going to help you create the business case, giving you the highest possible chance of reaching the desired outcomes that you have. But it's not just about getting all of the information onto paper. It's not just about putting together a series of bullet points on a slide that you might read off the screen, but usually that's how people approach a business case.

Step Into the Shoes of Your Stakeholders

Around 10 years ago I presented my first ever business case and honestly I had no idea what I was doing—none at all. All I knew was the desired outcome, and that was to get enough money to deliver three large scale events across that year. This was not only my first time presenting a business case, but it was one week into my first ever job. It was also the first time I met the CEO.

In preparation, I asked some other people what he was like and people told me that he valued three things, but one of them was the most important, and that was the professional development of staff. Wanting to do the best that I could, I shaped the whole presentation around how the events that I was planning would help enhance the professional development of the staff.

I got lucky the first time I presented a business case and I have reciprocated that same process ever since. So the biggest mistake I see people make presenting business cases is they make it all about them and why they need it. But it's not about you presenting the business case—it's about the person making the decision.

To build a compelling business case you have to step into the shoes of your key stakeholders. So what are the things that are important to your finance department, your board of directors, your IT department, or other key stakeholders in your organisation?

Usually, the common interest sits between a few different areas, including reducing risk, achieving compliance, and operational efficiency. It also links into the strategy of the wider business. Saving money is usually a piece of the puzzle too. Showcasing the benefits that the SFG20 standard provides through these different lenses stands you in the best chance of building a successful business case.

Clarity on what you are asking and the benefits of the product is a huge part of whether your business case is successful or not. Now the e-guide showcases seven principles to present the successful business case.

Now, where 75% of the population have a fear of public speaking, crafting your message is a critical piece of the puzzle if you're going to be able to convince your organisation to approve the funding that you need. So how you communicate your case is likely going to be the difference between whether you get the funding or whether somebody else in the organisation does.

And it's not just as easy as understanding your stakeholders. They're going to be concerned about implementation and how disruptive that might be to the business. We surveyed people in industry to understand the biggest challenges that organisations face when implementing new FM software. And maybe surprisingly, cost was not the top challenge—that sat with complexity of delivering change, with 40% of respondents choosing that option.

You've probably heard the anecdote of people hating change, but the reality is people don't hate the change itself—they hate the potential negative consequence of the change. Now in some cases there are very few downsides to implementing something new. And something I always challenge people to think about when something seems really hard or complex—and maybe leaning towards not doing something—is what is the upside? And then following on from that, does the potential upside outweigh any uncomfortability of implementing the new thing?

I would say that the SFG20 software, Facilities-iQ, has very little downside in its implementation, and actually, it's very easy. We'll touch upon why in just a second. But back to our original challenge around implementing new FM software—people said that complexity of delivering change was the main issue.

Now in some ways, implementing new software comes with having to alter your ways of working. But at SFG20, we put steps in place to really help you with that transition. So on signing the contract, you get instant access to the product. This means that there is no gap, there is no delay from contract signing to actually being able to start using this. So that's going to be a massive benefit to you and make it easy.

And it is easy to use. Facilities-iQ, which is our new software solution, has a simple interface which is fast, it's easy to use, and it's pretty self-explanatory. And we also include user training within the license fee so that you don't have to worry about upskilling in the area of Facilities-iQ. And this is going to help you in the transition from it being a new software through to moving into business as usual.

Now the API solution that we have allows quick and easy integration with other FM systems that you're using—including your CAFM or your CMMS providers—so that's going to make things really seamless as you transition from how you do it now through to actually making it business as usual and optimising your maintenance.

And then finally, once a maintenance plan has been created, it can be easily shared with any collaborators that you have. So that means that it's simpler when you're working with contractors or you're working with consultants or maybe working on an invitation to tender—you’re going to be able to share that with ease.

SFG20 Savings Calculator

The next biggest issue that was stated in that initial survey we did was around the cost of solutions. So demonstrating how SFG20 delivers value for money is a key area that you're going to have to communicate to your stakeholders. Now, this is what we've developed for you as a tool to use in the savings calculator.

Essentially, the cost savings calculator can be accessed via the SFG20 website and is linked within our e-guide. And we can also pop a link into the chat so that you can access it directly. But essentially there are five simple questions, and you will receive an estimated figure at the end of the time you spend staying up to date with legislation—including the time and also the cost associated of doing that.

So we're going to ask everything from what type of assets you maintain to the rough salary of the person in your organisation doing this work. And in addition, if you're contracting out the work—how much does that cost? And what do you spend purchasing codes of practice or legal costs? Because that is also a really important piece.

So then this is the output that you're going to receive at the end. We recommend in the templates that you paste your savings estimate into the business case slides. So if you're presenting your business case, there is something tangible there for your key stakeholders to see. And you can see from that little video there of using the savings calculator that it can take just two minutes of your time—so this is really easy to use.

As well as savings, delivering value for money is always a critical part of that business discussion. So by relying on SFG20 to stay on top of legislation for you, you can refocus your efforts into applying the standard correctly or to adding strategic value to your organisation.

There are four main areas here to consider in terms of further savings that SFG20 can deliver.

How SFG20 Helps You Save Money

The first one is by saving money through overplanning—through neither overplanning nor undermaintaining assets. SFG20 task frequencies help you to understand the appropriate level of maintenance for an asset so that ensures that they are neither undermaintained nor overmaintained, and that can result in cost savings.

Now the life stage of a building should significantly affect the maintenance regime of a building. So if buildings are going to be used for a five-year period or maybe more than that, the maintenance needs are going to be very different from a building that is nearing its end of life. So on both sides of that spectrum, it's critical to stay safe and legal, but optional and discretionary tasks might be able to be eliminated from your maintenance regime if a building is approaching end of life.

So essentially, you are tailoring based on the current scenario of your assets. You're doing the right thing for your building at the right time and for the right reasons—and this is extremely easy to manage with Facilities-iQ.

The second area to consider is all around energy costs. Now, well-maintained assets are proven to use less energy. Fifty percent of a building's energy use may come from HVAC systems alone. So when you maintain them well, assets use less energy and are likely to last longer in the lifecycle than assets that are left to maybe fix when they fail. So this means you can reduce your operational and operational costs simply just by looking after the assets that you own.

Now, energy-saving initiatives can also be considered and implemented. You’ll all know about switching to LED lighting or automating lighting controls, so ultimately this is going to see a further reduction in your energy bills, which is always going to help the situation too.

So the third area is around applying risk to refine your maintenance frequencies. Now, SFG20 users can save money by understanding which tasks are statutory and which are not, and this allows your resource to be focused accordingly to keep your organisation safe and legal.

Risk is obviously the probability and impact of failure. So if an asset has high probability of failure and the impact to your organisation will be great if it breaks down, then that represents the highest level of risk. And on the other end, for assets that present a low risk to business continuity or productivity, cost savings can be made by reducing frequencies for non-statutory tasks or assets with low operational risk.

Maybe you don't need to go in and check the bathroom extractor fans every week—maybe that's going to be a good saving for you in terms of time. So by reducing the number of site visits, you will save time and money—and also carbon.

The final piece of this is the optimisation of skill sets. So SFG20 tasks contain skill sets, and some tasks can be performed in-house with little or no training at all, and that results in cost savings compared to outsourcing the work.

We recently had a conversation with a client, and when they saw skill sets on SFG20 maintenance schedules, they realised that many of their tasks could be completed by a competent person rather than outsourcing. So they identified what tasks could be completed internally and then training requirements that needed to be in place for that. So significant money can be saved by utilising internal teams more efficiently.

Think about staff that are on site regularly—whether that's people on reception or cleaners or office managers or security—what maintenance tasks could they perform as a competent person?

So it's often really simple to come up with a savings figure. After all, you just have to put a number down. But the element of how that saving can be delivered isn’t always well defined. So these four elements are going to create value for money by using SFG20, and this is going to help you in writing your business case.

How to Write a Business Case

So when you're thinking about building your business case, you can now use the written template that we have designed. You can see here on the screen the layout of the document and the different sections. We've got yellow highlights that are specific prompts to add information relating to your organisation, and the green highlights are guidance notes.

It runs through the executive summary, the problem statement, the objectives, benefits, and many other things in here that are going to be pretty standard to any business case that you might have put together previously. Everything you need to know in terms of the SFG20 benefits, why it's important to comply with the SFG20 standard, and the risks of not doing so are within this template.

So this should save you a ton of time researching and putting this together yourself. You're going to be able to access this through the e-guide, which again is going to be sent to you shortly after this webinar.

Writing your business case is likely to be step one. Step two is probably going to be to present it. So we put together a template for that too—we want to make this as easy as possible for you.

How to Present a Business Case

Within this template deck, we've drafted some slides. You might decide you don’t need to use every slide—this is a deck to tailor to your needs. You will see here at the bottom right of every slide there are some guidance notes, and in the speaker notes section there are a whole bunch of things there to craft your narrative.

In addition, at the end of this deck we have ten different slides of relevant case studies and testimonials that you can use. Pick the ones that are relevant to your business—what is going to help sell the argument to your key stakeholders and decision makers? Hopefully, there is going to be some testimonials and case studies that align to the industry that you work in, but there is going to be something here that is of use for you.

So again, this template is going to make your life easier. But I just want to caveat this with a word of warning—because if your preparation alone is just putting slides together, your business case is not going to be compelling. And that is the most common mistake that people make when presenting their business case.

Public Speaking Tips from Liam Sandford

So we have essentially put together—with this template—actually presenting a business case is often where it falls down. Studies show that 75% of the population have a fear of public speaking. As a result of that, people hide behind slides or they use them as their prompt, or they simply read through bullet points on screen.

Now, you would have heard the phrase "death by PowerPoint." You don't want to sit through that—so you also don't want to present it either. You don't want to create that experience for people. Now for your business case to be compelling, you need to make your slides for the audience, not for you.

Everything in there needs to help them understand and reach the conclusion that you want them to. Humans tend to overcomplicate things in order to sound clever, but that's really unhelpful. So people tend to go around the houses, maybe make their point, and then say that point again in three or four different ways.

But if you think of your presentation as flowing water, your audience have to capture that information. If you are unclear, the message slips through the cracks—as if the audience are trying to catch the water through their hands. But when you're clear, it's like they're able to catch the water in the glass. They're going to take home the key messages, and that gives you the best chance of getting the outcome that you desire.

So don't be long-winded—be clear. If you can use five words, why use ten? And that's an important principle to use, especially if you only have ten minutes to present your business case.

The final thing that I want to share on this is to not throw away your close. Now, a lot of people finish a presentation with “That’s all I had,” or “Yeah, I think I’m done now,” or a variation on that theme. So how you close your presentation leaves the feeling that your stakeholders have.

Don’t undo the hard work of presenting by throwing away your close. Have a specific call to action to help get the decision that you need. The feeling that you're trying to evoke is: we need SFG20.

So come up with a purposeful question to hand over to your key stakeholders once you've presented your business case, and that increases your chances of a successful outcome.

Your Next Steps

So it is now time to start preparing your business case for SFG20 in your organisation. Shortly after this webinar, you will receive the email to download the e-guide. Once you've gone through that e-guide, you will find the links to all of the templates that we've just talked about here, including the savings calculator.

You want to start shaping the templates to suit your specific needs in your organisation. Now, even if you don't require a written business case, the written template will help you craft the narrative for your presentation. It's well worth going through both of those in conjunction with each other because it will help reduce that time—because you have the narrative and then you have the slides.

Then you're going to want to use the cost calculator that we put together to understand and estimate how much money and time you're going to save by outsourcing expertise to SFG20. Now, there is a slot in both of those templates to put a screenshot of your calculator results into, so that's going to be a useful thing to present to your stakeholders.

And then finally, start preparing to present your business case and select the appropriate testimonials or case studies that are going to help build that compelling business case.

So with these resources and this process, we think that preparing your business case is going to take hours rather than days or weeks. And we want to hear from you—so if there are things that you think would be good additions to this pack, get in touch with us and tell us, because we want to make this process as easy for you as possible, and hopefully that saves you more time.

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