BizKase - The Methodology

 

The BizKase Methodology is new, unique. and effective because we listened and understood what customers are asking for. 

 

However, this is a new way of thinking about measuring and quantifying business impact, and you need to understand some simple-to-understand basics. 

 

This short section gives you the 'new thinking' within BizKase. It's easy to consume and will take you just a few minutes. 

1. We Set the Scene with the Customer

  • Difficult, 'heavy-lift' business cases are a thing of the past
  • Business value and impact is defined in hard-number outcomes
  • The customer's experience can be measured
  • The buyer and seller have a framework for continuous process improvement, and a long-term value-centric relationship
  • Business case building process is 100% transparent to reinforce trust

2. We Think Differently

  • We recognise that features and benefits are not so important to potential customers. What matters instead is business impacts and outcomes.
  • For example, as sellers, we will always start qualifying and understanding the customer's problem or issues - the reason they are talking to you about your company's solution.
  • So, what changes?
  • First, rather than immediately trying to link your solution to the customer's problem or issue through benefit statements … we take a pause and dig deeper into the business impacts these problems and issues create. These impacts are the foundation for how your product or solution will bring real, hard-number value to your customer.

 

Diagram 1:   Impacts, and the Events that Create them, are Everywhere in a Business' Value Chain

3. We Begin With the End in Mind 

  • Together with the customer, we will identify and quantify all of the relevant impacts affecting the customer's company, and we will group these into what we call a SCENARIO. In diagram (i) below you can see how impacts are rolled-up into EVENTS, which in turn are rolled-up to define the Scenario.
  • The total value of this scenario is then compared to the cost(s) of your SOLUTION to automatically calculate the derived BizKase.
  • So, fundamentally, our start point is the understanding that Total Business Impact ($) less Solution Cost ($) = ROI ($). This is what we will build the BizKase around.
  • Hard-number As-Is and To-Be value metrics are captured at the impact, event, and scenario levels and represented in Diagram 2. The critical component here is that all of these impacts are weighted to reflect each customer's perception of value, and how conservative they want the business case to be. 
  • The BizKase is continuously re-calculated in real time as new impacts or solution costs are entered into the system by the seller. In turn, the graphics and results are continuously updated, and changes are to specific impacts, values or costs can changed on-the-fly in seconds so the BizKase can be immediately and continuously refined to best meet the customer's evolving situation.

 

Diagram 2:   In the BizKase Model, Impacts roll-up to Events which roll-up to a Scenario

Diagram 3 - Impact Value Drivers are Quantified at an Impact and Event Level

 

Diagram 4 - The ROI Calculation is Decomposed for the C-Suite

 

Diagram 5 - The Customer's Business Case is Also Presented in Plain English Terms

4. The Customer Gets Aligned to Our Methodology

  • As with any step in our sales cycle, we need to make sure we engage with our customer and get them on-board with the BizKase methodology you will use for this business case. To that end, we will:
  • Talk to the Customer Sponsor
    • Understand the problem(s) / issue(s) they are looking to fix
    • Build a high-level list of the specific impacts they have identified. There will be additional Impacts that you (the seller) will inevitably add to that list
    • Then, we will need to identify the individual stakeholders who we can talk with to really dig into each of the impacts, understand the detail, and quantify the hard numbers behind them
  • Agree Your Process Working usually with the customer sponsor, you will outline the BizKase methodology, the steps you will go through with the customer's stakeholder team.
  • You will discuss the mechanics of the Bizkase process with the customer to make sure they understand and are 100% aligned to the process. This will include:
    • How BizKase calculated value
    • The As-Is and To-Be states
    • Value Types and Impact
    • Weighting values for the Impacts
    • Gating Factors
    • The BizKase reports - what they look like 

5. We Engage Stakeholders to Quantify Impacts

  • Engage With Customer Stakeholders … and Begin
    • With the customer's buy-in, you will engage with the various customer stakeholders to qualify and quantify the specific impacts
    • Inevitably, you will uncover and identify additional impacts that have affected the customer, and these will be additional impacts that will build on top of the list your customer initially identified to you. This is important because the more impacts you identify with the customer, the more value - in hard dollar terms - will be identified and built into the BizKase process, and therefore the stronger your ultimate BizKase will become.
    • To that end, each impact will be quantified around four core questions, and each question will be tied to a unit of measure for time, whether it's per hour, per quarter, per event to ensure we capture exactly what the customer says without needing to do the heavy-lift math, usually in front of the customer.

Diagram 6 - Identifying & Quantifying Business Impacts is Easy, Consistent & Very Scalable

6. We Define Your Solution to BizKase

  • As you are gathering impacts, you will naturally start to zero-in on the solution that you will use to address the customer's issues.
  • In BizKase terms, this solution is entered into the system as an (up to) three level bill of material in which you can define the quantities and costs for individual Items, which roll up to Products, which then roll up to the Solution.

Diagram 7 - Solutions are made-up of Products, which themselves are made-up of Items

7. We Review the Finished BizKase 

  • At this point in the process our BizKase should be ready in its first draft form and ready for review, discussion with the customer, and, if sufficient value has been identified … to close your deal

Diagram 8 - The Finished BizKase has All the Graphics & Metrics a Customer Needs

8. We Present the BizKase to the Customer 

 

Diagram 9 - The Finished BizKase has All the Graphics & Metrics a Customer Needs 

9. The BizKase Becomes the Go-Forward Baseline 

The finished BizKase then becomes a Baseline Measure from which we can continuously measure the value your solution brings to your customer

Diagram 10 - The BizKase is a Baseline on which to Measure the Actual Customer Value Realized 

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