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Building Your Business Case: How to Get That New IT Tool Approved

System administrators are usually responsible for the upkeep, configuration, and reliable operation of their company’s IT environment and devices. This often includes uptime, performance, and security. That’s a lot of responsibility.

As a system admin, you’re more keenly aware of the technologies that work, the ones that keep you up at night, and what’s needed to keep your company productive and secure. Your opinion on future investments and planning can have deep impacts across the organization – both in terms of IT and business functionality and success.

The good news is that the business side of your organization likely no longer needs convincing of ITOp’s significance. Generally speaking, IT “asks” are now often included in executive agendas. It’s never been more imperative for IT and business stakeholders to operate in alignment so they can:

  • Reduce company risk

  • Ensure employee productivity

  • Achieve long-term company security and stability

Developing a business case is an ideal format to formalize your request.


Note: "More organizations realize how dependent they are now on IT to run their business, many issues that have been long overlooked are now coming to a head and can no longer be ignored.”
- The State of ITOps, IT Business Edge, June 2021.


Kicking off your business case

A well-structured business case can move your recommendation from ideation to reality.

As a system admin, you probably don’t have time to create a business case from scratch. So, we’ve created a template below to get you started.

In addition, we’ve included a working example for Automox so you can see a genuine business case on paper. We couldn’t help ourselves and thought it might be useful (especially if you’re considering replacing your current, clunky patch management solution. Let’s get started!

Guidance and an example from Automox

Below, you’ll find a Business Case Outline (with our guidance and recommendations for building out your own content). In the second column, you’ll notice a corresponding example with Automox as the recommended solution.

It's your turn to build your own business case

Some final thoughts as you develop your business case: Identify and cling to a thorough, objective, and clear reason for your business case. You can quickly lose your audience if you come off as self-serving or disorganized.

Also, know your audience. Identify what’s important to them, answer their questions, and describe how your solution will make their lives easier.

Finally, it’s clear business is moving faster than ever before. No doubt the pressure on ITOps has grown. As IT gains influence and reshapes how businesses innovate and succeed, now is the time to get creative. Identify the technologies that will take your company forward and enable your organization to stay ahead of the pack.


Automox for easy patching and configuration

Automox is the IT operations platform for modern organizations. It makes it easy to keep every endpoint automatically configured, patched, and secured – anywhere in the world. With the push of a button, IT admins can fix critical vulnerabilities faster, slash cost and complexity, and win back hours in their day.

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