Certain sales enablement ROI tool best practices to can help make ROI calculators and tools effective at connecting with today’s more frugal economic-focused buyers and CFOs.

1. Is using an ROI Analysis Good Enough to Make Critical
Investment Decisions?
Traditional ROI analysis examines the cash flow of a proposed project over time to determine if it makes fiscal
sense. The investment is tallied and benefits contrasted against the benefits to see if the project generates a
positive cash flow, and as a result, can deliver bottom-line impact to the organization.
Although in today’s frugal environment a bottom-line impact is required of almost every business project,
when determining which projects to invest in, only comparing the financial impact of these projects can lead
to a one dimensional analysis and perhaps, near-sighted decisions.
It is recommended that the ROI analysis methodology be extended to consider elements of the investment
beyond financial alone, supplementing the cash flow analysis with some additional measurements and
dimensions.
The Alinean ROI Dashboard is an ROI analysis methodology recommended to extend traditional ROI analysis
to include additional analysis dimensions beyond the Net Tangible (quantifiable) Benefits, to include Strategic
Impacts and Alignment (Intangible Benefits) and Risks.
The Alinean ROI Dashboard Model uses tangible benefits, intangible benefits and risks to drive a better calculation as to the bottom-line value and
expected outcome of a proposed project.
Traditional ROI Analysis and Net Tangible Benefits
To revisit, traditional ROI analysis examines the net tangible benefits of a project, those that can be quantified
in financial terms. The tangible benefits of a solution measure the investments / costs of implementation,
against projected savings, incremental revenue and benefits, to calculate the quantifiable financial benefits of
the solution.

2. The investment portion of the tangible benefits equation measures all of the up-front and on-going costs for
implementing the project, seeking to capture the total cost of ownership of the proposed solution (all of the
costs over the useful investment lifespan).
For an IT project as an example, these investments typically include:
 Capital Expenses - the investment in systems, software, networks, peripherals, supplies and equipment
to deploy and maintain the project,
 Implementation Labor - the staff and contract labor to research, purchase, plan, test and deploy the
proposed solution,
 On-going Management and Support - the staff and contract labor to manage and support the solution
after it is deployed,
 Operations and Contracts - the recurring fees, leases, facilities and power costs, and the on-going
maintenance and support contracts,
 Business Unit Costs – the change management, project management and user training fees and labor,
The savings / benefits portions of tangible benefits tallies the positive impact the project will have on the
organizations costs, cash and revenue, and are typically grouped into four categories:
 Labor Savings - the savings due to expected headcount reduction, overtime avoidance or strategic
resource re-allocation from implementing the planned project,
 Expense Reductions - the savings in expenses such as equipment expenses, facilities, net fixed assets,
inventory, accounts payable and accounts receivable from implementing the planned project,
 Strategic / Revenue Benefits - the gains in revenue and associated profit, such as incremental sales
from new customer acquisitions and conversion percentage improvements, reduced sales cycles and
increased customer retention reduced churn,
 Working Capital Improvements – reduction in needed working capital investments for items such as
inventory or facilities.
Intangible Benefits
Many projects have benefits to an organization that are strategic and may be difficult to quantify in absolute
monetary terms.
Intangible benefits represent strategic benefits that are difficult, or impossible, to accurately predict and
measure in financial terms, but are an important aspect of the project, making an impact beyond financial to
the organization.
Some intangible benefits to be considered when evaluating and measuring the performance of a project
include:
 Brand Advantage -reinforcing, advancing or changing a company's brand,
 Strategic Advantage - working towards or meeting overall corporate objectives ,

3.  Competitive Advantage - releasing solutions faster, developing solutions less expensively, better
addressing customer needs, meeting changing market demand, scaling easily and more cost
effectively, and gaining market share,
 Intellectual Capital - increase in relevant knowledge gained by the staff, and the perceived market
value from those gains,
 Organizational Advantage - enabling an organization to function more effectively, or reinforcing or
recreating a corporate culture
Although not quantifiable easily or credibly in financial terms, these intangible benefits can often be
quantified into Key Performance Indicator impacts such as improvements in employee satisfaction scores,
customer satisfaction scores, brand sentiment rankings, or industry position rankings. Quantification of these
benefits versus a KPI will help the team understand the proposed improvements and assure success post
deployment (post-implementation analysis).
Risk
Risk is a future issue that may affect a project, and lead to increased costs or reduced tangible and intangible
benefits. Risk can be measured based on the probability of occurrence, and the likely impact on the costs and
benefits, in some instances discounting the value of the project significantly.
The risk measurement may include items such as:
 Labor Resources - the risk that required resources may not be available, not have the proper skill set or
training, or rely on a small group of experts that cannot be retained easily,
 User Acceptance - users may not accept the solution and rebel, or more likely, they will not adopt all or
some of the key features, which reduces the benefits substantially,
 Compatibility - the solution may not be compatible with current or future operating systems, platforms
or other applications,
 Vendor - the vendor may not be able to deliver the solution in the promised time frame or to the
required specifications. The vendor may be a start-up, or not financially sound, so they may not be
around in several years to support the solution and deliver required updates and upgrades,
 Management Commitment and Funding - the senior management and the stakeholders may not be
fully committed to the project with management support, and especially funding,
 Market or Strategic - the market may shift, competitors may change their strategy, or the company
may change strategic direction, changing the project requirements, or changing the business benefits
equation,
 Schedule - the project requirements may drive a schedule that is unrealistic. The overruns in schedule
may cause cost overruns, delays to benefits, and impacts to other dependent projects,
 Legal and Governance - there may be legal and governance risks and exposures in the project, such as
not being able to implement the project in time to meet legal regulations, or a failure that may risk
legal exposure. The project or issues with the project may also affect compliance with governance
issues such as financial reporting requirements,
 Organization - there may be risks to the organization as a whole, should issues occur, such as a risk
involving employee morale or organizational dynamics,

4.  Dependencies - there may be risks that can affect a family of dependent projects, such as delays,
resources or budgets.
The Bottom-Line
Extending the traditional ROI analysis model can help factor in other important elements into the buying
decision, and assure that the best projects are selected from a portfolio of proposed options. Although
financial analysis is required now on most projects, Frugalnomics is in full effect, focusing only on financial
gains of a proposed project often can lead to decisions that don’t take other key aspects into account, such as
strategic benefits or risks.
It is not proposed to avoid quantifying financial costs and benefits, risking that decisions don’t make fiscal
sense, but rather to extend the analysis slightly to include strategic and risk elements that can be compared
and contrasted versus the financial gains to assure a more well-rounded and sound decision.
For sellers, using an ROI methodology to cost-justify project investments is a requirement, to connect, engage
and sell effectively to today’s frugal buyer. It is important for marketing to deliver on-line ROI Calculators to
empower buyers to calculate the cost of ―doing nothing‖ and drive justification decisions, as well as sales
enablement delivering tools to sales professionals and channel partners to help facilitate business case
development and consultative collaboration with buyers.
Click here for more information on Alinean ROI Calculators and ROI Sales Tools.
About Alinean
Alinean, the leading provider of dynamic sales and marketing tools, empowers B2B vendors to better sell to
today's economic-focused buyer. Alinean-powered interactive white papers, assessments, ROI calculators and
TCO comparison tools create more compelling value-based connections, workshops, presentations and
proposals — delivering customized diagnostics, benchmarks, solution recommendations, benefits,
investments, ROI, payback and TCO advantage proof points.
Leading B2B firms leveraging Alinean tools include: HP, IBM, Microsoft, EMC, Dell, Intel, IDC/IDG, AT&T,
Siemens, Unisys, Thomson Reuters, NetApp, Citrix, Symantec, Novell, Cisco, Oracle, Sybase, and CA.
Learn more: at the Fight FrugalnomicsTM Resource Center http://www.fightfrugalnomics.com, by visiting
http://www.alinean.com, or calling 407.382.0005.
©2010 Alinean is a trademark of Alinean, Inc., in the United States. All other brands, products or service
names are or may be trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of, and used to identify,
products or services of their respective owners.
For more information, please visit www.alinean.com
Alinean, Inc., 111 North Magnolia, Suite 1050, Orlando, FL 32801
TEL: 407.382.0005 | FAX: 407.382.0906 | TOLL FREE 866.693.6271