[MACCAWS] Communicating ROI

I'm reading an interesting article at Adaptive Path 
called "Communicate the ROI for Design" 
<http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000045.php>.
 While it comes from a designer point of view, I think it bears a 
strong relation to us and our mission.

It's worth a read, and it may have applicability to our research, but 
I wanted to point out this blurb:


"User experience methods can lead to smarter product development 
processes, lowered maintenance costs, less internal documentation, 
maximized IT investments, and scalability. What's particularly 
important is that the value of these operational efficiencies is far 
easier to quantify than the value of the external results design work 
can produce."

I don't believe we have mentioned less internal documentation - but 
that's an interesting point. Scalability is a point we need to 
tackle, because certainly a XHTML layout is more scalable (I would 
think) than a bashed HTML layout.

The biggest point I found in this was the statement "the value of 
these operational efficiencies is far easier to quantify than the 
value of the external results" -- We have to make sure we look on 
BOTH sides of the fence. 

Often I think what we are trying to communicate is that the effect 
may not be very large on their external customer (although it will be 
a positive effect), but that the internal benefits will be greater 
and that is where the real ROI comes into effect.

Tom