Lies, Damned Lies, and ROI
This was the alternate title for my presentation last week at Dreamforce 2012. (I cowardly went with the sedate “Calculating Support ROI”.)
Why
To justify a purchase, of course, but also useful whenever you want to evaluate a program or initiative from a business perspective.
When
Anytime! After-the-fact ROIs can be challenging (because you may not have the right baseline metrics in place to begin with) but always illuminating.
Who
ROI analyses are way too important strategically to be left to business analysts, and way too much work for (most) line managers: make it a group effort.
What
Laundry lists are good but categories even better: delicate, whites… Wait! Try: case deflection/self-help, productivity improvements, lower maintenance costs, increased sales (yes, it’s possible from support improvements), customer satisfaction (so very hard to quantify, though) and better analytics.
How
That’s the secret sauce. At a high level, don’t try to quantify everything. Instead, determine the most likely savings (usually self-help and productivity improvements) and analyze them in details. Remember to stage the savings over time and use high/low forecasting to hedge your bets, force better-educated decisions, and impress the CFO.
If you’d like a copy of the slides, please let me know in a comment or email.
I’d really appreciate a copy of your ROI presentation. Thanks so much for offering!
Emailed to you!
I’d love a copy of the presentation as well! Thanks!