Author: James Kahn, Systems Engineer, Vizioncore

As far as software goes, IT departments use many metrics to make decisions on software and hardware. Functionality, flexibility, speed and vendor stability are a few. Return On Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) are popular financial metrics, however, they can be very difficult to measure.

I’m suggesting a new benchmark that can be used when making a decision on a software solution: Time To Benefit.

What is Time To Benefit? Time To Benefit measures how much time and effort is required before the business can take advantage of a new software solution. How long will it take before we can gain the benefits of this software purchase? Hours, Days, Weeks or Years? A fast time to benefit is often indicative of a good ROI; and easy to use software usually has a short Time To Benefit.

For example:

  • One backup solution is so complicated it requires weeks of training courses, whereas another allows you to get up and running the same day.
  • One monitoring solution is pre-populated with metrics and best-practices, whereas another requires you to set up your monitoring rules and thresholds manually.


And of course, what is the best way to see past the marketing to determine Time To Benefit of different software solutions? A proof of concept software installation.

Thanks,

JK