How to build a business case for IWMS

To get your funding request approved for an Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS), you’ll need a strong business case to convince decision-makers it will net a compelling return on investment (ROI). Budget allocations depend on internal support, so pre-sell your plan to your colleagues and learn from their feedback. 

Bottom line: how do you show an IWMS will increase revenue, reduce costs, or enhance productivity for your organization?

Your presentation should provide solutions to relevant challenges, along with the benefits, costs and risks. A good IWMS business case includes one or more specific business challenges, like work order backlogs, inefficient use of assets, or cycle time delays. Start by aligning your vision with those challenges and business goals.

Build from one or more of the following goals that an IWMS supports:

• Improve conventional business processes based on best practices

• Build relationships with resilient technology business partners

• Streamline real estate tech stack, merging heterogeneous software packages

• Integrate with existing solutions and/or strategize transition plan

• Provide information that addresses the needs of decision-makers

• Meet current needs while positioning for future growth

Connect the dots by showing how an optimized IWMS consolidates real estate portfolio management, facilities operations and project management onto a single platform, delivering accessible and measurable results.

Reference the top 5 benefits of IWMS:

• Improve corporate sustainability

• Increase customer satisfaction

• Expand employee adoption

• Achieve compliance with less risk

• Integrated real estate workflows and data to drive better decision making

As you develop your case, consider that most IWMS solutions can be implemented in phases. As such, provide a range of high, medium and low investment alternatives with their associated returns when you go for executive approval.

Use ROI and cost-benefit analysis formulas to predict and measure success

Net Benefits might include cost savings through sunsetting legacy software, reducing risk, and simplification of the teams required to integrate, secure and support a disparate set of applications.

Design your business case to be both comprehensive and digestible

Its primary purpose is to communicate using terms that your target audience can understand. A good business case for IWMS covers the measurable cost savings, increased productivity, and improved work efficiencies used to calculate ROI.

Need more support? As a leading workplace systems integrator, our team of IWMS experts understand your challenges and can guide you through the process.