The document provides guidance on building a business case to justify investing in a learning platform. It recommends including an executive summary that sells the key benefits, explaining why your organization needs a learning platform by highlighting issues with the current system and how a platform can help achieve specific L&D goals like improving onboarding, knowledge sharing, and staff development. It also advises discussing competitive platforms, analyzing options and their costs and implementation timelines, and concluding by emphasizing how the recommended platform will boost productivity, engagement, and ROI.

1. The Definitive Guide
How To Build A
Business Case
For A Learning
Platform

2. What your
business case
should include
and address
Justify why you need a learning platform.
Present the costs and ROI.
Discuss the risks and benefit of using and
not using a learning platform.
Present a number of options and your
recommendation.
Support your argument with numbers.

3. Tips for your
business case
The purpose is to convince a
decision-maker that your
proposition is worthwhile.
Keep it brief.
Convey the essential information
in an interesting way.
Talk positively about the future.
Hammer home the benefits.

4. Justify your need for
a learning platform
with these statistics

5. Cut back on time spent searching for
information and drive productivity
It was reported
that employees
spend 1.8 hours
searching for
information daily.
2012
It’s estimated that
an internal
knowledge base
reduces research
time by up to 35%
What now?
A 2019 survey still
placed the figure
at around 25% of
the average
employee's day.
2019
By 2015 it had risen
to 2.5 hours. For
most people, that’s
a third of the
working day.
2015

6. Developing, engaging and retaining
employees
Only 29% of
employees are “very
satisfied” with
current career
opportunities.
Only 29% of
organisations claim
to have clear L&D
plans.
The cost of
replacing
employees sits at
around £30,000.
Companies with
highly engaged
workforces are also
21% more profitable
68% of employees
say training and
development is the
company’s most
important policy.
76% value career
growth opportunities.
Source: ClearCompany
Sources: Smarp & CIPD
Online learning
increases retention
rates by 25-60%.
Employees who feel
highly engaged are
87% less likely to
leave
Source: Corporate Leadership
Council
Sources: Oxford Economics &
Gallup

7. Using learning platforms to drive
profitability
The average employee spends 25% of their working
day searching for information.
That's 10 hours weekly based on the 40-hour week.
With average hourly pay in the UK reported to be
£14.80 in 2019, that equates to £148 per week.
Say an employee works 42 weeks of the year, that
would work out to be £6,216 annually.
Studies also show that online learning reduces
training time by between 40% and 60% learning
platforms to drive profitability.

8. Structuring your
business case for a
learning platform

9. Assess the available platforms and options05
The executive summary01
Dive into the specific L&D goals03
Explain why you need a learning platform02
Discuss the competition04
Present your recommended learning platform06
Sell what the platform will help you achieve07
08 The conclusion

10. The executive
summary
Pick out the key points and sell them in a
compelling fashion.
Treat it as the greatest hits of your
business case and aim to convince the
decision-makers.
For some, this is the only section they’ll
read or the influential factor in whether
they continue beyond the summary.
Write this last, or at least finalise it as your
final act.

11. Explain why you
need a learning
platform
Establish the context that led you to this
point: Have you reached the limit of the
current system? Are you limited by not
using a learning platform?
Link it back to the company’s goal or vision
Include any data that supports why this
issue needs to be addressed.
Try to explain return on investment.
Ideally, you should be impartial and factual
at this point.

12. Will it help you create a more efficient
onboarding process that enables joiners to
contribute sooner?
Do your customer-facing teams need better
access to more useful resources?
Is knowledge currently being buried in silos
where it should be shared?
Are you facing an upskill battle when it
comes to developing the traits and
competencies you need.
Could it be the key to addressing poor levels
of staff engagement and retention?
Set specific
L&D goals
Explain specific goals a
platform will help you
achieve.
Or think of them as
smaller problems or
opportunities through
which you highlight who
will benefit and to what
extent.

13. The competition
If possible, explain how competitors are
benefitting from learning platforms.
Especially if you can draw on some data.
If not, support your argument through
insights on a similar company from a
related industry.
Hard data will trump anecdotal evidence
in your business case, so make sure you
crunch a few numbers.

14. Unleashed your passion for driving a
better L&D future through your
desired platform.
Further explain the risks and benefits
of adopting this platform.
Outline the project timeline in detail .
Highlight when the decision would
pay dividends.
Discuss who will be involved in its
delivery.
Your recommended
learning platform

15. Talk about how it will positively impact
return on investment.
Focus on how they cut down time to finding
for knowledge and increase employee
productivity.
Discuss creating a culture of learning at the
point of need.
Cut down the ramp up time for new
starters.
Combine all of these points and you’re
more likely to engage and retain your
employees, meaning the cost of staff churn
is reduced.
Sell what the
platform will
help you
achieve
Forget about the
features and focus
solely on the benefits
and value. Such as...

16. Assess the
available
platforms and
options
Draw up a shortlist of learning
platforms.
Present the risks and benefits.
Discuss costs and implementation
timelines for each.
Remember, doing nothing is also
an option, so it’s important to
address the risk and cost of that.

17. Conclusion
Keep this short and sweet.
Summarise why it’s important to address
this problem.
Reinforce why the plan you’ve proposed is
the most effective way of solving it.
Confirm your proposed learning platform.

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