Developing a business case for blockchain projects in your organization can be an uphill battle. You need to highlight the technology behind blockchain and how it can be an asset for the organization. Luckily, there are a few ways to move your blockchain project forward with the least amount of resistance.

Blockchain Project Roadblocks for Adoption

One of the biggest blockchain project roadblocks for IT professionals in an organization is explaining the technology encompassing blockchain to decision makers who will give the project a green light. Let’s face it, this technology is hard to understand for someone not intune to tech.

The second biggest challenge is separating the cryptocurrency craze and the actual utility behind blockchain. The ups and downs of cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin can cause many decision makers to immediately disregard any project with the word “blockchain” in it. This is the double-edged sword, since crypto made a name for blockchain, but also has caused a lot of misconceptions.

The good news is that you can now show proof that other organizations, maybe even competitors, are injecting funding into blockchain projects. A PWC study uncovered that 45 percent of tech executives believe trust to be the biggest issue for blockchain adoption. But 84 percent shared that they are involved in a blockchain endeavor.

To help you overcome the trust issues your organization’s leaders may have about implementing blockchain, we compiled the following strategies for how to develop a business case for blockchain projects.

Divorce Blockchain Technology from Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrency

This is maybe the most important strategy to develop a business case for blockchain projects. Bitcoin at the moment is volatile, more than in the past, and there is plenty of negative press about bitcoin in your executives’ news feeds. This is a big issue.

Explaining how trading digital currency has very little to do with the many utilities the blockchain serves up, such as smart contracts, enhancing organization and customer data security, decreasing retail fraud, and more.

Conveying the utility of blockchain technology with Bitcoin out of the conversation will help moving your project forward, showcasing a strong business case. Give the C-suite an early adopter mindset.

Highlight the Foundational Principles of Blockchain

With Bitcoin divorced from blockchain, you can switch focus to the core principles the technology encompasses. These principles are in essence the very benefits for organizations and make the strongest business case for blockchain projects.

For example, the transparency of having a decentralized system, regardless of the area it’s applied to, can eliminate all trust issues. Trust is a big obstacle for B2B and B2C, but blockchain technology injects confidence into business relationships and transactions.

This type of transparency is being used in the supply chain industry via IBM blockchain technology. Now supply chain organizations can improve inventory management, make documentation more efficient, minimize shipping costs, and more using blockchain.

Apply Blockchain to a Current Organization Problem

Blockchain is all about solving problems within current practices, often those antiquated and inefficient. This should be your next strategy for developing a business case for blockchain projects. If you can highlight the project as a solution to a problem the executives have been chewing on for a long period, it can get you a quick green light.

Let’s face it, the boardroom will be more likely to dump money into a project that will make money. The good thing is that this is something blockchain can do very well when integrated correctly. For example, securing, managing, and sharing electronic medical records is a big problem for medical organizations.

According to MIT Technology Review, “There are 26 different electronic medical records systems used in the city of Boston, each with its own language for representing and sharing data. Critical information is often scattered across multiple facilities, and sometimes it isn’t accessible when it is needed most—a situation that plays out every day around the U.S., costing money and sometimes even lives.”

Blockchain technology is seen as a solution to this fatal problem in the medical industry. A solution to a big issue always outweighs misconceptions or fear of a innovation.

Do You Have a Business Case for Blockchain Projects?

The above are a few business case strategies you can draw from to get a green light from the C-suite. Since not everyone keeps their ear to the ground for cutting-edge technology, the push back persists. However, by detaching cryptocurrency, highlighting transparency, and delivering a solution to a problem in the organization, it will be hard not to see the blockchain benefits.