Another Name for Automation—ROI

Submitted by Tom Huntington on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 11:30am

The concept of Return On Investment (ROI) came up several times this past week in various topics related to systems management software. Some questions I heard were: "How do I know I am getting a good ROI from my software?" "Is the technology we’re using delivering a valuable business function?" "Should we report this information to our management?"

Many of us have been running the Robot Solution for years and may have forgotten the importance of reminding our teams and management about the value we receive each day. Let’s review a few things we may have forgotten about the ROI from our automation software.

Benefit 1: Fewer Fires

We’ve eliminated the constant fire fighting that we did in the days before we were automated. How much does that save you each day?

Benefit 2: Lower Costs

We’ve dodged extra costs because we avoided hardware upgrades for additional disks or a faster processor. We didn’t need these upgrades because we kept our systems "clean" with proper disk software and we leveled the workload with automation software.

Benefit 3: Higher Efficiency

Even though our business and systems may have grown more than 50 percent, our staff levels have stayed the same, or even diminished. In the day of manual operations, we might have needed 8 operators; now, we only need 2 (for an example, read how Cascade Corporation moved to lights-out operations).

Benefit 4: Proven Disaster Recovery

Each year we can successfully test our disaster recovery plan, while the Windows and UNIX people struggle to recover. What is it worth to your organization to know that proper backup plans are in place and you could recover the business? (As you know, you can’t go to IBM to buy back your customer data.)

My big question: Is there more that you need from us to help you calculate your ROI? Are there some metrics you’re looking for to help you better answer this question? Just drop me an e-mail or call me at 952-563-1606. We want to make sure that you feel that you’re getting a good ROI from our software.

Comments