Business Value Justification

Question 1

Positioning our help to present the value

Answer 1

Somewhere down the line, if this evaluatin progresses, somebody is going to have to ask somebody else for money. And they are going to be asked, “How much are you going to pay me back in return?” We’d like to help you prepare for that question.

Question 2

What type of IT Efficiency will we achieve?

Answer 2

Reduce IT Labor Costs

Reduce IT Expenses

Question 3

What type of Business Efficiency will we achieve?

Answer 3

Increase Analyst Productivity

Increase Knowledge Worker Efficiency

Question 4

What type of Business Effectiveness will we achieve?

Answer 4

Increase Revenue
Reduce Costs
Achieve Better Outcomes

Question 5

IT Efficiency - granular positioning

Answer 5

Benefits realized by removing the report generation burden from IT, and enabling self-reliance in the business. The hard numbers around IT are relatively easy to measure and highly credible. Payback comes from reducing the cost burden on IT, enabling them to redeploy resources and to focus on higher value activities.

Question 6

Business Efficiency

Answer 6

Benefits achieved from optimizing how the business explores data, and authors reports and dashboards. There are two primary roles and associated activities impacted

1) increasing analysts’ productivity by significantly reducing their time to author reports
2) increasing knowledge workers’ efficiency by eliminating lost time searching for information & improving time to insight. It is common for Tableau to reduce report creation and delivery time by 5-0-75%

Question 7

Business Effectiveness

Answer 7

Decision-makers operate in the realm of business results. These results come from insights that Tableau helps uncover, and often have the greatest business and financial impact. To be most effective, a Business Case needs to showcase the financial benefit from Tableau, and link to achievement of strategic objectives and resolution of critical business problems.

Question 8

Be…

Answer 8

Conversational and curious - don’t interrogate!

Question 9

Here’s a way… (discovery)

Answer 9

“Here’s a way to help you think about where and how this will create value”

Question 10

As we work together…. (discovery)

Answer 10

“As we work together in the coming weeks, we can help you quantify some of these in hard dollar terms. For now, it will be great just to start thinking about what kind of payback you see from this kind of investment”

Question 11

I’d like to… (validate)

Answer 11

I’d like to understand the inefficiencies and challenges in your current process”

Question 12

We’ve focused… (validate)

Answer 12

“We’ve focused on marketing effectiveness, improving conversion rates [substitute applicable use case] how to you measure that? Let’s quantify a 1% improvement in that” (typically 1% in a large org will be multiple X ROI gains - think 1% of $100M - you don’t need to shoot for the moon)

Question 13

Based on our discussions… (validate)

Answer 13

“Based on our discussions, and our experience as part of the Guided Evaluation, I’ve started to draft a business case. I’d love to work together to ensure its accuracy and fit”

Question 14

Let’s be certain… (decide)

Answer 14

“Let’s be certain the business benefits are clearly understood by your leadership; we don’t want this to be evaluated only based on coasts”

Question 15

“You’ve quantified FTE productivity savings,
but we aren’t getting rid of people and still
have to pay them…” (concern)

Answer 15

When you employ people and pay them a salary, you’re inherently placing a
value on the hours they work. Using FTE savings is just one way of quantifying
the value the project will deliver. Though you may not eliminate these positions,
the savings show how Tableau eliminates the need to hire additional resources
and allow your existing resources to be redeployed to more productive uses.

Question 16

“I’m not sure about those revenue uplifts -
what if a competitor enters our market or the
global economy slows down?”

Answer 16

If the product delivers competitive advantage, then even in a downturn or a
more competitive environment, the improvements will recover some of the
revenue that otherwise might be lost.

Question 17

“I’m not sure I want to give you those
numbers – you’ll just use them in
negotiations.”

Answer 17

If you’re going to purchase anything, at some point your leadership and finance
team will be asking for a justification. Our goal is for you to understand the
value that can be gained from this initiative. We’re happy to work with you to
provide the framework, and to collaborate with you using very rough numbers,
but in the end you can use the tools to create your own internal justification.

Question 18

“These numbers seem too large – I’m
not comfortable presenting these to my
management.”

Answer 18

Significant technology improvements often yield outsized benefits - imagine
running your business with no computers? Most of our customers are able
to justify their investment by being conservative, and assuming very small
improvements to their key metrics. This is why I always do this collaboratively
with my customers. I want you comfortable with where the returns come from,
and that you’re confident in achieving them.

Question 19

“I don’t think this is detailed enough for our

business case process.”

Answer 19

This was focused on identifying some of the key areas where Tableau will
provide tangible business benefits, and putting a framework for quantifying
those benefits. Most of our clients have a specific process they must follow to
get funding approval, and that often involves their finance teams. You should
be able to use this information to have fruitful discussions with your finance
team, and we’re happy to help further if you’d like.

Question 20

“I don’t need to do a detailed financial

business case.”

Answer 20

We feel there’s a lot to uncover by letting us proceed with the exercise of
attempting to quantify the benefits, even if you don’t ultimately include them in
the business case. If you’re sure you won’t be asked for a financial justification
later, we can still qualitatively identify the areas where you expect to improve
your operations.

Question 21

“How will I know when we’ve realized these

benefits?”

Answer 21

By documenting your current state, you can have something to compare to and
measure after deploying Tableau. In terms of setting our goals and expectations,
let’s limit ourselves to areas where we’re clear on what benefits we expect, and
when we evaluate down the line we’ll also look for other, unexpected benefits.

Question 22

“Tableau just formats the numbers. To
realize any value we’ll have to change actual
business practices, contracts, or systems. I’m
not sure Tableau should get all the credit for
those possible changes and I’m not sure my
business will actually make the changes.”

Answer 22

It’s clear that you can’t (or shouldn’t) make changes to your business without
insights into your data that indicates what change needs to take place. Though
additional investments and work may need to be done to affect change, Tableau
can show what improvements are needed. In the interest of committing to a
conservative business case, you may want to only project a subset of the total
potential business benefit to Tableau.