GSA shares a free tool

Some business case tools are free. The Business Case Decision Tool, at , is available online from GSA’s Share-in-Savings program.The user simply enters several quantitative and qualitative factors, and the tool gives a score and suggests whether the project would be a good candidate for the Share-in-Savings program.“Just looking at the questions gives users a good idea about what is considered important,” said Kenneth J. Buck, director of the Share-in-Savings program office.Some of the information entered is real, such as cost savings, and other entries are hypothetical, such as cost avoidance. The tool also gives suggestions about how to improve a score and feedback about why a low-scoring project may have been rejected. An automatically generated graph shows potential savings for the project.The tool helps users get a feel for how a business case tool operates, which can be useful for comparison with other tools. Users also can experiment with how entering different kinds of data can affect the overall score. Plus, when part of the objective is to reduce costs, a free tool is not a bad idea.