Digital Capitalism: How Content Management Solutions Deliver 68% ROI in Just Three Years

For most of our history, capital was derived from tangible goods like plows and presses. But this could only be achieved through the delivery of manual labor, to make those plows and presses, as a central intangible capital. Today, in a world of computerized manufacturing, that intangible capital has switched to the data and software that enables the design and assembly of products -- with algorithms, workflows and collaboration tools delivering further enterprise value.

TerraLink is working with customers to link operational and transactional content to the processes that drive enterprise value. Typically, these projects generate questions about the return on the investment (ROI). While sometimes hard to quantify, there are sizable returns for linking and automating key enterprise process chains like quote-to-installation, order-to-cash or material record books. The accelerated delivery times resulting from automation and connected data workspaces can lead to financial savings that directly boost your ROI.

A recent article, Forrester Report: Content Management Solutions Deliver 68% ROI Over 3 Years, highlighted the results of a report gathering anecdotal data from seven companies to estimate the potential benefits of content management solutions. The results were striking.

The full study found that, on average, each organization would enjoy benefits of US$4.4 million over three years -- against costs of just $2.6 million. Those figures provided a net present value (NPV) of $1.8 million and an ROI of 68%.

But where did the returns manifest themselves?

Both quantified and unquantified benefits were found. Among the risk-adjusted present value (PV) benefits were typical time savings of $504,000 from “merging product, customer and compliance data to auto-generate documents from formerly siloed content”. More than $1.14 million was saved through the automation of invoice management, related correspondence, and subsequent payment term discounts. Almost $1.3 million was accrued by providing access to data and technical diagrams via mobile devices. And savings of $1.5 million were calculated from printer network streamlining, compliance cost and storage cost reductions, and decommissioning old tools.

The payback period on the $2.6 million costs -- the point at which the net benefits are equal to the initial investment or cost -- was just over 15 months. Content management solutions were also found to deliver a series of significant unquantifiable benefits by solving critical business challenges unique to each enterprise. The report found that each of the seven organizations gave “an account of discovering value so great that they were reluctant to calculate a financial amount.”

TerraLink customers across a variety of industries and business processes have achieved their ROI targets and realized enterprise value from their content management digitalization projects.

TerraLink has more than 25 years’ global experience in enterprise content management, delivering world-class systems that increase efficiency, cut costs, strengthen compliance and enable better decision-making. Among others, we are recognized experts in OpenText and SAP solutions. Whether you’re looking for a full-scale implementation or a simple upgrade or extension to an existing solution, TerraLink’s specialist team is ready to help your business achieve its full potential.