CWS 3.0: November 12, 2014

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Creating a business case that reveals your smarts, ensures success

By Ben Walker

When asked for a business case to implement a contingent workforce managed service program or vendor management system, anyone who’s been involved with them for a while might be tempted to offer this:

  1. Everybody is doing it.
  2. It’s free.

Done deal, right? The reality is it’s never that easy. Implementing these solutions is complicated, requiring a clear demonstration all that change and effort will return significant benefits.

I’ve seen many business cases fall into one of two extremes:

  1. Overly general and too short
  2. Overly detailed and (way, way) too long

Here are four suggestions for creating a succinct, fact-based business case that’s thorough enough to demonstrate you’ve done your homework, but targeted enough to keep the attention of those busy executives with the authority to nix it or fast track it.

  1. Current state. In the absence of reliable data about headcount, annual spend and supplier usage across the organization, provide estimates and state your assumptions and calculations. Often this data is really hard to come by, which is the whole reason to implement the solution in the first place, right? But, if you don’t quantify the current state you can’t calculate ROI and decision-makers won’t have any sense of what priority this initiative should be given among the long list of other improvement projects the company is contemplating. But, use the fact that the data was difficult and time-consuming to collect, and required lots of extrapolation, as an anecdote in your presentation.
  2. External examples. Provide examples of other companies in your industry that have implemented MSP and VMS solutions, and when they implemented them. Knowing not only that a handful of competitors already have a much better handle on their contingent workforce, but also that they’ve been doing so for years now, should add instant credibility to the solution. Nobody likes to be a laggard.
  3. Look at QECR. Look at the business case holistically across quality, efficiency, cost and risk. Even if cost savings is the most important driver, showing that the solution will achieve even broader results sweetens the pot. Include several benefits across each of the four dimensions. Again, make sure benefits are specific and, whenever possible, measurable.
  4. Pose questions you don’t have answers to. This may sound counterintuitive, and perhaps crazy for a business case, but the whole point of requesting the solution is to address fundamental problems. Posing these questions will draw attention to critical information gaps. For example, how many non-employees have access to your facilities on any given day? How quickly is system access turned off after they leave? How many independent contractors do you use annually, and were they formally screened for compliance with IRS and state labor and tax regulations? Has your contingent workforce gotten larger or smaller over the past five years? I’m sure you could create a list of at least 10 questions you wish you had definitive and reliable answers to but don’t without an MSP or VMS. With the dollars at stake with your contingent workforce, highlighting these gaps can put the initiative on the fast track.

Ben Walker is vice president of operations at Brightfield Strategies which consults with Fortune 500 companies on contingent workforce strategy initiatives.