Produce a business case

The experience of current WARPs indicate that the investment is modest and therefore a short concise business case is often sufficient, and indeed preferred, as it simplifies the communication and decision making process.

In one case a WARP operator for a Local Authority WARP helped argue the business case by showing the obvious cost advantages to members in the chart below:

It was estimated that each authority would spend at least £10,000 each year on providing some of the WARP services in house - such as the filtered warning function. The chart shows how the £25,000 cost of this particular WARP can be spread among its membership with obvious cost savings and healthy margins for the WARP Provider.

In this case the WARP costs were the external costs, with the manpower costs already covered by using existing resources. The same graphical approach can be used, however, for any cost value simply by changing the cost axis on the graph.

This same WARP operator made the case to self fund the WARP in the first year with some sponsorship and move to a subscription model in the second year. It also set itself up as a legal entity in order to share risk and limit liability. Within the business case it argued that it:

• Would provide a proactive approach to securing information systems
• Would provide an opportunity to deliver income generation services to the community
• Would provide an opportunity to become an example of good practice for the rest of the UK
• Could provide a mechanism for other alerts such as may be required by the emergency planners

A successful business case will provide you with a view of the resources and funding as well as clear ownership of the project.

Next step: You need to register your WARP.

• Set up a WARP
• Identify Community
• Review benefits
• Assess costs and funding
• Produce business case
• Register your WARP