One of the most difficult tasks in today’s economic environment is to calculate the ROI on investments in network management tools. And this gets even more difficult as we try to differentiate between “hard” ROI (doing what you’ve always done, only at a lower price) and a “soft” ROI (enhancing functions do that you might spend as much more more but you get greatly enhanced functionality.)
One of the most difficult tasks in today’s economic environment is to calculate the ROI on investments in network management tools. And this gets even more difficult as we try to differentiate between “hard” ROI (doing what you’ve always done, only at a lower price) and a “soft” ROI (enhancing functions that you might spend much more but you get greatly enhanced functionality.)
Fluke Networks recently offered a ROI calculator to accompany their new Optiview Management Suite. And Steve had the opportunity to chat with Dan Klimke from Fluke Networks about this calculator.
Steve: The ROI calculator is very impressive, but I have a few questions. In filling in the blanks on the calculator, I would assume that there are various personnel in the typical organization who spend time on each of the tasks. So an average time per week and an average salary should be used? Are there any ways that one should “weight” the answers for more highly compensated individuals who spend more time on one task vs. the other?
Dan: Great question – had not thought of that! But yes, a tool like an OptiView Analyzer is typically shared in a network support organization, and different levels of techs/engineers might use the tool for different tasks. I think the best way to get the best result from the ROI calculator would be to use an average salary amount, weighted to the level of user and their percent of use of the product. Or, you could run the calculator more than once, to see the payback for each individual user – knowing that combined, there will be an even better ROI.
Steve: There is an entry for “Number of staff using OptiView.” This leads to at least two questions… First, what are the capabilities for multiple simultaneous users? Secondly, what are the criteria for which staff should and should not be using OptiView?
Dan: Yes, OptiView analyzers can suppport up to eight simultaneous remote users – all it takes is a small remote user interface app loaded on your PC. The owners who get the most value out of their OptiView are the ones who do not leave it in a desk drawer waiting for a problem to happen, but have it connected in a key location and connect to it remotely via the out of band management port.
As for different users, we believe that although OptiView has been designed to meet the needs of engineers, many different IT support folks can benefit in their jobs by using the tool. That said, some organizations are sensitive as to what kind of information some people have access to. For example, some do not want techs looking at packet payloads, or even capturing packets at all – that’s two of the particular user settings the administrator can utilize in setting up user accounts on an OptiView, for remote, or ‘on the box’ use.
Steve: I assume that the results from the analysis indicate the typical savings from a “business as usual” perspective. How do I go to the next step of looking at the ways that a tool like the OMS might change my workflows and consequently result in even greater savings?
Dan: You know, we debated at some length the various factors we could put in the ROI calculator – we know that most folks in the industry know that vendor-supplied ROI calculators are [BLEEP] but, we wanted to at least give a general idea of where the ‘hard numbers’ could be found for justifying the purchase.
There are other, hard to quantify, but very real costs that organizations experience when performance is degraded and teams do not have ‘the complete picture’ for managing and solving performance problems:
– Reduced User Productivity
– Impacted when applications are slow or unreliable
– High downtime costs
– Because problems take longer to isolate and resolve
– Unnecessary expenses
– Poor investment decisions – when organizations buy new infrastructure (bandwidth) to solve performance issues
– Reduced IT staff efficiency
– Projects are delayed as more time is spent troubleshooting
– Negative IT department reputation
– Inconsistent service delivery leads to unhappy users.
It’s that last point that I think everyone can identify with, but is completely unquantifiable, yet is a very real ‘cost’.
If you would like to read more of this interview and, even more importantly, to interact with Steve and Dan concerning this topic, please join the discussion at Webtorials.
