10 tips to maximise your software project ROI (Return on Investment)

1. Have a process for identifying and measuring your software project benefits – from initial project approval, selection, implementation through to post implementation. Regular monitoring and measuring will flag up issues, enabling you to take action accordingly.

2. Implementing a new system, is much more than just buying new software. Projects often include additional hardware, databases, consultancy, training, labour costs and will not be successful without them. All the foreseeable project components should be recognised well before the project is approved and costs for these included within any ROI calculations. That way, whilst the ROI will be more realistic, you’ll be more prepared and be more able to maximise your ROI.

3. Do not make excessive cuts in the project budget, which may appear to increase ROI on paper, but in practice could severely hamper the success of the project later on. For example, if the project team would be able to work much more efficiently with the latest high-spec PC’s and large monitors – then provide them, as the increased output will than outweigh the costs saved by using inferior equipment.

4. Ensure your technology is compatible and consistent. If the new software requires new or upgraded hardware, or database etc., then provide it. There is really no point in trying to run new software with hardware that cannot cope.

5. Re-engineer your processes, to work with your business and to get the best out of the new software. If you have existing processes that are poor, implementing new software is not going to have much impact unless you revise the processes accordingly. Spending time re-engineering your processes is time very well spent.

6. Ensure your project team and software users have good training. This means paying for training. Either buy from the vendor, or set up a train-the-trainer scheme and do it yourself, plus have regular on-going training and a programme to support users. Don’t just rely on manuals, DVD’s, or online help. The better the training, the quicker your users will become competent and expert with your new system, and consequently the better your ROI will be.

7. Get the right people involved. Sometimes, extra training is just not enough. If this is the case - don’t struggle on. If you need new skills and knowledge, then bring in additional people, even if it is only for a short period.

8. Thoroughly cleanse your data and ensure you only have good quality data in your new system. Otherwise, no matter what the software is, it’ll still just be ‘garbage in - garbage out’.

9. Focus on the big potential gains from implementing new software, such as below. Then, identify and use relevant metrics to monitor improvements.

·         Reporting - preparing, printing and mailing regular reports can be very labour intensive. With new software, time spent on reporting can be drastically reduced, enabling those employees involved to be re-allocated to work that is more important.

·         Productivity – the time it takes to carry out the same specific tasks, before and after implementation.

·         Removal of manual / human errors within the present system.

·         Reduced duplication of information and tasks.

·         In fact, any routine process in the existing system that consumes a lot time, which could be automated or human involvement substantially reduced, within the new system.

10. Ensure you, your project team, all users and the organisation as a whole, adopt the new software solution. This means, that everyone gets behind the new software, pulls in the same direction and actively chases the planned benefits – both during and after the implementation. So if necessary, spend more time planning the implementation, training, managing the project and convincing any doubters to get behind it.

In summary, to maximise your software project ROI, you cannot simply cut your costs – you need to invest and spend, in order to succeed.

There has been an alarming upward trend in the costs of similar treatments, as more drugs are developed and come on to the market, new Pharmac figures show.

And as the price of life-saving medicines soar and pharmaceutical companies show no signs of justifying their costs, the Government is warning that something has got to give.

Pharmac, the Government's drug buying agency, began funding a key blood cancer drug Thalidomide, manufactured by drug giant Celgene, in 2002. While the true costs of what Pharmac pays are confidential, the list price for the drug in 2002 was $360, based on a daily average dose for a month.

Compare that with a later iteration of the same drug - Lenalidomide - which in 2014 carried a list price of $8353. A third option for blood cancer patients, whose condition might not respond so well to the first two, was Bortezomib, which had a list price of $9742.

The benefits of treating cancer with any of the drugs were similar, and limited studies comparing Lenalidomide and Thalidomide showed no survival difference.

When it came to differing forms of chemotherapy for breast cancer, list prices had risen 443 per cent.

Anthracycline, a common chemotherapy, was listed at $975 in 2002. As two more options came onto the market - Docetaxel, also in 2002, and Trastuzumab, in 2007 - list prices rose to $2488 and $5300 respectively.

A similar trend was also shown across medicines for the treatment of kidney cancer, and lung cancer, rising 411 and 44 per cent respectively.

While all those costs related to the list-price of the medicines, chief executive Steffan Crauzas said Pharmac did not pay that much.

How much less Pharmac paid was confidential, but the increase in the list-price showed an alarming trend that the overall cost of providing New Zealanders access to medicines was becoming more difficult.

Costs were symptomatic of a price-war raging overseas, where the medicines market was not so tightly controlled by a public purchaser.

According to the World Health Organisation, medicines accounted for over half of total health expenditures and were often "unavailable and unaffordable to consumers who need them".

It recommended making some essential medicines exempt from taxation.

Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition chair Libby Burgess, who led a campaign for the public funding of breast cancer drug Herceptin, said the problem was the Pharmac model.

She cited Australia, where two separate bodies took care of funding decisions and then purchase of the medicines respectively.

"All of that happens under one roof in Pharmac, which means its very easy for one part of the process to compromise another."

MidCentral DHB Oncologist Dr. Richard Isaacs said the prices big pharma was charging was "gobsmacking".

"There's been a lot of criticism of Pharmac over the years, and I was involved in advocating for Herceptin, but I strongly believe now there needs to be a strong focus on the costs that pharma are charging when they introduce new targeted therapies into the market.

"We certainly can't afford all of them and I think our process of carefully assessing the drugs is a good one."

Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne said Pharmaceutical companies needed to justify their costs more.

"I think that there's a real question about how everything starts with several zeros behind it, and think that is a question mark... but it may not solve the issue as far as access to medicines in New Zealand is concerned."

Instead, it was Pharmac that would likely undergo changes in the next 10 to 15 years. Those changes were unlikely to be the kind Burgess was after, however.

"Pharmac are remarkably skillfull... and they are able to put these packages together, which are impressive. But the issue I thought they would have done a little more on, is actually evaluating their decisions; was there a benefit from funding Herceptin, for instance?

"We can be confident in the model at the moment, and in the forseeable future. But that's not going to [last forever]." Dunne said.

"[Drug companies] have got the upper hand, and they know it. At the end of the day, no government is going to deny its citizens access to medicines."

The US Department of Agriculture estimates the average Citizen consumes 152 pounds of sugar per year. Sugar comes in many forms: soft drinks, candy, desserts, manufactured food and so on. Because sugar is inexpensive, tastes good and is habit forming, food companies and fast-food restaurants add sugar without restraint.

Sugar, like any addictive substance, makes you crave more sugar. For example, a piece of chocolate gives you a little extra energy which makes you slightly happier for an hour or so. As soon as the effect wears off, you feel tired and maybe a little depressed. So to feel perky again, you want another piece of chocolate. Like cigarettes, alcohol or heroin, the substance is the problem AND the solution.

Every diet that lowers your weight or improves your health has one thing in common: YOU MUST STOP EATING SUGAR. Hundreds of scientific studies prove that sugar makes your body store fat. Excessive fat increases your chance of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and death.In 1972, L. Ron Hubbard wrote the following:

"Sugar is a deceptive thing."

"Sugar, that is supposed 'to produce energy' does so only at the expense of physical health for sugar does not build up a body, it only burns it up."

"The result of a heavy intake of sugar and carbohydrates* is to feel tired all the time-no pep."

"If one is going to run a car, he has to feed it the right fuel and oil. If one is going to run a body it has to be fed the right food and that has to include protein."

"By eating your hamburger and vegetables and leaving alone the candy bars and cokes, you will begin to build up a head of steam."

-- L. Ron Hubbard (*carbohydrates: a type of food that includes potatoes, rice, bread and sugar)

When you stop eating sugar, you lose weight. Other foods smell and taste better. You feel more alive.

Kicking the sugar habit helps you sleep better. The energy boost you get from sugar OR the depression that follows can keep you awake.

Sugar mixes up your digestion system so your good food does not digest properly. You can get heartburn, gas or stomach pain. Without sugar, you need less food as your stomach works better.

You also have more long-lasting energy. You no longer have brief peaks of energy that require a constant flow of sugar to maintain.

Hyperactive children, who are candidates for Ritalin or Prozac, are calmer and saner when they no longer eat sugar. After you cut off their sugar supply, they will demand sweet snack for a few days, but they eventually relax. They lose the mood swings, tantrums and craziness.

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What we teach works and works 100% of the time and hence the name Guaranteed Prosperity – we simply guarantee our clients prosperity.

We ensure the individuals that make up the our client’s companies are in the best possible condition and it includes their health, personal relationships, ethics and everything in between and the results are always - viable, expanding and prosperous companies with increasing money to owners reserves and a very well paid staff.

Guaranteed Prosperity employ host of tools to achieve its mission and the following are some of the training programs we deliver:

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Founded by entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist, Meir Ezra, Guaranteed Prosperity’s purpose is: TO BRING ABOUT A NEW GOLDEN AGE FOR BUSINESS AROUND THE GLOBE And we do that each and every day!

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