In our hyper-competitive global economy all business assets are called upon to do more. Reward and recognition resources are no exception. If firms are to continuously outperform a growing crowd of existing and emerging challengers they must optimize the impact of their programs.
The business case is a decision support tool used by used by management to evaluate and rank projects. Used to ascertain the likely financial costs and outcomes and/or consequences of a particular business investment, it is changing as a business tool because decisions are becoming more macro in nature and are integrating the entire value chain into consideration. The term business case is analogous to a legal case. The presenter is making the case for his/or her request for funding buy applying evidence or reasoning to his conclusions. Like a lawyer presenting a case, your must connect all the evidence (findings) to a conclusion that is compelling and financially sound. The evaluation involves financial techniques that economic executives use to put requests for funding into a context that is "apples to apples" against other requests for capital and evaluates your request again others in the context of economic gain. But thats not the only consideration. While every business case has financial elements there is no one tried and true way to formulate it. You will find many established standards for business case content and structure already in play. Check with other members of your senior management team to determine what formats they have used and follow that template. You will probably notice that the onces that stand out (and get approved) address the business issue in a holistic manner and propose a project that is philosophically consistent with the strategic direction of the organization. Successful cases rationalize both alignment and the ability to make money above and beyond existing hurdle rates.
