ROI

"What will be our return on investment (ROI) for this new application?"

This a key question that almost always has to be answered before a company decides to purchase and implement a software solution. An explicitly defined ROI can be a very useful, if not mandatory, tool for "selling" a new solution to top-level management in your company, as well as getting dollars approved in the corporate budget for the purchase and implementation.

Here are several aspects of ROI associated with performance management solutions that we have seen first-hand in our implementations:

• Improvements in the timeliness, accuracy and efficiency in producing the budget, forecast and performance reports
  
  
• Immediate answers to What, Where, When, Who and Why due to more accessible info that is easier to understand
  
  
• Ability to perform proactive analyses, enabling review and adjustment of expense targets before month close
  
  
• Increased visibility of key metrics and access to the economic events that support these metrics
  
  
• Ability to quickly perform what-if scenarios for critical business issues such as reorganization and acquisitions
  
  
• Increased participation and accountability in the Budget and Forecasting processes:

  • More dialog/collaboration with the finance department
    
  • Immediate feedback on loaded data
    
  • Ability to do ad hoc analysis of data
    
  • Self service info delivery provides more accountability

  
  
• Increased predictability of Cash Flow:

  • Solutions provide mechanism to increase visibility
    
  • More current information delivered more frequently, allowing corrective action sooner
    
  • Timelier expense reporting to remove the latency of summary-level data compared with detailed cash flow
    
  • Ability to do better analysis, using more accurate and timely data, without increasing staff/headcount