The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual … · 2019. 10. 2. · global...
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A Forrester Total Economic Impact™
Study Commissioned By Calastone
January 2018
The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
Table Of Contents Executive Summary 1
Key Findings 1
TEI Framework And Methodology 3
Market Overview: Automation In Mutual Funds Processing 4
Surveyed Organisations 4
Situation: Automation Reduces Cost And Delivers Efficiency Throughout The Transaction Life Cycle 4
Challenge: Roadblocks To Automated Mutual Funds Processing 6
Opportunity: Unlock Key Benefits Of Automated Mutual Funds Processing 7
Financial Analysis 8
1. Firm Level — Fund Managers 10
2. The Network Effect 11
3. Calastone’s Market Impact 12
Calastone: Overview 13
Appendix A: Total Economic Impact 14
Project Director:
Varun Sedov, Principal Market
Impact Consultant
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1 The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
Executive Summary
Calastone provides a network that enables the global mutual funds
industry to automate the flow of investment fund transactions from initial
order routing and settlement, through to post-trade services, including
transfers and reporting. Calastone commissioned Forrester Consulting to
conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential
return on investment (ROI) businesses may realise by utilising Calastone’s
services for order routing.
The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to
evaluate the potential financial impact of Calastone’s services on their
organisations, as well as determine the wider market impact of Calastone
on the mutual funds industry. To better understand the benefits, costs, and
risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed 13 customers
with experience of using Calastone’s services. Forrester also conducted a
global market survey of 234 mutual funds organisations to understand the
role and impact of automation on the transaction life cycle.
With the interview and survey data, Forrester has quantified the financial
impact of the Calastone network across the mutual funds industry and has
established how Calastone’s direct and indirect customers have benefited
from the automation of order routing for mutual funds in the markets where
Calastone operates.
Key Findings
Forrester identified five key areas of benefits when connecting to
Calastone. These were:
› 1) Improved process times.
› 2) Impact of reducing trading errors.
› 3) Improved flexibility in the trading window.
› 4) Improved response times.
› 5) Better audit traceability.
While there are no initial costs for connecting to Calastone, Forrester
categorised the ongoing costs as the cost per message and the ongoing
time for administration and engagement with Calastone. Forrester
modelled these benefits and costs and identified an impact on average of:
› £5.28 in cost efficiencies for each order when moving from manually
processing orders to connecting to Calastone to process orders.
This resulted in a firm-level, network-effect, and market impact as follows:
Firm-level analysis. The risk-adjusted quantified analysis of connecting to
Calastone across a range of representative fund managers results in a
return on investment of £327,000 to £441,00 over three years.
The network effect. Forrester also assessed the benefit of connecting to
Calastone’s network across the transaction life cycle, including a single
fund manufacturer (covering both the fund manager and transfer agent)
and the distributor/platform provider over the last three years. Looking at
the benefits, Forrester’s risk-adjusted analysis of connecting to Calastone
across the transaction life cycle resulted in a benefit of £907,799 over
three years across the entire mutual funds network.
Calastone’s market impact:
£5.28 in impact from moving an order from manual processing to processing through Calastone This resulted in a:
£458,624,974 impact on global mutual funds processing over six years
Benefit of £907,799 over three years across the Calastone network
£327,000 to £441,000 over three years (ROI 182% to 241%)
2 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
The market impact of Calastone. Analysing order volumes over the last
six years in Calastone’s core global markets, Forrester assessed that
Calastone has impacted the mutual funds market by £458,624,974
over those six years. To calculate, Forrester looked at the impact of
moving manual process of funds to connecting to Calastone’s network and
combined this analysis with the firm-level impact of reducing trading errors,
flexibility in the trading window, improved response times, and better audit
traceability. The analysis was conducted over a longer six-year window to
allow Forrester to understand the evolution of Calastone and how the
mutual funds market has changed as a result.
Overview Of Financial Analysis
3 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
TEI Framework And Methodology
From the information provided in the interviews and survey, Forrester has
constructed a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) framework for those
organisations considering implementing Calastone’s services.
Forrester took a multistep approach to evaluate the impact that Calastone
can have on an organisation:
DUE DILIGENCE Interviewed key Calastone stakeholders to gather data relative to their transaction services.
MARKET OVERVIEW Collected data from 234 mutual fund organisations globally to understand the broader implications of automation of order processing.
CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS Interviewed 13 organisations using the Calastone network to obtain data with respect to costs, benefits, and risks.
COMPOSITE ORGANISATION Designed a composite organisation based on characteristics of interviewed fund managers to illustrate the financial benefits and costs to moving a percentage of orders over time to Calastone.
FINANCIAL MODEL FRAMEWORK Constructed a financial model representative of the interviews using the TEI methodology and risk-adjusted the financial model based on issues and concerns of the interviewed organisations. This model was then used to build a framework for understanding Calastone’s impact on the broader mutual funds market.
The TEI methodology
helps companies
demonstrate, justify,
and realise the
tangible value of
initiatives to both
senior management
and other key
business
stakeholders. Please
see Appendix A for
additional information
on the TEI
methodology.
DISCLOSURES
Readers should be aware of the following:
This study is commissioned by Calastone and delivered by Forrester
Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a competitive analysis.
Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that other
organisations will receive. Forrester strongly advises that readers use their own
estimates within the framework provided in the report to determine the
appropriateness of an investment in Calastone.
Calastone reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester, but Forrester
maintains editorial control over the study and its findings and does not accept
changes to the study that contradict Forrester’s findings or obscure the
meaning of the study.
Calastone provided the customer names for the interviews but did not
participate in the interviews.
4 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
Market Overview: Automation In Mutual
Funds Processing
Surveyed Organisations
In November 2017, Calastone commissioned Forrester Consulting to
evaluate the mutual funds industry’s view on automation. Forrester
conducted a global market survey with 234 mutual fund organisations
spread across Asia, Australia/New Zealand, and the UK and other
European countries. Individuals at fund managers, distributors/platforms,
and transfer agents had to be knowledgeable about their firms’
transaction life cycle of mutual funds processing. The surveyed
organisations had the following profile:
Survey Demographics
Situation: Automation Reduces Cost And Delivers
Efficiency Throughout The Transaction Life Cycle
In today’s challenging economic climate, organisations struggle to run
efficient and effective operations. Technology plays an increasingly
important role in this struggle — it helps automate processes to
ensure that mutual funds organisations can meet their business
priorities and support growth. Consistent across all industries, 71% of
mutual funds organisations said their most critical priority over the
next 12 months is to ensure regulatory compliance, and 53% said
they want to improve the quality of the service they deliver.
How can automation of order routing help organisations meet priorities?
Without automation, the mutual funds market would still be heavily reliant
on cumbersome, error-prone, manual approaches (such as fax and
email) to process orders. Using an automated third party frees up
resources to enable them to focus on value-added activities, such as
improving client experiences and quality of services. Digitalisation
through automation allows easy traceability and order tracking that
provides an audit trail to ensure compliance requirements are being met.
Critical priorities in the next 12
months:
71% Regulatory compliance
53% Improve quality of service
53% Improve client experience
Market spotlight: While the key priorities remained consistent across different countries and regions, the biggest priority by far for UK organisations was ensuring compliance to regulatory requirements (80% said this was a critical priority).
5 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
Mutual fund organisations agree on the benefit of using a third-party
provider to automate order routing. The study revealed that using an
automated third party has:
› Improved efficiency for mutual funds processing. Over 80% of
all organisations agreed or strongly agreed that a connection to a
third-party provider has improved the efficiency of the mutual funds
market. Transfer agents had stronger agreement compared to fund
managers and distributors. Organisations that predominately use
an automated service over manual approaches see even higher
levels of agreement around the efficiency it brings: Over 40% of
respondents in the UK and Australia/New Zealand strongly agreed,
more than other regions, about the efficiencies that connecting to a
third-party provider for order processing has delivered.
› Reduced cost for processing orders. Seventy-one percent of
respondents also noted that using a third-party provider for mutual
funds processing has brought down the overall cost compared to
manual processing. On average, organisations identified a 32%
reduction in cost for using a third-party provider to process mutual
funds. Those who are using an automated service predominately
were more likely to agree (74% versus 61% who use manual mainly).
Respondents in Asia and Australasia were not as strongly in
agreement compared to European and UK mutual participants.
Forrester’s interviews with organisations in Asia and Australasia
revealed that the availability and cost of resources for manual
processing versus connecting to a third party were not as pronounced
as in European markets.
Automation Of Mutual Funds Processing Delivers Value
Areas of automation in the transaction life cycle Seventy-two percent of all organisations are using a third-party provider for order routing. In the UK, 80% of all organisations are currently using a third party for order routing. Over 20% of firms in the Asia market plan to use automation for order routing in the next 12 months. Firms are looking to explore automation in other areas of the processing life cycle. Thirty-five percent of distributors plan to use automation for dividend information. Twenty-eight percent of fund managers are exploring using automation for corporate action information in the next 12 months.
6 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
“Which is the primary way you process mutual funds transactions?”
Base: 234 fund managers, distributors, and transfer agents around the world Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Calastone, November 2017
Automated platform,
76%
Manual process,
24%
Challenge: Roadblocks To Automated Mutual
Funds Processing
Despite the clear reasons for using automation, nearly a quarter of all
firms continue to primarily use manual touchpoints such as phone, fax,
spreadsheet, and email to process orders. Regardless of the clear cost
and efficiency benefits, only 60% of surveyed firms across all sectors
agreed that they are fully utilising third-party providers in mutual funds
processing. This drops significantly in Asia (where 51% agreed and only
7% strongly agreed) and Australia/New Zealand (44% agreed).
So what is preventing firms from using automated mutual funds
processing? Firms are concerned by:
› The robustness of the service. With potentially high volume and
large value instructions being placed in a short trading window, it
comes as no surprise that the largest concern for a fund manager is
the robustness of the service. This was the top concern for firms in
Asia (61%).
› Additional infrastructure needs. Like any technology investment,
firms are rightly concerned by additional hardware/software needed to
connect to the automated service. This was a concern for firms in
Australia and New Zealand (58% versus 52% overall).
› Integration with existing processes. As with the technology,
interoperability with existing processes is also high on the list of
concerns. However, in the UK market, where automation in order
routing is most prevalent, this is not as high of a concern.
Roadblocks To Using Automation For Mutual Funds
Processing
7 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
“What are the primary reasons for using a third-party provider to process mutual fund transactions?”
Base: 234 fund managers, distributors, and transfer agents around the world Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Calastone, November 2017
39%
44%
63%
57%
Reduction in cost per
transaction/message
Reduce errors from capturing
unstructured/different
messages formats
Primarily manual
Primarily automated platform
Opportunity: Unlock Key Benefits Of Automated
Mutual Funds Processing
Further exploring the primary drivers for connecting to a third party to
process mutual funds transactions revealed potential benefits that should
far outstrip any concerns that organisations should have. Primary drivers
for investment included:
› Faster processing. The primary benefit from automating mutual funds
processing is faster transaction processing across all key markets and
industries (77% in total).
› Reduced error due to automation. A reduction in processing errors is
also a significant benefit for organisations, particularly for transfer
agents; 86% of transfer agents identified it as their main benefit. Fifty-
seven percent of firms that primarily use an automated platform said
the key driver was reducing errors from capturing unstructured and
different messaging formats, while only 44% of those that are primarily
using manual process highlighted this as a driver. As the data shows,
error reduction is often a hidden benefit that firms only fully grasp when
they move to higher levels of automation.
› Lower cost. As already noted, lower cost of processing
transactions/messages is a key benefit of using automation in the
transaction life cycle. However, firms only fully realise the impact of
cost when they primarily use a third party for processing mutual funds
(63%).
› Compliance. Automated systems can create a digital record for each
transaction, with no manual intervention. This makes it easier for fund
managers (38%) and distributors (31%) to ensure there is a clear audit
trail for each transaction. With a manual approach, the time required to
document each transaction prevents valuable staff from focusing on
more value-added activities.
Firms Using Automated Processing Uncover Hidden
Benefits
Market spotlight: Though the Australian and New Zealand market only recently began adopting automation for order processing, it is evident that they are seeing benefits from faster transaction processing, reduced errors, and lower cost.
8 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
Financial Analysis
In addition to the broader market survey, Forrester conducted 13
interviews with Calastone customers, including fund managers,
distributors/platform providers, and transfer agents from Asia, Australia
and New Zealand, and the UK and other European countries. The
interviews focused predominately on the impact of connecting to
Calastone for order routing. Based on the discussions, Forrester
quantified the following benefits and costs.
QUANTIFIED BENEFITS AND COSTS
The table below highlights the key areas of benefits for a typical fund
manager:
Key Benefits For A Fund Manager
› Benefit 1: Reduced processing costs. A key benefit highlighted by
all interviewed organisations was the impact on the time taken to
process orders in an automated environment versus a predominately
manual environment. Forrester calculated the average order time
saved for an automated process against the cost of manually
processing an order by considering the blended salary of onshore and
offshore staff used to process orders and the average time taken to
process an order manually.
› Benefit 2: Reducing trading errors. A key driver for connecting to a
third-party automated service to process orders was a reduction in
errors. Forrester quantified this as the efficiency gain through reduced
errors via automation. This was calculated by the time and cost
implications if there were ten errors in every 1,000 orders placed
manually. This was a key area of strength of Calastone. Over 70% of
mutual funds organisations that primarily use Calastone said their
main reason for using automation was for reducing errors from
capturing unstructured information and different messaging formats.
› Benefit 3: Flexibility in the trading window. Another key benefit for
fund managers was the ability to process higher volumes of order
because of the flexibility through automation in the trading window. For
example, firms were able to batch send orders very close to the
window closing, something that would not be possible in a manual
environment. Easy communication regardless of format and protocol
and removal of manual touches for distributors and transfer agents
allow them to maximise the trading window and limit potential profit
and loss implications due to missed orders.
› Benefit 4: Improved response times. A significant benefit for the
analysis included the improved response time from onboarding clients
Reduced
processing costs
The impact of the
reduction in time for
processing orders in an
automated environment
Reduced errors
The efficiency gained
through reduced errors in
orders through automation
Flexibility in the
trading window
The volume of additional
orders as a result of more
flexibility during the
trading window
Improved response
times
The gains in onboarding
clients to the network
Improved audit
traceability
The benefit of having
automated documented
systems of record
Unquantified benefits The financial analysis for Calastone focuses on order routing. Calastone also provides additional services, such as settlement and reporting. These would deliver additional benefits for clients, but have not been factored into the original analysis.
Calastone customers were
in strong agreement of the
benefits they have seen in
using Calastone.
Sixty-nine percent of mutual
funds organisations that
primarily use Calastone
strongly agreed that
connection to the network
has improved the efficiency
of funds processing versus
only 22% that use other
providers.
9 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
to the automated service. This was calculated by looking at the time
saved to set up new clients and managing counterparties in a manual
environment through a calendar year.
› Benefit 5: Improved audit traceability. As regulatory compliance was
the key business for mutual funds organisations, improved audit
traceability was also an important benefit area. This was calculated by
looking at the time saved through manual logging/tracking of orders
and auditing of these records.
Through the discussions with Calastone customers, Forrester could not
identify any initial costs to connect to Calastone. There were, however,
ongoing costs that Forrester categorised into two areas:
Key Costs For A Fund Manager
› Cost 1: Transaction cost. The main cost of using Calastone was
attributed to the charge that is applied to each transaction message
that is placed. Using Calastone’s rate card, Forrester was able to
determine the cost per message for an average volume of orders.
› Cost 2: Administration. This is the general cost of managing the
Calastone relationship and issue resolution. Forrester calculated this
as the cost of a resource to inform, engage, and discuss unique firm
requirements with Calastone’s customer service and operations team.
Other areas like training costs were also considered. For all the
organisations interviewed, these were negligible. In fact, only 5% of
mutual funds organisations that primarily use Calastone said that
training staff to comply with new procedure prevented them from using a
third-party provider for processing funds. Forrester modelled these
benefits and costs and identified an impact on average of £5.28 in cost
efficiencies for each order when moving from manually processing
orders to connecting to Calastone to process orders. This cost efficiency
assumes that some orders will still be processed manually. If an
organisation was to only use Calastone for processing mutual funds, the
cost efficiency would be larger. To understand the impact that this cost
efficiency has had on the mutual funds market, Forrester used its TEI
framework to understand the financial implications at three levels:
› 1. Firm level. Exploring the financial impact of using Calastone
versus manual approaches for order routing as a single fund
manager.
› 2. Network level. Forrester analysed the benefits of connecting to
Calastone to process orders throughout the transaction life cycle
versus manual processing for a single fund manufacturer (covering
both the fund manager and transfer agent) and the distributor/platform
provider.
› 3. Market level. A unified analysis of the global impact of connecting to
Calastone for order routing in the mutual funds industry.
There are no upfront
costs associated with
connecting to Calastone.
Calastone collects an
organisation’s
transaction data
(regardless of message
format) and transforms it
to meet the needs of
each trading party.
Based on the cost and
benefit analysis
Forrester’s model
resulted in a cost
efficiency of £5.28 per
order impact with
Calastone compared to
processing orders
manually.
10 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
1. Firm Level — Fund Managers
Based on the interviews, Forrester constructed a TEI framework, a
composite company, and an associated ROI analysis that illustrates the
financial benefits and costs for a single fund manager moving a
percentage of orders over time to Calastone. A fund manager incurs
costs per message of using Calastone. Forrester made the following
assumptions. Due to variability in orders for a fund manager, Forrester
used a range for the cost per message and number of orders.
Key Assumptions
Firm Level: Cash Flow Chart (Risk-Adjusted)
ROI
182% to
241%
NPV
£327,000 to
£441,000
Payback
0 to 1
month
Total benefits (PV) Total costs (PV) Net present value (NPV)
£506,857 to £624,171 -£179,748 to -£183,017 £327,109 to £441,154
£0
£100,000
£200,000
£300,000
£400,000
£500,000
Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Cumlative net benefit LOW Cumlative net benefit HIGH
The risk-adjusted ROI, net present value (NPV), and payback period values are determined by applying risk-adjustment factors to the unadjusted results in each Benefit and Cost section.
11 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
2. The Network Effect
In addition to the fund manager-level analysis, Forrester looked to
quantify the benefits of key constituents in the order routing life cycle
connecting to Calastone’s network. To simplify the Calastone network,
Forrester looked at the network for a single fund manufacturer (including
the fund manager and transfer agent) and the distributor.
Since the cost per order by using Calastone resides purely with the fund
manager, the network-effect analysis only focuses on the benefits that
Calastone had delivered across the transaction life cycle. For the
network level, Forrester used the same key assumptions that were used
for the firm-level analysis but also made the following adjustments:
› Average processing time for an order. Based on our interviews with
both fund manufacturers and distributors, the average time to process
a manual order varies. Forrester assumed a 10-minute process time
for a fund manufacturer and a 15-minute process time for a distributor.
› Average daily orders. As distributors send orders to multiple fund
managers the average daily orders initiated by a distributor is typically
higher than any one fund manufacturer receives. Forrester assumed
an average daily order of 82 for a fund manufacturer and 105 for a
distributor.
Network Effect: Cash Flow Chart (Risk-Adjusted)
12 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
Forrester calculated the market impact that Calastone has delivered for global mutual funds processing:
£458,624,974
impact over 6 years
3. Calastone’s Market Impact
To determine the market impact that Calastone has had over the past six
years, Forrester explored Calastone’s trading volumes in key global
mutual funds markets. This includes the UK, Australia, Ireland,
Luxembourg, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
To build the analysis, Forrester leveraged real trading volume data from
Calastone. The analysis was built over six years so that Forrester could
evaluate the evolution and trend of Calastone on mutual funds
processing. Calastone shared with Forrester its year-on-year growth in
orders across these markets, which was also factored in the model.
With this data, Forrester looked at the impact of moving manual process
of funds to Calastone in these markets, as well as additional firm-level
impact of reduced trading errors, flexibility in the trading window,
improved response times, and improved audit traceability. Forrester
found that orders moving from manual processing to using Calastone’s
network has resulted in net value benefit of over a £458 million impact
on mutual funds processing over the last six years.
Market Impact Of Calastone On Global Mutual Funds
Processing
13 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
Calastone: Overview
The following information is provided by Calastone. Forrester has not validated any claims and does not endorse
Calastone or its offerings.
TRANSFORMING THE GLOBAL FUNDS INDUSTRY AND ENABLING GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION
Calastone believes in making funds accessible to everyone. Its
mission is to reduce the frictional cost of trading using smart
technology solutions and industry collaboration, lowering
operational risk, and enhancing client profitability through
digitisation and automation. With a single connection to Calastone,
client organisations can seamlessly transact with any part of
Calastone’s global network without incurring any additional
technology costs or infrastructure changes.
Calastone’s transaction network supports 190+ messaging formats
and enables seamlessly automated trading across the full
transaction cycle, from order routing through to the reconciliation
and settlement of the order. Calastone’s solutions also incorporate
post trade services, including the automation of custodian trade
notifications and stock transfers.
By using Calastone’s Transaction Services, clients are enabling
automation of the whole transaction life cycle.
There are no upfront costs associated with connecting to Calastone: Calastone simply collects a firm’s
transaction data (regardless of message format) via its preferred connection type and transforms it to meet the
needs of each trading party.
As of January 2018, Calastone supports over 1,400 customers in 34 countries and territories, processing over 7
million messages and £85 billion of transactions each month.
14 | The Total Economic Impact™ Of Calastone On The Global Mutual Funds Market
Appendix A: Total Economic Impact
Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester
Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making
processes and assists vendors in communicating the value proposition
of their products and services to clients. The TEI methodology helps
companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of IT
initiatives to both senior management and other key business
stakeholders.
Total Economic Impact Approach
Benefits represent the value delivered to the business by the
product. The TEI methodology places equal weight on the
measure of benefits and the measure of costs, allowing for a
full examination of the effect of the technology on the entire
organization.
Costs consider all expenses necessary to deliver the
proposed value, or benefits, of the product. The cost category
within TEI captures incremental costs over the existing
environment for ongoing costs associated with the solution.
Flexibility represents the strategic value that can be
obtained for some future additional investment building on
top of the initial investment already made. Having the ability
to capture that benefit has a PV that can be estimated.
Risks measure the uncertainty of benefit and cost estimates
given: 1) the likelihood that estimates will meet original
projections and 2) the likelihood that estimates will be
tracked over time. TEI risk factors are based on “triangular
distribution.”
The initial investment column contains costs incurred at “time 0” or at the
beginning of Year 1 that are not discounted. All other cash flows are discounted
using the discount rate at the end of the year. PV calculations are calculated for
each total cost and benefit estimate. NPV calculations in the summary tables are
the sum of the initial investment and the discounted cash flows in each year.
Sums and present value calculations of the Total Benefits, Total Costs, and
Cash Flow tables may not exactly add up, as some rounding may occur.
PRESENT VALUE (PV)
The present or current value of (discounted) cost and benefit estimates given at an interest rate (the discount rate). The PV of costs and benefits feed into the total NPV of cash flows.
NET PRESENT VALUE (NPV)
The present or current value of (discounted) future net cash flows given an interest rate (the discount rate). A positive project NPV normally indicates that the investment should be made, unless other projects have higher NPVs.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)
A project’s expected return in percentage terms. ROI is calculated by dividing net benefits (benefits less costs) by costs.
DISCOUNT RATE
The interest rate used in cash flow analysis to take into account the time value of money. Organizations typically use discount rates between 8% and 16%.
PAYBACK PERIOD
The breakeven point for an investment. This is the point in time at which net benefits (benefits minus costs) equal initial investment or cost.