Business Case

Business Case helps teams analyze planned investment initiatives, estimates, actual spend, variance, migration strategies, and operational performance across business cases.

Use this Analytics cube to compare estimates against actual costs, investigate investment outcomes, review migration initiatives, and analyze business case performance across services, vendors, TBM structures, and organizational entities.

For common Analytics workspace behavior, visualizations, filters, report controls, dashboards, and saved reports, refer to Getting Started with Analytics.

What Business Case helps you answer

Business Case helps teams answer questions such as:

• Which business cases are exceeding planned estimates?

• Which initiatives are under budget?

• Which migration strategies are associated with the highest spend?

• Which vendors or providers support the largest investments?

• Which services have the highest planned versus actual variance?

• Which entities or cost centers own the largest investment programs?

• Which initiatives deliver the highest operational value?

• Which companion metrics explain cost movement or demand growth?

Access Business Case

To open Business Case analytics:

1. Navigate to Analytics

2. Select Business Case

The page opens the Business Case analytics cube.

Business Case fields

The Business Case group contains the primary planning and investment fields.

Common fields include:

Companion Metrics

The Companion Metrics group helps explain the activity, demand, usage, or operational value associated with spend.

Common fields include:

• Metric

• Category

• Target

• Rate

• Units

• Metric Date

• Total Amount (Actual)

• Average Amount (Actual)

• Total Amount (Planned)

• Average Amount (Planned)

• Variance Amount

• Total Value (Actual)

• Average Value (Actual)

• Total Value (Planned)

• Average Value (Planned)

• Variance Value

Use companion metrics when cost alone does not provide enough operational context.

Examples include:

• Cost per user

• Cost per transaction

• Planned versus actual demand

• Consumption growth

• Operational throughput

• Service delivery efficiency

Companion metrics help teams connect investment outcomes with business activity.

Expense Types

The Expense Types section classifies business case spend into financial categories.

Common examples include:

• Hardware

• Software

• Cloud

• Labor

• Managed services

• Telecommunications

• Infrastructure

• Licensing

Accounts and Cost Centers

The Accounts and Cost Centers groups help organize investments using financial ownership structures.

Common account fields include:

• Account Code

• Account Name

• Account Description

• Account hierarchy levels

• Active status

Common cost center fields include:

• Cost Center Code

• Cost Center Name

• Cost Center hierarchy levels

• Cost Center Owner

• Active status

Use these dimensions to:

• Analyze investment ownership

• Compare spend by organizational structure

• Review department-level investment performance

• Track accountability across planning initiatives

Vendors

The Vendors group supports vendor and supplier analysis within business case reporting.

Common fields include:

• Vendor Code

• Vendor Name

• Vendor Type

• Vendor Function

• Vendor Primary Service

• Vendor Location

• Vendor Manager

• Vendor Owner

• Vendor Family

• Contract Rate

• Relationship RAG

• Operational Meetings

• SPM Meetings

• Minutes Completed

• SPM Cadence

Use vendor reporting to:

• Review supplier-supported initiatives

• Compare vendor investment exposure

• Analyze service ownership

• Monitor operational governance activity

• Investigate vendor concentration risk

Entities

The Entities group supports organizational analysis across business units, regions, and operating entities.

Common fields include:

• Entity Code

• Entity Name

• Entity Description

• Entity Region

• Entity Country

• Entity Owner

Use entities to:

• Compare investment programs across regions

• Review business-unit level initiatives

• Analyze operating model alignment

• Segment investments geographically

Solution Offering

The Solution Offering group links business case initiatives to services, products, and TBM-aligned solution structures.

Common fields include:

• Solution Offering ID

• Solution Offering

• Solution Type

• Solution Category

• Description

• Solution Owner

• Consumption Basis

• Class 1

• Class 2

• Group 1

• Group 2

• Offering Type

• Tier

• Offering Weight

• Unit Of Measure

• Active

• Custom fields

Use solution offerings to:

• Analyze investments by service portfolio

• Compare strategic technology initiatives

• Track delivery ownership

• Align business cases to TBM service structures

TBM Taxonomy

The TBM Taxonomy group supports Technology Business Management reporting.

Common fields include:

• Cost Pool

• Sub Cost Pool

• Tower

• Sub Tower

Use TBM dimensions to:

• Align investments to TBM structures

• Compare spend across technology domains

• Support cost transparency initiatives

• Analyze investments across infrastructure, applications, and services

Providers

The Providers group supports provider-level reporting.

Common fields include:

• Provider Code

• Provider Name

Use provider dimensions to compare investment exposure across cloud providers, service providers, or operational partners.

Timeline fields

The Timeline group supports period-based reporting.

Common timeline fields include:

• Calendar Date

• Calendar Year

• Year

• Quarter

• Month

Use timeline dimensions to:

• Compare planned versus actual spend over time

• Analyze investment progress by month or quarter

• Review migration activity trends

• Track variance across reporting periods

Planned versus actual analysis

Business Case is commonly used to compare estimates against actual spend.

Use these measures together to:

• Evaluate investment accuracy

• Investigate overspend

• Monitor budget performance

• Identify delivery risks

• Improve future planning assumptions

Migration strategy analysis

Business Case supports migration and transformation reporting.

Migration strategies may include:

• Cloud migration

• Modernization

• Consolidation

• Replatforming

• Refactoring

• SaaS transition

• Infrastructure transformation

Use migration strategy fields to:

• Compare migration investment performance

• Analyze transformation costs

• Track modernization programs

• Review cloud transition initiatives

Relationship with planning workflows

Business Case reporting is closely connected with planning workflows.

Teams commonly use Business Case to:

• Upload line-item estimates

• Track investment initiatives

• Compare estimates against actuals

• Review planning accuracy

• Monitor implementation progress

• Approve or review business cases

Business cases may contain:

• Cloud estimates

• Non-cloud estimates

• Service planning data

• Operational metrics

• Vendor-linked investments

• Entity-linked investments

Relationship with TBM and cost transparency

Business Case supports TBM and cost transparency initiatives.

Use it to:

• Align investments to TBM taxonomy

• Compare planned investments across towers and cost pools

• Track service-level investment trends

• Improve transparency across technology portfolios

• Connect planning with operational reporting

This helps organizations connect investment decisions with operational outcomes.

Relationship with Analytics investigations

Business Case works alongside other Analytics cubes.

Typical workflow:

1. Create or load business case estimates

2. Compare actual spend against planned investment

3. Investigate operational or service variance

4. Review vendor and entity ownership

5. Measure investment performance over time

For example:

• Use Spend analytics to investigate actual operational cost

• Use Business Case to compare against approved estimates

• Use Companion Metrics to explain demand or activity growth

• Use Chargeback reporting to understand downstream allocation impact

Recommended report structures

Start with a clear planning or investment question, then structure reports around ownership, estimates, actual spend, and variance.

Save recurring reports for planning reviews, investment governance meetings, and operational reporting.

Common use cases

Business Case is commonly used for:

• Investment planning analysis

• Migration initiative reporting

• Planned versus actual reporting

• Portfolio investment reviews

• Vendor-supported initiative tracking

• TBM investment analysis

• Operational performance analysis

• Cloud transformation reporting

• Executive investment reporting

• Financial governance reviews

Recommended practices

Use these practices when working with Business Case analytics:

• Review planned and actual values together

• Filter reports by reporting period

• Standardize migration strategy classifications

• Use companion metrics to explain operational demand

• Align investments to TBM taxonomy structures

• Save recurring governance and planning reports

• Review large variance values regularly

• Use entity and cost center dimensions for accountability reporting

Consistent business case analysis improves investment visibility and planning accuracy.

Troubleshooting Business Case results

If Business Case does not show expected results, check:

• The active Month, Quarter, or Year filters

• Whether business case records were loaded correctly

• Whether actual spend data exists for the selected period

• Whether entity, vendor, or TBM mappings are configured correctly

• Whether solution offerings were mapped consistently

• Whether companion metrics were loaded correctly

• Whether planning periods align with reporting periods

Next step

• Business Case Details

Related content

• Getting Started with Analytics

• Investment Planning and Business Cases

• Business Case Overview

• Companion Metrics (Admin)

• TBM Solutions

• TBM and Cost Transparency

• Consumption Data

• Chargeback

• Forecasts

• Budgets and Forecasts