Return on Investment
A strategic part of the network design process is a tracking mechanism to measure the profit for a specific investment. A company's management team uses this simple tool as a financial metric to make business investment decisions and to measure a company's performance over time.Return on Investment (ROI) is often calculated and defined in percentage terms. It results in the return a customer can expect from the investment made. The ROI is calculated by dividing the profit (return) by the total investment cost. Sometimes the ROI is also specified as a ratio or break-even number. The latter has a time ratio in the calculation and results in the exact timeframe until the investment is returned. Most customers in today's business environment try to understand or require a value justification, which is where the ROI calculation plays a significant role. In a value justification, the network designer is requested to prove the value of the proposal.