Return On Investment Promises are becoming a marketing tool for many content technologies providers.Too bad most of them do not know what they are talking about. $$$
1 October 2001
Measuring the performance of investments has been a rather standard business practice for a long time, with clear and established methodologies
available to the market.
But measuring the ROI on technology investments is not quite as straightforward, because technology requirements are so diverse, and the business community at large has not exactly come to grips with the concept that technology means business.
ROI assessment tools offered by commercial companies as part of their marketing efforts look very much like sales pitches .
“Blue Martini, BroadVision, E.piphany, and others are using ROI assessment tools to convince prospective clients to buy” says Louis Columbus, analyst with AMR research.
According to Columbus, there is a conflict of interest between vendors providing an ROI projection on their own products.
“Has a vendor advised a user not to pursue a project based on marginal ROI projections? To get a true measure of ROI for a new project, existing processes will need to be redefined and data organized to support it. Many ROI tools do not measure risk based on readiness, because that would slow the sales cycle” warns Columbus.
Users need to evaluate ROI assessments based on the risk the vendor is shouldering, advises the analyst.
“We have seen no vendors willing to stand behind their ROI assessments and guarantee either a customer's satisfaction or actual ROI results. In fact, their implementation methodologies are rarely based on achieving the business case, instead focusing on merely getting the system live.”
Great opportunity lie ahead for companies who wish to offer ROI assessment tools, suggests Columbus, by guaranteeing results and customer satisfaction before a user pays.

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