What an intranet really costs

Why does your CFO not believe the return on investment of your intranet?

A case promising a 400% return does not reassure finance: it raises a flag. Your CFO prefers a lower number they can rerun themselves. Worldwide software spending is also forecast to grow by 15.5% in 2026 (Gartner, 2026).

Doing nothing has a cost too: 47% of digital workers struggle to find the information they need for their work (Gartner, 2023). This guide shows you how to price that cost without inflating it, then how to present a number your CFO can verify.

What's inside this guide:

• Why your CFO does not believe your ROI: five financial concepts are set out with the CFO's question and the trap to avoid for each one.
• Five-year cost: four options are compared on eight cost items, from native Microsoft 365 to an independent platform, including the Microsoft price increase of July 2026.
• Doing nothing has a cost too: a fictional scenario of 1,000 employees is priced line by line, with a low bound and a high bound.
• Five adjustments before announcing an ROI: the gross benefit is cut five times, then presented with a payback period and a sensitivity test.
• The case finance will sign: six blocks structure the case, and five objections each receive a written answer.
• Measure, then decide: ten indicators are defined before launch to prove the return after the fact.
• The five-year cost grid and the dashboard: these two printable tools are filled in for each option and for each indicator.

Why download it:

The guide takes the finance point of view. It helps you present a conservative number that your CFO can rerun with their own assumptions.

Every assumption stays visible. The scenario shows its calculations, its rounding and its bounds, and every number carries its source, its year and its scope.

The sensitivity is already calculated. A table shows how each assumption you move changes the five-year net result.

The tools are ready to fill in. The eight-item cost grid and the ten-indicator dashboard are completed with IT, Microsoft contract in hand.