Reading Tea Leaves, or Business Intelligence ROI

I have been doing a little research on different approaches to evaluating the ROI of BI projects. My company has a new product we are getting ready to start selling, and we are sure it's a winner. Just about everything is in place technology wise, and it's a compelling pitch that with obvious value, I think. One thing I'd like in place before we start pushing it is some sort of way to show projected savings, payback, and ROI for a given customer, to make the business case all the more painless. But boy, its frustrating as hell.

There has been plenty written on this subject, which all concludes the same thing - there's a whole lot of guesswork involved, and alot of frustration from business leaders that promised savings never get delivered. As this CFO.com article says: "Five years from now they're sitting there with all our money in their pockets and I'm still trying to figure out how to measure something like 'employee empowerment.'" How do you quantify faster decision making? Better decision making from more transparency? It would be nice if it was as straightforward as this example from Baseline.

My inspiration for finding good, solid numbers to go with is a company we've done some consulting work for, MedMined. Their site and their brochures are chock full of real costs, percentages, and measures that can be evaluated by any interested party. I'd like to come up with similar clarity, but it's tough to get past all the "soft" benefits. The best help I've found is this spreadsheet from Nucleus Research that walks you through all the costs and benefits. Sure it requires you to pull some numbers out of thin air, but it makes it look real thought out.

One thing is certain though, and that is that none of this is certain. If the market for "improving your roi" on existing investments is any measure, then no one is close to figuring this out yet.