The vendor business case for Copilot is structured to support a decision Microsoft has already arrived at. It assumes seventy plus percent active use, applies a single productivity multiplier across the addressable population, excludes tenant readiness costs, and presents the result as a payback inside year one. The buyer side business case treats every input as a contested assumption, runs sensitivity bands around the central case, calls out the breakage points by name, and ties the recommended seat count to a measurable population definition that can be audited at the renewal. The output is a board memo, not a sales narrative.
The board memo runs six sections in fixed order. Each is structured to surface the decision rather than to support a predetermined commitment. The board signs against the question, not against the conclusion.
A single paragraph stating the exact decision. The seat count, the SKU mix, the term, and the all in three year outlay. No qualifications, no narrative, no productivity claims. The numbers carry the page.
The seat count is defined as a population, not a number. The board memo names the role classes that receive the seat, the headcount in each class today, and the criteria for adding or removing a role class during the term.
The population definition is the audit point at the renewal. A seat count without a population definition cannot be tested for fit.
The central case carries the three year outlay, the three year measurable benefit, and the resulting net position. No optimistic case. No pessimistic case. The central case is the recommendation. The optimistic and pessimistic cases live in the sensitivity table.
Three variables move the case. Active user share, hours redirected per active user per week, and loaded cost per role. The sensitivity table runs the case against the realistic high, central, and low values of each.
The resulting band is the honest range of outcomes. A board reading the memo sees the realistic worst case alongside the recommendation.
Five risks named by category. SKU repackaging during the term. Price level reset at renewal. Tenant readiness underestimate. Adoption stall on a subpopulation. Governance incident triggering rollback.
The exit case is the contract clauses that allow the seat count to step down. True down rights, substitution clauses, term shortening options, and the residual costs of unwinding the tenant readiness investment.
The board signs more comfortably when the exit is named in the same memo as the commitment.
The business case depends on twelve numerical assumptions. Each is written down with a source and a confidence rating. The board memo references the assumption book by appendix. The discipline forces every assumption to survive scrutiny.
Addressable headcount, role mix, active user share, retention of active use through year three. The four numbers determine the seat count.
Hours redirected per active user per week, hours convertible to revenue or cost reduction, loaded cost per role, quality ratio (output quality post Copilot divided by pre Copilot).
Per seat license, tenant readiness one time, change management year one, governance run rate. The all in number is the sum of the four lines, not the license alone.
A board memo with named assumptions and measurable outcomes is the most powerful renewal lever a buyer can carry into the EA negotiation. Microsoft account teams cannot dispute documented internal measurement. The memo becomes the basis for seat right size at renewal, for price hold protection, and for substitution rights against the next round of repackaging.
At the year three renewal the board memo data drives the seat count, not the Microsoft proposal. The active user population identified in the memo becomes the new seat count. The price hold negotiated at the original commit becomes the floor for the renewal. The substitution rights map every contracted SKU to its current Microsoft equivalent at the contracted price. The buyer side business case from year one is the most defensible posture available at the year three negotiation.
The six section board memo structure, the twelve assumption book template, and the sensitivity table format used to present Copilot decisions to executive boards across our active engagements. Sent on request.
The buyer side business case is the renewal lever. We build it from your population data, your tenant readiness state, and your operating cost structure before the Microsoft proposal arrives at the table.