This document discusses how to estimate the return on investment (ROI) of adopting Flex for developing enterprise rich internet applications (RIAs). It provides an example ROI calculation for a Flex banking application that saves time over a previous Oracle Forms application. The calculation shows a project cost of €6 million, annual savings of €7.88 million, and a 2-year ROI of 163%. The document also discusses how Flex can impact both the benefits and costs in an ROI calculation by enabling better user experiences and cross-browser compatibility.

1. we make it RIA Raffaele Mannella – managing director [email_address]

2. Measuring the ROI of choosing Flex for Enterprise RIAs How to estimate the benefits and the final Return on Investment of adopting Flex to develop or re-design Rich Internet Applications to be used by the internal staff of a company 360Flex Conference Milan 7- 9 April 2008

4. Enterprise Rich Internet Applications In this presentation the term “Enterprise RIAs” refers to RIAs to be used by the internal staff of an organization to perform the operations Possible ent.RIAs are: CRMs, ERPs, salesforce automation platforms, banking operations platforms Definition

5. The “Walled Garden Syndrome” of enterprise RIAs caused scarce availability of data, examples and case histories However, as the ROI methodology synthesizes in one index only all a series of “sensitive” data, its disclosure is often accepted by companies Data availability

6. Why should we make the effort? (Ex ante & ex post): deciding feasibility, comparing alternative solutions, reduce uncertainty, lower expenses but most of all: promoting our RIA project in such a way that it results credible and reliable to senior managers! Why evaluate

7. The ROI as a “final” criterion ROI is a powerful methodology to synthesize in one indicator a structured and complete analysis of benefits and costs. ROI (%)= Net project benefits/Project costs x 100 Benefits Cost Ratio (BCR) = Project benefits / Project costs ROI & BCR

8. Evaluating the benefits Measuring vs. forecasting Ex post evaluation: based on ROI measurement system which normally requires 3-5% of project budget; input data are collected in terms of surveys, questionnaires, interviews, on-the-job observation, performance monitoring Ex ante evaluation (forecasting): input data come from past experience, similar projects, internal/external experts, standard values, a PILOT PROJECT

11. Tangible or hard data The traditional measures of performance: Output Units produced, units sold, # visa processed, etc. Time System downtime, time to completion, efficiency etc. Costs Unit costs, sales expenses, variable costs etc. Quality Scrap, rework, rejects etc. Tangible benefits

12. Intangible benefits The so called “intangible” benefits Some benefits cannot be easily converted in monetary values: +customer service, +collaboration, +organizational committment, +job satisfaction, +customer satisfaction, -complaints, -conflicts

15. Youthru makes the selection process more effective also for the candidates as it gives them the opportunity to highlight certain aspects of one’s personality and attitudes which cannot be adequately expressed by a textual resume. Calculating the ROI index BCR=1  ROI=0  BEP (BENEFITS=COSTS) In enterprise applications ROIs in the region of 100 to 700% are quite frequent. When a specific need has been identified and a performance gap exists, ROI values can be very high* BEP ROI value *ROI for technology project, Roulstone & Phillips, BH 2008

16. Real-world Flex case Application: a platform for common banking operations operation executed: depositing a check on a c/a A pilot project revealed these simple data: * Oracle forms (simple html , 1 click=1 page) Previous app.* Flex. app. Measured output: saving # of clicks 17 7 -59% Execution time (sec.s) 25 11 -56%

18. Data collection * a 2-year useful life was forecasted for the application Real-world Flex case Project cost (full cost) € 6,000,000.00 # dedicated operators 400 Cost per hour (full cost) € 20.00 Cost per year € 14,080,000.00 Annual saving € 7,884,800.00 2-year saving* € 15,769,600.00

21. Final calculation BCR=benefits/cost=7,884,800.00/3,000,000.00= = 2.63 ROI=net benefits/cost= 163% Real-world Flex case

22. Youthru makes the selection process more effective also for the candidates as it gives them the opportunity to highlight certain aspects of one’s personality and attitudes which cannot be adequately expressed by a textual resume. Considerations respect an alternative technology Flex probably represents the best choice for interaction and enhanced user experience, which increase the ROI formula numerator And a formidable alternative to decrease development costs (cross browser testing alone, takes 20% of total development time in ordinary IT projects) Flex impact on ROI

23. Flex impact on ROI Interactivity features increase both the numerator and the denominator Flex Applications Are More Responsive Flex Delivers Data Visualization with Built-in Charting Controls Flex Delivers Style So that Applications Can Look Cool Flex works both Online and Offline Flex Gives Developers the Power to Deliver Superior User Experience Flex is cross browser* Cross browser feature decreases denominator + net benefits ___________ - Total costs *from Flex 3 Early Evaluation: Assessing Flex and Your Project Needs by EffectiveUI, Inc. © 2007 O’Reilly Media, Inc.

24. For most organizations, Flex also represents the only option for (reasonable) feasibility (“ It’s taken a Google to produce a truly usable and scalable Ajax application”)* *from Flex 3 Early Evaluation: Assessing Flex and Your Project Needs by EffectiveUI, Inc. © 2007 O’Reilly Media, Inc. Flex impact on ROI