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ChoicePoint Company Discovers Low TCO with BlackBerry Solution Pays for itself in 11 days

Original Title: ChoicePoint Company Discovers Low TCO with BlackBerry Solution Pays for itself in 11 days

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Creation Date: 2 Nov 2004 10:39

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Category: Blackberry

Summary: in Phone Minutes since BlackBerry 15% 11%Cost Per Minute .10 .10Annual Cell Phone Savings Per User $79.67 $39.50 $119.16Annual Cell Phone ... it for disaster recovery in the event communication is unavailable through our messaging

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Case Study

Company Discovers Low TCO with BlackBerry Solution Pays for itself in 11 days
ChoicePoint had already deployed BlackBerry® when it decided to take a close look at the returns it was receiving with its new wireless solution. In 2004, it created a survey for 85 BlackBerry users including executives, salespeople and IT teams based on a 2004 Ipsos-Reid study. The findings were important to gain metrics that could back up expenditures on new servers and technical support for the servers. But ChoicePoint had a larger motive. They wanted to take people's anecdotal comments about BlackBerry and turn them into quantifiable metrics that would prove the value of BlackBerry. When the survey was launched, the BlackBerry solution had only been in place for six months, yet the return on investment was outstanding. · · · · · The solution's payback period was 11 days, delivering more than 2,000% return on investment Users gained up to 75 extra minutes of productivity per day for an annual value of $14,558 per user Working in real-time delivered greater immediacy in dealing with customers for a value of $4,162 per user They saved $18,226 in VPN costs since users now relied on BlackBerry for email, rather than using dial-up on laptops Cell phones, PDAs and pagers were significantly reduced, all posting significant savings

Industry
Data Services

Situation
Already deployed with BlackBerry, ChoicePoint wanted detailed ROI metrics on how their users benefited from the solution. The numbers would be used to justify expenditures to senior management on new servers and IT services.

Organization Profile
ChoicePoint is the leading provider of identification and credential verification services for business, government and individuals. Headquartered outside of Atlanta, ChoicePoint employs approximately 4,200 people in more than 50 locations.

Solution
ChoicePoint followed the 2004 ROI model created by Ipsos-Reid to build their study. They surveyed 85 of their users to understand how BlackBerry affected their productivity, quality of life and immediacy. The company also reviewed hard costs associated with a reduced need for a VPN, cell phones and pagers.

ChoicePoint (NYSE: CPS) is committed to protecting personal privacy and promoting the responsible use of information to help create a safer world. In 1997, the company dramatically expanded and acquired 40 new companies under its umbrella. The rapid growth meant merging multiple IT environments, leaving them with both a Microsoft® Exchange and IBM® Lotus® Domino® environment. Six months after ChoicePoint deployed 85 BlackBerry Wireless HandheldsTM for email and calendaring, they sent a survey out to their users. The survey asked questions about productivity, quality of life and gave them a snapshot of how users liked BlackBerry. "We used the Ipsos-Reid approach to get to a granular level and discover how our associates were using BlackBerry," says Matt Lawson, director of command center operations. "With any implementation that's a capital expenditure, we wanted to go back to the business leaders and show the actual return on investment."

Results
ChoicePoint discovered that their Total Cost of Ownership for BlackBerry was paid back within 11 days. Employees reported finding an additional 75 minutes of productivity per day, which contributed to large returns in soft costs for productivity and immediacy and also improved the quality of their service to customers.

Lawson already had a pretty good idea of how well BlackBerry worked, from an IT perspective. Deploying the BlackBerry Enterprise ServerTM in a dual Microsoft/Lotus environment was problem-free. "It's not a huge challenge to maintain the BlackBerry Enterprise Server," he says. "It's rock solid and stable. We like to say we turned it on and it's still running. It hasn't been a support nightmare from either our server or end user side."

The Value of Immediacy
Before BlackBerry, employees relied on laptops, pagers and cell phones to communicate. The system worked, but not in real-time. Anyone away from the office could miss an important email, which could affect decision-making or a sales lead. ChoicePoint's sales people and executive team were the most impressed with BlackBerry and its ability to deliver immediate communications. Instant communication could give them new information that allowed them to close a deal. "One thing we found out from our survey is how dependent our user population is now on this unique solution. The consensus from our sales force is that BlackBerry makes every customer feel like they're our most important customer. If you're connected, you can respond to them as soon as possible." Although the Ipsos-Reid study used a calculation of $4 per email to determine immediacy, ChoicePoint chose to be more conservative. They valued 125 emails per day at $2 each, with 35% of those emails being time-sensitive. The value of immediacy per user was $4,162, making a contribution of $353,779 across all users in a year.

Value per email
$2

Emails per day
125

% of emails time sensitive
35%

Mobility
39%

Annual value Per User
$4,162

Total Annual value (85 users)
$353,779

Productivity Gains
ChoicePoint currently uses BlackBerry for messaging, synchronized calendar, Internet browsing and access to a global phonebook. On average, they discovered that access to communications was giving employees an extra 75 minutes of productive time per day. Estimating a salary range of $85,000 to $110,000, ChoicePoint believed it was gaining $14,558 in productivity per user, for an annual total of $1.2 million. "We've found BlackBerry has greatly reduced stress levels," says Lawson. "When you're offsite, or at meetings, it's being out of touch. Now that we have a constant connection, people are more productive at airports, waiting at the doctor's office, traveling between meetings, wherever they need to work. And that's good for business and our customers."

Average Salary
$85,000 - $110,000

Time Recovery Per day
75 minutes

Annual hours recovered
35%

Annual value Per User
$14,558

Total Annual value (85 users)
$1, 237,500

Direct Savings: VPN access, Pagers, Cell Phones
"While it's great to see these numbers associated with productivity and immediacy, to our business leaders hard cost reductions were equally as important as the soft costs," says Lawson. A series of questions on the survey attempted to unearth where the savings could be found. The most obvious savings was VPN costs. Until BlackBerry, employees used the VPN to dial-in from their laptops for email. With push-based BlackBerry dial-up was no longer necessary - although users still carry laptops for other purposes. ChoicePoint saved $214 per user or $18,226 per year by the reduced dependence on a VPN.

Dialed in Minutes Before BlackBerry
923

Reduction in Dialed in Minutes Since BlackBerry
22%

Minutes Saved
2,437

Cost Per Minute
.10

Annual VPN savings Per User
$214.43

Annual VPN Savings
$18,226.67

Cell phone use also declined since employees began relying on sending quick emails versus long phone calls. ChoicePoint purchased BlackBerry handhelds with the integrated phone on two networks: T-Mobile and AT&T. Cell phone usage declined by up to 15%, for a total savings of $119 per user or $10,128 per year.

Type of Plan
Standard Advanced

Phone Minutes Before BlackBerry
633 8,549

Reduction in Phone Minutes since BlackBerry
15% 11%

Cost Per Minute
.10 .10

Annual Cell Phone Savings Per User
$79.

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