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Business Case Builder

Txture's Business Case Builder (BCB) module offers a simplified interface that utilizes the platform's capabilities for data input, product mapping and cloud architecture proposal generation. The Business Case Builder allows quickly generating cloud target architectures and provides a cost estimate for the cloud replacements. It can be activated in addition to the Transformation Cockpit or independently of it.

The Business Case Builder operates on the level of infrastructure items (servers, databases etc.) rather than application assets, which is a critical distinction from the Transformation Cockpit.

General Concepts​

The aim of Txture's BCB is to speed up the mapping of existing on-premises or cloud estates to a cloud provider of your choice. It allows you to quickly generate target architecture proposals and cost estimates. The time savings come at the expense of less detailed target architecture proposals compared to those generated by the Transformation Cockpit. Still, the BCB helps to identify modernization opportunities, with clear insights into costs, cloud services and the associated carbon footprint.

Data Requirements​

The Business Case Builder requires certain data. Depending on the asset type, different properties are taken into account when calculating cloud proposals. Some properties are optional. Others are always taken into account and will fall back to default values if they are not filled in. An extensive list of these properties can be found in the cloud proposal data requirements.

Business Cases​

The Business Case Builder's main view allows for the creation of several business cases. Each business case presents a potential target architecture of the selected assets. Which assets should be included in the business case is determined by a dedicated query per business case.

Each business case has its own Business Case Preferences. This makes it possible to compare several scenarios for the target architecture.

Creating a new Business Case​

Additional business cases can be added using the +Add new button on the BCB's main view. When creating a new business case, two main points must be considered:

1. The Query​

In a first step, you need to specify which assets should be considered for the business case. This is done by using the query bar. The query applies to the entire business case and can be changed flexibly.

Note that if the assets in Txture change and the result of the query changed, a recomputation of the business case is necessary. This is indicated in the business case overview together with a button to start the recomputation.

2. Business Case Preferences​

The computation of business cases is based on business preferences that can be configured individually for each case. Find detailed information on all available preferences in the associated documentation.

Examining a Business Case​

After a new BC has been added, it is displayed with the most important key figures on the main page. The main page allows you to compare different business cases with each other. A click on View Details reveals additional information in different tabs:

Overview​

The overview tab provides a summary of the business case and shows key metrics such as pricing and footprint estimates, included products, or the location of the target solution. A report of the business case can be created using the Print option under Menu.

AS-IS​

The AS-IS tab shows the query currently in use for the business case. Also, it provides an overview over the assets of the business case including the used technologies, operating systems, or end of life information.

Price & Bill of Materials​

In the upper area of this tab you can find an overview of different Pricing Models for the present business case. As of now, Txture only calculates the cloud operating expenses.

The Bill of Materials further down the page shows all assets in scope as a list: On the left, assets are shown in the AS-IS state. On the right, cloud replacements including prices and further details are shown. The Bill of Materials also displays the migration action that has to be performed for each asset in the deployment stack, such as replatform, replace, rehost, retain or remove. In addition, the migration action rely on might be reported for some assets, which indicates that an underlying asset (such as a server a database is running on) is handling the replacement in the business case. In the Export dropdown, the Bill of Materials can be exported as an Excel file as well as in a print format.

Products​

The Products tab shows all the cloud products that will be used by the suggested target architecture. It offers a convenient overview and highlights the key features and benefits of a product.

Reporting on a Business Case​

Business Cases can be synced to a dedicated scenario each so that custom reports can be created on the mapped assets of a business case. The created scenarios act like branches and are completely independent of one another so that the business cases do not influence each other.

To allow for reporting, the following steps have to be undertaken:

  1. Click on Export -> Create Report after opening a scenario.

  2. In the following modal you will be asked to confirm that a new scenario is created. Creation of the scenario might take a couple of seconds depending on the size of the business case.

  3. After the creation of the scenario is finished, the scenario is automatically selected and the report dialog opened. You can verify that you are working on the correct scenario or leave the scenario by clicking on the scenario indicator in the top right corner of Txture: