Document Control Software - ROI - Need Help

[carmelwish]

Has anyone done a return on investment on purchasing a document control software? I work for a frugal start-up with no document control at present. Some executives feel we are not ready for document control yet...but when customers come calling, we'll need to have information they want available.

Any ideas on how to present ROI?

 

[qualitychic]

I would probably make an estimation as # of hours spent for doc control without software currently and convert it into $ cost. Then, compare it to # of hours that you would have spent for doc control with software. Plus, you can list them other advantages that cannot be measure with $, i.e.: improve customer satisfaction.

Being a devil's advocate here...since you mentioned that you are in a start-up company, I would probably lean to agree with some of your executives in terms of not purchasing a doc control software in this early stage. Plus, you can probably do it yourself with just a simple excel spreadsheet that has hyperlink to the latest documents. I'm guessing you probably have a server already that you can use to centrally store all your documents. That's all you need to start with. Just a thought...

 

[Jen Kirley]

To add to qualitychic's good advice, I will refer you to this thread. It has a spreadsheet calculator attached in it, and a link to a thread with a second calculator attached in it.

With these calculators you can present projected data that can help you determine time needed to regroup the costs.

 

[Gert Sorensen]

I'd like to play the devils advocate too I think you should stick with your idea, and look around for the truly compliant solutions. Some of them have ROI-spreadsheets that you can have a copy of... The reason that I say stick with your idea is that if you don't implement it from the start the it will be much harder to do so at a later point. If you start correctly you will reap the benefits so much sooner. Yes, it will cost money, but I will take a bet that if you implement now then you will have your investment back in 1-2 years and you will not need to battle with compliance requirements later.

Actually you may find that some of the companies are rather fair in their pricing policy.

 

[Stijloor]

Has anyone done a return on investment on purchasing a document control software? I work for a frugal start-up with no document control at present. Some executives feel we are not ready for document control yet...but when customers come calling, we'll need to have information they want available.

Any ideas on how to present ROI?

Hello carmelwish,

Attached is an ROI tool. Could this be helpful?

Stijloor.