ROI vs. TCO

A question came in today asking, “What is the difference between ROI and TCO? Our company uses the terms interchangeably.”

This is common…but they really are different. Here is some explanation:

I use the term TCO specifically to mean that it will cost you less to produce the same or better results. By focusing more on business results and less on cost, the seller has a chance to avoid a true ROI study; which may be analogous to asking the CFO to audit your proposal. The last person I want to sell this to is a CFO (or anyone in the purchasing department). Once the focus on business moves to finances, value is compared only to the cost of other options, and not on the value you bring to the business.

You might think of ROI as purely mathematical. One way to describe it is:

ROI = (Financial Gain – Cost of the Investment)/ Cost of the Investment.

True ROI calculations involve a deal’s net present value ( taking into consideration a proposal’s future estimated cash flow the cost of capital), payback period or hurdle rate, and an internal rate of return. In other words, ROI at its core is a math problem dealing with investments, returns, and the cost of capital. The average sales person’s ability to compute these numbers, or even review them with a financial officer is limited in most cases.

TCO might be defined as the cost of acquisition, installation, and operation. In this case, we can take into consideration only the current solution and whatever solutions might be under consideration or in use at the present time. Gartner Group often reports TCO numbers for various technologies, taking into consideration the above as well as long term operations and future replacement or decommissioning of a technology solution. When TCO is fairly evident, meaning one solution might involve many smaller servers or appliances that require data center real estate, cooling, and possibly additional staff, it makes sense to use this as justification to buy your solution.

I put this under operational efficiency because the cost savings generally are tied to an efficiency gained by the solution, and that is where the seller’s focus needs to stay. To focus on the math is to kill the deal, unless the customer is already determined to buy, and is just price shopping at this point.