Four Steps to CFO Funding for Your

Employee Communications Platform

October 12, 2017

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OUR SPEAKERS

Greg Shove

Founder & Executive Chairman

SocialChorus

@gregshove

Brian McDowell

VP of Sales

SocialChorus

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Chat with us on

ReadyTalk!

Our agenda for today:

1. The Modern Employee Comms Opportunity - Getting to

3.0

2. The Business Case and Approval Roadmap

3. Questions the CFO will ask - and you need to answer!

4. Building your Business Case

5. Building your Coalition and Getting Approval

6. Now what?

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR

EMPLOYEE

COMMUNICATIONS

Comms 1.0

LEADERSHIP COMMS EVERYONE

Comms 1.0

LEADERSHIP COMMS EVERYONE

Comms 2.0

LEADERSHIP COMMS EVERYONE

Comms 3.0

LEADERSHIP COMMS

PEOPLE AND

TEAMS

PEOPLE AND

TEAMS

PEOPLE AND

TEAMS

THE BUSINESS CASE AND

APPROVAL ROADMAP

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THE KEYS TO BUSINESS CASE SUCCESS

• Follow our Roadmap• Get the sequence right

• Be Ready for the important questions

• Build your OWN business case - show the $$

• Build a coalition

What budget requisition feels like

What it can be – the first step on your journey

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PROGRAM BUSINESS CASE AND APPROVAL ROADMAP

1 2 3 4 5

PROBLEM

DEFINITION

SOLUTION

DEFINITIONBUSINESS CASE

ORGANIZATION

INTEGRATION

LAUNCH

PLANNING

Define the scope

& urgency of the

communication

issues

Agree on the

overall philosophy

and model for the

solution

Confirm

commitment of

resources and

senior leader

support

Validate all

integration points

and support from

relevant

stakeholders

Commitment with

tech partner to the

program

outcomes

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SEQUENCE IS CRITICAL - GOLDILOCKS ZONE

TOO LATE

TOO EARLY

JUST

RIGHT!

Problem

Problem

Problem

Solution

Biz Case

Solution

Integration

Solution

Biz Case

Launc

h

Integration

Integration

Biz Case

Launc

h

Launc

h

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QUESTIONS YOUR CFO WILL ASK

Why make a change?

•Can’t any of our current technologies do this?

•How does this fit into all of that technology?

Why spend $$ now?

•How much will this cost – hard $, soft $? What is the 5 yr TCO?

•What is the expected return? Hard $, Soft $, Savings?

Why this solution?

•Will it deliver the results?

•Do you have strong support from: IT, HR, Legal, LOB Leaders?

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THREE PART BUSINESS CASE

OVERVIEW COMMUNICATION

OUTCOMES

BUSINESS OUTCOMES

1 2 3

◈ Current State: The problems

to be solved

◈ Desired State: The solution

and what it will enable

◈ Audience: List of relevant

groups that will be impacted

◈ Critical Content: High value

content to be delivered to

each group

◈ Stakeholder Benefits: The

executives or other leaders

that will benefit, and how

◈ Revenue: Increases in

productivity, customer results,

anything that makes money

◈ Cost: Reductions in cost –

replacing or removing other

expenses, or

reducing/avoiding costs

◈ Risk: Reducing exposure,

mitigating risk

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THREE PART BUSINESS CASE

OVERVIEW COMMUNICATION

OUTCOMES

BUSINESS OUTCOMES

1 2 3

◈ Current State: The problems

to be solved

◈ Desired State: The solution

and what it will enable

◈ Audience: List of relevant

groups that will be impacted

◈ Critical Content: High value

content to be delivered to

each group

◈ Stakeholder Benefits: The

executives or other leaders

that will benefit, and how

◈ Revenue: Increases in

productivity, customer results,

anything that makes money

◈ Cost: Reductions in cost –

replacing or removing other

expenses, or

reducing/avoiding costs

◈ Risk: Reducing exposure,

mitigating risk

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THREE PART BUSINESS CASE

OVERVIEW COMMUNICATION

OUTCOMES

BUSINESS OUTCOMES

1 2 3

◈ Current State: The problems

to be solved

◈ Desired State: The solution

and what it will enable

◈ Audience: List of relevant

groups that will be impacted

◈ Critical Content: High value

content to be delivered to

each group

◈ Stakeholder Benefits: The

executives or other leaders

that will benefit, and how

◈ Revenue: Increases in

productivity, customer results,

anything that makes money

◈ Cost: Reductions in cost –

replacing or removing other

expenses, or

reducing/avoiding costs

◈ Risk: Reducing exposure,

mitigating risk

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THREE PART BUSINESS CASE

OVERVIEW COMMUNICATION

OUTCOMES

BUSINESS OUTCOMES

1 2 3

◈ Current State: The problems

to be solved

◈ Desired State: The solution

and what it will enable

◈ Audience: List of relevant

groups that will be impacted

◈ Critical Content: High value

content to be delivered to

each group

◈ Stakeholder Benefits: The

executives or other leaders

that will benefit, and how

◈ Revenue: Increases in

productivity, customer results,

anything that makes money

◈ Cost: Reductions in cost –

replacing or removing other

expenses, or

reducing/avoiding costs

◈ Risk: Reducing exposure,

mitigating risk

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BUSINESS OUTCOMES

• Reduce current costs

• Labor savings

• Retire other systems

• Reduce training, compliance, certification costs

• Expand access to existing systems

• Advocacy, social sharing

• Increase engagement

• Reduce attrition

• Accelerate onboarding

Hard $$$

Soft $$$

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HARD $$

Category Examples Example $$

Reduce current

costs

• Print less

• Stop upgrades to intranet, CMS, etc.

• $1 – 5 per print piece

• Upgrade projects are $50-150K

Labor savings • Publishing efficiency

• 3rd party services

• Typical savings of 4-8 hours per

week

Retire other

systems

• Email newsletters

• CMS

• Intranet

• LMS

• Annual SW license fees

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FIRM $$

Category Examples Example $$

Reduce training,

compliance,

certification costs

• Move classroom content into the app

• Deliver critical content in the app

• 1 day of training = $400-2000

Expand access to

existing systems

• Reports & updates from transactional

systems

• Saved user license fees

Advocacy • Earned Media Value of social sharing • 100 people sharing 10x a month

generate $13K in EMV

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SOFT $$

Category Examples Example $$

Increase

engagement

• 74% of app users “feel more

connected to my company”• A 5% increase of engagement is

linked to:

• 3% increase in revenue growth the

following year

• 3.5 fewer absence days per year

Reduce attrition • 66% of app users “have a better

understanding of how my role fits

into the company strategy”

• Talent Replacement costs:

• Entry-level: 30-50% of annual

salary

• Mid-level: 150% of annual salary

• Specialized, high-level: Up to

400%

Accelerate

onboarding

• 33% of new hires leave their job

in the first 6 months.

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THE MATH WORKS!

CategoryBEFORE

SocialChorus

AFTER

SocialChorus

Email Newsletter Tool & Design Services $1 $0

Intranet Upgrades & Management $4 $3

Compliance Training – 2 hr/month $50 $25

Attrition – Amortized, from 10% to 9% $208 $187

SocialChorus $0 $4

MONTHLY COSTS PER EMPLOYEE $263 $219

Spend $4 and save $44

Assumptions: 5,000 employees, $50K annual salary

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BUILDING A COALITION

DepartmentMust

Have?

Nice to

Have?When Needed

IT X

• Check-in before Biz Case

• Contribute to Biz Case

• Validate after Biz Case

HR X • Collaborate on Biz Case

Marketing X • Contribute to Biz Case

CFO X • Review/approve Biz Case

CEO X • Anytime – pressure all others

Legal X • After Biz Case to approve

Business

LeadersX

• Collaborate/support overall project & biz

case

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NEED A BUSINESS CASE?

PROCESS

◈ Interviews: Assess current state &

priorities

◈ Workshop: Communication Outcomes

◈ Confirm communication priorities

◈ Data gathering – business impact

◈ Workshop: Business Outcomes

◈ Review & finalize presentation

◈ 2 weeks total time

◈ 2 workshops @ 2 hr each

TIMING

SONIA FIORENZA

Strategic Advisor

NICOLE ALVINO

Co-founder

CHUCK GOSE

Strategic Advisor

◈ Senior corporate communications and management

consulting professionals

◈ Focus based on industry, business objective, or

strategic priority; driven by your vision and goals and

informed by SocialChorus best practices

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Chat with us on

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Transforming how workers & organizations stay connected every day

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