Should My Reporting Solution Have an ROI?

Yes.

You want more? OK.....

This is a question that I think every prospect should consider when considering a reporting a solution.  I would argue that if you have a broad view how to define the return on your investment, you will find the solutions you need to increase your year-end take home.

Here's an Exercise for You...

 
To start this exercise, I would think about the return portion first.  What is the value of the solution? 

• Does it relieve your staff of having to produce reports manually?
  • Figure out the value of the time
  • Also determine if you can do something with that saved time, i.e. is there value in the time
• Can it reduce churn?
  • How much revenue did you lose in the past 12 months from lost clients?
  • Could you have saved the relationship if a piece of information could have led to proactive work?
• Can it increase engineer efficiency?
  • Do you think there are additional hours you can free up?
  • Are there gains to be had by re-allocating engineers?
• Are there opportunities to increase agreement pricing?
  • Do you know the relative pricing per endpoint of your agreements?
  • Do you know which clients have low effective rates due to pricing not utilization?

And...What NOT to Do

I could go on.  The point is that there are a lot of ways to get a return from good reporting.  What are some ways not to get a return?

• Not using the information to drive change.
• Focusing on “nice to know” information that will not be used to drive change.
• Not caring if the information is correct. Good information requires some work.

Once you do this exercise, then you can make an informed decision about which reporting solution works for your company and whether its ROI works for you.