Quantifying Soft Costs and Benefits - some tips
Justifying investments made in new software products, including migrations to the cloud, requires organizations to prepare a cost-benefit analysis. Soft costs and benefits must be included in this picture but how?
Hard costs (physical assets, physical infrastructure etc.) are easier to quantity, including historical amounts spent on those costs and projected future costs. Same for the human resource costs to maintain these assets (e.g. maintenance contract, number of dedicated staff).
Soft costs and benefits are much more difficult to quantity.
Examples:
faster time to market
ease of use
greater overall agility to adopt changes
increase employee engagement from performing value-adding tasks
more effective operating model
As you prepare to build a business case to justify investments in new technologies, be sure to consider and include all soft costs and benefits. Together, these can establish the foundation for your sustainability in the digital age.
Ready to build a business case? Cebean Inc. consulting is here to help.