Tradecloud has developed a calculator for (new) users of the Tradecloud Platform to have more insights in the return of investment of the Tradecloud Platform.

Download the ROI calculator here >> Tradecloud Business Case Calculator

The calculator is made in Excel which consists of four main tabs:

1. Input

  • For the input of the calculator it is important to know how many orders and orderlines the customer has on a yearly basis. Furthermore, it’s important to know how many of these orderlines are in scope for Tradecloud. The scope is based on all orderlines without EDI-connection or other automated ways.
  • It is also important to determine the active suppliers, purchasing volume and yearly revenue.
  • The number of operational buyers and the safety stock is also important to include in the calculator.
  • The number of operational buyers is used to calculate how many minutes the operational buyers spend on processing orders. The safety stock plays an important role for the buyers because it involves supplier reliability. If the suppliers are unreliable, this results in higher safety stocks.

2. Assumptions

  • The percentages of inconsistent confirmations, unconfirmed- and late orders are important for the assumptions tab. These factors are unfortunately difficult to determine by customers. If this can be determined, the customers can include it directly in the calculator. If this is not the case, assumptions are entered for the factors: inconsistent-, unconfirmed- and late orders.
  • The next step is to determine the wage of the operational buyers. This is needed to calculate how much it costs to process one orderline. The time that is used to process one orderline is automatically calculated if the users can determine how many minutes it takes per task for one orderline. Some key factors to determine the manual order handling time is to see how many minutes it takes to create material requirements, a purchase order and the communication with the suppliers etc. The trick is to match the given minutes with the given operational buyers. If this doesn’t match it is necessary to add overhead time.

3. Potential savings

  • The potential savings are divided into direct- and indirect savings. The direct savings consists of the manual order handling.
  • The indirect savings consists of supplier reliability, errors, transportation and safety stock.

4. Return on investment

There are four important elements for calculating the ROI:

  • Adoption speed (from suppliers)
  • Direct costs
  • Indirect costs
  • Investment costs

 

The adoption speed relates to the suppliers who join the Tradecloud Platform. The customer of Tradecloud doesn’t always decide to connect all suppliers to the platform. This takes some time and energy. Tradecloud advises to start connecting the largest suppliers first. This reveals how customers and suppliers experience the Tradecloud Platform. If the suppliers are satisfied with the Tradecloud Platform, more suppliers can join the Tradecloud Platform.

The adoption speed has been set at 80% for the first year. This increases exponentially by 10% per year. The expectation is to connect all the current and new suppliers to the Tradecloud Platform within three years. These percentages can vary if the customer has other wishes for this.

The costs are based on various parameters and factors within the customers company. For more information please request a demo and ask for the ROI-calculator.

Download the ROI calculator here >> Tradecloud Business Case Calculator