ROI tracking

It is important to have current information about the opportunity so that the investment made into each opportunity is profitable when the opportunity is delivered. You can use the opportunity information to understand the status and make strategic decisions.

After the opportunity moves to the deployed stage, you can track the benefit (ROI) provided by the opportunity. To track ROI for an opportunity, select the opportunity and navigate to any of the following tabs:
  • Opportunity Summary
  • Execution Tracking > Execution Metrics
  • Details

You can track the ROI based on the number of bot executions or the number of transactions processed by the bot. You can select the ROI model by specifying it in the opportunity intake form.

Execution-based ROI

Execution-based ROI evaluates the returns on investment based on the successful execution counts of the automation. It calculates how many times the automation runs and aggregates it based on week, month, quarter, and so on. It provides details such as successful and failed executions and the automation duration. The focus is on measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the overall automation execution; not on the transactions processed.

With the execution-based ROI, you can perform the following:
  • Prioritize improvement in the efficiency of the automation execution by streamlining workflows, reducing manual effort, and so on.
  • Enhance operational effectiveness by identifying bottlenecks and areas to improve in the execution process.

Transaction-based ROI

Transaction-based ROI evaluates the return on investment based on the following:
  • Volume or the number of transactions processed by the automation. It calculates the total number of records processed for any given day, week, month, or quarter. This provides a more granular level of tracking so you can focus on the revenue generated from each transaction.
  • Type of transaction, successful or failed. Successful and failed transactions are tracked separately when calculating the ROI. If automations are error-handled to close successfully in the Control Room, they can still be counted as a failed transaction, provided they are so configured. Tracking the ROI based on transaction type provides an accurate projection of the ROI.
With the transaction-based ROI you can perform the following:
  • Assess the cost savings and efficiency improvements for each transaction.
  • Compare and measure success of each process based on the transactional outcome.
Important: Once you set the method to track the ROI for your opportunity as either execution or transaction based, you must not make any further modification, that is you must not change it from execution based to transaction based or vice versa. Modifying the ROI tracking method is not supported, and the dashboard displays wrong data. Instead, create a new opportunity and choose the preferred method of ROI tracking.

Based on your business objectives, you can select either the execution-based or transaction-based ROI tracking. You can use both ROI tracking methods to assess the benefits achieved and the cost of implementing the automation solutions. Transaction-based ROI focuses on evaluating the overall impact of the automation on the organization, whereas transaction-based ROI focuses on individual transactions processed by the automation.

Workflow

Perform the tasks in this workflow to calculate the ROI.

Methods of calculating ROI

Push-pull method
This method is used to calculate execution-based ROI. Depending on the type of Control Room integration, data is either pulled or pushed from the Control Room to the CoE Manager.
  • Cloud Control Room integration: CoE Manager automatically pulls the automation data from the Cloud Control Room for ROI calculation.
  • On-Premises Control Room integration: Data is pushed from the Control Room to the CoE Manager through a scheduled automation run for ROI calculation. This automation must be downloaded from the Bot Store.

Each data push will include the current day's data up to the current time, plus the previous day's data in full. This overlap of data is done to ensure there are no data gaps in case of API call failures or network issues. All duplicate data is automatically corrected in the CoE Manager before publishing them to the dashboards.

Important: The data collected from the Control Room does not include any personally identifiable information (PII) or sensitive data.

The following data is pushed from the Control Room to CoE Manager:

  • Automation name
  • File name and path
  • Start and end date and time
  • Status
  • Progress
  • Automation ID
  • User ID and username
  • Device ID and name
  • Modified by
  • Created by
  • Automation priority
Analyze package
You can use the Analyze package to effectively measure the transaction-based ROI. You must orchestrate the automations using the Analyze package to identify the transactions to be counted. See Analyze package.

For example, consider the scenario where you have parent bot calling a child bot, and the transactions are processed in the child bot. If total number of transactions processed within the child bot are 3, the bot logic for each transaction should be within the Analyze > Open and Close action. That means, you must use Analyze > Open and Close actions three times to record the three transactions.

Pipeline Accelerator package
You can use the Pipeline Accelerator package and actions to calculate both the execution as well as transaction-based ROI. The Pipeline Accelerator package allows you to upload execution data to a work item in the CoE Manager directly. This not only allows upload of actual but also historical data to calculate the savings achieved. See Pipeline Accelerator package.