So, you've heard and read that drones are being increasingly used in the construction industry to realize multiple benefits: they are utilized to complete some tasks in commercial real estate development and construction workflows faster, cheaper, safer, and in many cases, more accurate than using traditional methods. The latest construction industry reports show that drone use cases in construction are expanding, and the number of flights is increasing.

At this point, you may be already convinced that bringing drones, or at least testing the inclusion of drones in your operations is the right thing to do. The main problem you are facing is that you know that trying this technology will take additional resource allocation from your organization (it may be time, budget, manpower, or all the above). And if you don't control any of these resources but see the opportunity and are eager to bring this to your managers, you will need to build a business case and present it to your superiors.

At the end of the day, you also want to keep yourself relevant and further your career in your organization or even create a new position job for yourself, so proposing using cutting-edge technology to make your company's operations more efficient will promote your reputation as forward-thinking and innovative. If you do control the decision-making and resources in your organization, you can contact V1DroneMedia today, and we can help you find the right drone solution and help incorporate drones into your operations.

steps on how to build a business case to incorporate drones into your operations:

1.   Understand the gaps that your organization must fill to build up this capability. They are:

·   Knowledge of national airspace regulations to gauge your ability to fly at any given site (resource allocation and cost – can be a drone pilot or drone operations manager)

·   Part 107 licensed staff or contractors that can legally and skillfully operate drones to accomplish required tasks (staff allocation and training cost, or cost to hire pilots)

·   Purchase drones that are suitable for your use cases (know-how and the cost)

·   Drone equipment maintenance (know-how and the cost)

·   Purchase Drone Insurance (unless your pilot contractors have it and can add your organization as an additional insured)

·   Establish Drone Operating procedures on work sites

·   Photogrammetry software (cost to purchase, human resources, and the know-how to process the data)

2.  Establish use cases in current workflows that can bring value to your organization and translate them into cost savings, a competitive advantage, new added value, or other benefits.

See our blog posts Photogrammetry, Top 4 Drone Uses in Construction, Drone Use in Construction Marketing, Drone Mapping: Unleashing the Full Potential of Aerial Data, What is Drone Mapping, and Drone Mapping Advantages vs. Conventional Mapping Methods for information on a variety of ways to incorporate drones into your operations. Benefits of these use cases include, but are not limited to:

·   Saving time in accomplishing tasks faster (translate that into saving $ as well)

·   Providing more accurate data for some use cases (translate into $ savings)

·   Potential for safety increase (can be one of the organizational goals, or translate it into insurance savings, or other $)

·   Add new value to your operations (translate that into a new product/service offering as a new stream of revenue, new customer benefit to differentiate you from the competition, etc.)

3.   Establish a budget range and other resources (like labor) necessary to acquire this capability.

You will also have to decide if you want to grow this capability from within, or outsource the data gathering and processing – i.e. Make or Buy decision)

4.   Run financial analysis with multi-year scenarios to show the Return on the Investment (ROI) of implementing drone technology into your workflows

5.   Develop a business case presentation that includes:

·   Industry trends with drone adoption data

·   Case studies of organizations that have adopted this technology (for example, see the article Ohio Department of Transportation Makes a Good Case for Their Drone ROI)

·   Pros/cons of not adopting drones

·   Outline your plan to build this capability for your organization

1.   How your organization will use the drones

2.   How drones will incorporate into workflows

3.   What resource investment is required (budget and timeline for labor, hardware, software, insurance, etc.)

4.   Financials with ROI. If you didn't have a financial professional from your workplace develop this model, make sure you can explain your assumptions. I recommend bringing a trusted finance team member on board to help you make the business case with concrete numbers

5.   Present risks of adopting drones into your organization and plans to mitigate them

6.   Finally, present your business case to your decision-makers.

We hope you found this step-by-step guide on building a business case to include drones in your operations valuable.

V1DroneMedia is a Cleveland-based drone services company that was founded by an airline pilot with a background in remote control aviation and electrical engineering, and a marketing professional who has a couple of decades of experience in developing and pitching business cases to leadership (read more about V1DroneMedia here).

If you are looking for a consultant to help you include drones into your operation, help you train your employees to fly drones, build a business case, or are looking to outsource drone flying to a reputable company, contact us today, and learn more about our AEC Drone Services.