In some minds, a successful business case is one that brings CFO approval for a funding request.
CFO Success is What Matters
You can improve the chance of hearing a CFO "Yes" if You know What the CFO looks for in your business case.
For many case builders, CFO approval is the very definition of business case success. However, participants in our Business Case seminars tell us that this kind of success can have a short life.
A business case that wins CFO approval is a case that will soon be put to the test. CFOs and others who decide funding requests know that they, themselves, will bear accountability for the actions they approve. For them, approving an action is not "success," when predicted results do not arrive as promised.
CFO-IT Magazine recently asked 241 senior finance executives the following question:
"In the past year, have your IT expenditures produced the return on investment you expected?"
Of the finance executives who responded, fifty seven either said "no" or "unsure." Only 9% said they had resolved the ROI debate by relying on one or more formal approaches to ROI for all or most IT expenditures. The rest are either using other decision criteria, or searching for other criteria. Read more of this post