"Never skimp on good design in promotion—
it costs you more in the long run"

"A professional image IS your customers' first impression."


Reviewing Cost Justification aspects for on-line interactivity::

1) Identify both company and customer benefits, even those you cannot measure in hard dollars. And just as important is the need to describe improvements in efficiency and effectiveness which can be overlooked. Sometimes a survey of clients to find out what would benefit your customers is very valuable and will develop a long term relationship.

2) Even within the same market, products and services may vary as does the "volume" of product or service produced. Is your on-line interface set up to increase in volume as your company expands? Have you taken the time to do a time-motion study of your existing company efforts and reviewed this against how moving to an increased on-line functionality might do to increase profit over expenditures?

3) So….focus on the cost savings with performance increases. There could be benefits and ramifications of shifting your focus from creating and delivering pages to creating and delivering information through on-line informational resources. Additionally, when you are able to identify tools and process changes that will result in improved production, reduced costs, more valuable or higher quality products, you position your company to meet future needs at less cost.

4) Positioning your company for long-term growth by establishing new revenue streams and being better prepared to respond to changing customer needs. The dollar value assigned to these benefits will vary by company and the ranked importance will differ from company to company as well. It is worth a review of what your company is delivering to see whether an on-line revenue stream could be developed.

6) Being able to easily "look-up" and reuse existing data rather than recreating it also has significant paybacks. Directing clients to an interactive area online can save time and money. In a study on this, compare 5 minutes to search and retrieve information for reuse versus 8 hours to create a new page. In many companies, reauthoring is common place because existing information isn't easily retrievable or reusable. Keep in mind that each time you reauthor, you must also re- review and re-translate.

7) Consider, how do we put a value on competitive advantage, or improvements in quality, or the use of standards, or increases in customer satisfaction? These are important benefits, but estimating a dollar value for them can be a formidable task. Try to place a value on time, lost income and increased business and ease of client dealings.

8) Return on Investment (ROI) is a widely used method for analyzing performance and measuring profitability. In ROI, a dollar value must be stated for all benefits and costs. In other words, everything must be quantified.

All my best,
Taina
VP Marketing
Endless Graphics
818-247-1724