The business case you are about to put together has one main purpose-to convince key stakeholders to support some new venture in a visible or tangible way. Support might come in the form of financing, public endorsements, shared responsibility, or a deep appreciation of your venture that influences related decisions. You prepare a business case because you want these important stakeholders to think or to act positively on behalf of your integration initiative. You are arguing for integration because you want your audience to do something that will help you. Your case needs to include any or all of these specific calls to action:

Perhaps no goal is more important than this one in your quest for investment in justice integration. Stakeholders need to see and understand justice as a complex system of many components that influence one another and whose combined effects lead to desired (or undesired) outcomes.

Justice integration planning, design, and implementation are long-term efforts. If those efforts are successful, they will lead to a new way of doing business that will need continued nurturing and attention. Advocates can help bring the issue to the table with other stakeholders, sustain top level attention through long periods of planning and development, help clear obstacles and resolve problems, and carry the message to top political and community leaders.

If public safety is viewed as an interconnected enterprise, then coordination mechanisms are the essential connective tissue. When one organization's activities are coordinated with another, some change in both is inevitable. Many forms of coordination are possible, such as an executive committee made up of representatives of the participating organizations or a central staff group charged with coordination responsibilities. The important point is that stakeholders understand and acknowledge that formal coordination is a requirement for successful communication, compromise, dispute resolution, and authoritative decision making.

Your business case will seek investments that build integration, instead of funding for separate and discrete efforts. These investments can usually be measured in dollars or staff time. Other needed resources include shared infrastructure such as data or voice networks, space, equipment, and specialized skills. The case will also show how partnerships can multiply the value of existing resources and strengthen the chances of obtaining external funding from grants and other sources.

Most of the elements described so far pertain to a justice integration case made to executive or elected leadership. In many instances, however, a core group of partners needs to make a case to peers and colleagues within the justice community. In this situation, you will be seeking agreement and participation in the integration planning and implementation processes. These activities form the basis for long-lasting relationships in which trust can develop. Trusting relationships make it easier to make tough decisions, communicate effectively, face problems, and try new ideas. Moreover, executive and elected leaders will likely look for evidence of real consensus among justice agencies as they make their own decisions about support for the effort.

Standards are crucial to integrated justice information. They represent agreement and consistency or compatibility in data elements, procedures, application design, communications protocols, and computing platforms. Decisions about standards typically require individual agencies or jurisdictions to give up some autonomy and incur some costs to change procedures, train staff, or adopt new equipment or applications. Your business case shows stakeholders how and why the benefits of adopting standards outweigh the costs.

The complexity of the justice integration enterprise is daunting. Positive results usually require the involvement of many different organizations, or jurisdictions, or levels of government. They entail extensive learning, coordination, and information sharing over an extended period of time. Stakeholders need to understand, appreciate, and commit to work together over a period of years, not weeks or months.