Building the business case for Power Platform investment

The Power Platform business case that gets funded is not the one that describes platform capabilities most thoroughly. It is the one that connects investment to business outcomes most credibly.

Start with a problem, not a solution

The framing that works: here is a business problem. Here is the cost of that problem today. Here is how Power Platform addresses it. Here is the cost of the solution. Here is the return.

The framing that does not work: here is Power Platform. Here is what it can do. Here are potential use cases. Leadership funds solutions to problems — start with the problem.

Quantifying the current cost

Every business problem has a cost that can be estimated. Eight people spending four hours per week on a manual process: roughly 160 hours per month at whatever the fully loaded cost of those hours is. An eleven-day approval process that should take two days: what is the cost of decisions delayed by nine days? These estimates do not need to be precise — they need to be reasonable and documented.

Structuring the investment case

1. The cost of doing nothing: what does the current situation cost and does that cost grow over time?
2. The investment required: development, licence, implementation, and ongoing operating costs. Be complete — hidden costs discovered later undermine trust.
3. The return: time savings, error reduction, cycle time improvement, risk reduction. Quantify as many as you can.

The governance cost belongs in the case

Include the cost of the governance foundation: CoE setup, ALM pipeline, training, ongoing administration. Leaving it out means either it does not get done (and the solution degrades) or it is funded as a surprise later.

The business case that includes realistic governance costs is more credible than one that presents only the glamorous part of the investment. Leadership has seen enough technology projects go wrong to be suspicious of cases that only show the upside.