[CoE Starter Kit - Feature]: Track ROI for existing solutions / apps / flows

[manuelap-msft]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

The ROI tracking in the Innovation Backlog (IB) is great for new ideas. I think it would be great to create a fork / deep link so the ROI details can be added for existing apps as well - either from the dev compliance center or app catalog or other portal link to IB ROI page to track those details and store against existing app / flow. That way we may be able to report fully on the value the power platform added to a customer.

Describe the solution you'd like

Deep link from "somewhere" to the ROI / measure page in the Innovation backlog to track value for existing apps and flows and report on it in a Power BI dashboard afterwards.

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context?

No response

AB#1316

[binaryjam]

Had a conversation with our MS rep today on quantifying ROI and I remembered that COE had fields for ROI but no where to collect this information.

With thousands of flows and hundreds of Apps collection from the compliance center makes sense.
Wondering what you plan to do with this.

[manuelap-msft]

Hello,

at the moment, the ROI field can be manually put in by the admin in the Power Platform Admin View. Not ideal, but we had some customers ask for it so they can store this for their key applications.

However, measuring ROI has recently come up in some customer conversations as well and seems to be top of mind for a few customers we're working with! We're currently looking at two ideas

1. calculate ROI estimates based on usage - e.g. this app is valuable because it's used once a day by x people - we think this is tricky as there may be less used apps (e.g. monthly or annual inspections) that have a huge ROI because they replaced a cumbersome paper process.
2. ask makers to provide ROI insights through a form they can submit - likely tied in with the dev compliance center as a seperate form OR as a teams adaptive card prompt so everyone can participate in the process independent of licensing - we have seen this work at some customers, who do this already.

Keen to hear if (2) would work for you?

[binaryjam]

Adaptive cards sounds like a great idea, a rather clever way around the multiplexing argument as this is a built in feature of flow.

As I'm being asked for that now, I might have to implement something like that ASAP.

It would be good to have a definition of what those fields should contain, how the roi values are calculated, so that anyone planning to use them in advance of having coe team do it, it would be compatible

[manuelap-msft]

From office hours: We need to calculate the value each Power Automate flow brings to the business, for this matter we need to combine reports on the admin center and do some operations analyzing the data coming from CoE starter toolkit, is there any possibility to calculate it inside the CoE dashboards? like PowerApps

[kuljit-bains]

Hello,

at the moment, the ROI field can be manually put in by the admin in the Power Platform Admin View. Not ideal, but we had some customers ask for it so they can store this for their key applications.

However, measuring ROI has recently come up in some customer conversations as well and seems to be top of mind for a few customers we're working with! We're currently looking at two ideas

1. calculate ROI estimates based on usage - e.g. this app is valuable because it's used once a day by x people - we think this is tricky as there may be less used apps (e.g. monthly or annual inspections) that have a huge ROI because they replaced a cumbersome paper process.
2. ask makers to provide ROI insights through a form they can submit - likely tied in with the dev compliance center as a seperate form OR as a teams adaptive card prompt so everyone can participate in the process independent of licensing - we have seen this work at some customers, who do this already.

Keen to hear if (2) would work for you?

We would definitely be interested in this feature where when a user enters the predicted number of hours saved per week/month/year and then this can reported in the CoE toolkit. What would be be equally exciting would be to add the actual number of hours saved post deployment 3months/6months/9months/1year

[kuljit-bains]

Would be great if we can add Business Value Quantification (No. of Hours Saved per week) for all apps/flows/chatbots and then included in the Power Bi Dashboard

[manuelap-msft]

@kuljit-bains That's great feedback! I have a couple of questions as we design this feature and would love your input! I think this request is two parts: value capture + value calculation

Value capture

Our idea is to send teams adaptive cards to makers to provide value.

Something like:

And then per app / per flow a card like this - I guess the idea is that a maker can provide the value now, skip this app forever (e.g. "I used this for training, it does not provide any value") or ask later (don't want to provide details right now)

This would include

• ability to select the primary improvement driver - e.g. efficiency gain, reduction of manual work, reduce of third party tools etc
• saving per month - this could be $ or hours (or something different)

There is an element we still need to think about whom to target

• e.g. any app that is shared with more than 2 people?
• an app that is launched recently?
• when we do send it?

Questions:

• Generally, do you think this would work for you and your makers?
• Would you always want to measure value in $ or would it be $ / hours / something else (configurable)?
• Would makers put in a number or would you want them to select value from a drop down (e.g. 0-1M, 1M-2M?)
• Are there other inputs you would want to ask your makers at this stage? We're trying to find the balance of asking them just enough to provide the value
• For a maker with a larger number of apps and flows it may be cumbersome to use teams adaptive cards, would having an app that accompanies this that's easier for makers to use a high priority for you?
• Is it important that this process works at a solution level, or just an app/flow level?
• If apps/flows are owned by service account, this process wouldn't work. Do you anticipate this a big problem for your org?

Value Calculation

We then anticipate to use the value capture number provided + multiple that (somehow) with usage to track more actual value. e..g the app has been used for 3 months and you said it would save $10,000 per month > so the actual value is $30,000 now. Or something like that. We expect to build a Power BI report for this then.

Any additional ideas you have, let me know! This is where we are right now - so still in the envisioning phase :)

[binaryjam]

Hi,

I decided to ask some of my higher ups about ROI questions and show them this, as its a big topic these days. They posted some replies to the questions you posed and the answers are in bold.

• Generally, do you think this would work for you and your makers? As long as it’s optional • Would you always want to measure value in $ or would it be $ / hours / something else (configurable)? If category is time saved it should be person hours / month, if monetary then cash • Would makers put in a number or would you want them to select value from a drop down (e.g. 0-1M, 1M-2M?) Drop downs would need to be configurable but I’d be ok with number entry • For a maker with a larger number of apps and flows it may be cumbersome to use teams adaptive cards, would having an app that accompanies this that's easier for makers to use a high priority for you? Not a priority for me • Is it important that this process works at a solution level, or just an app/flow level? I’d say app / flow • If apps/flows are owned by service account, this process wouldn't work. Do you anticipate this a big problem for your org? No

[kuljit-bains]

Hi

Feedback:-

• Generally, do you think this would work for you and your makers? For all Business Critical Apps/Flows/Chatbots and say those that have been shared with more 2 people etc

• Would you always want to measure value in $ or would it be $ / hours / something else (configurable)? _Ideally Hours saved per week per use and options should be given say per week/per month - Dropdown useful and another configurable field for Money saved per week/month (optional)

    Would makers put in a number or would you want them to select value from a drop down (e.g. 0-1M, 1M-2M?)
    Dropdown useful

• Are there other inputs you would want to ask your makers at this stage? We're trying to find the balance of asking them just enough to provide the value App Re-Usage (Count of how many times this app/flow has been re-used)

• For a maker with a larger number of apps and flows it may be cumbersome to use teams adaptive cards, would having an app that accompanies this that's easier for makers to use a high priority for you? Definitely multiple emails/teams adaptive cards becomes cumbersome

• Is it important that this process works at a solution level, or just an app/flow level? App/Flow level

• If apps/flows are owned by service account, this process wouldn't work. Do you anticipate this a big problem for your org? Is there a way we can identify the App Owner- otherwise this will be a difficult task

Note App refers to App/Flow/Chatbot

[manuelap-msft]

Thank you both for taking the time to respond! This is really useful - I'm working on planning this feature now, we'll get back to you once I have more concrete plan or more question! PS: I'm on leave next week so there might not be much progress until later in July :)

[manuelap-msft]

from office hours: Followup on post deployment - to capture business value - such as number of manual hours saved per wk/month

[manuelap-msft]

We're currently assessing the question to ask a maker to assess the value. One question will be around primary improvement driver.

Ideas are either to provide a longer list:

• Support Mobile Work
• Reduce time consuming manual work
• Replace a pen and paper process
• Reduce cost for a third party tool
• Reduce processing delays or errors
• Improve employee engagement
• Increase speed of process
• Reduce disparate data / simplify disjointed processes

Or simplify it by a lot, we could summarize it as the primary driver being

• cost saving
• time saving
• subjective improvement

Wondering if this from Microsoft Inspire should feed into it too?

[kuljit-bains]

Hi

I believe we should have a simpler list as shown but have the option to add Other - where the Submitter can enter details in a free text field against Other

Time Savings Cost Savings Error Reduction Other

as all of the above would feed into operational efficiency

[shriyamal]

@manuelap-msft - I'm sorry for the lack of understanding but did this feature already get implemented. I cant see any latest activity and the last comments on this was from summer last year.

[manuelap-msft]

It did not, this feature is still open and currently unfunded on our backlog. That means we don't know yet when we'll implement it.

[ChrisGarty]

@manuelap-msft, this came up when talking with a customer, Phil, at MPPC. Phil said that he was capturing metadata for "value per app per run" and then doing some reporting on that. He said that he has talked to multiple customers that are getting pressured for similar ROI reporting to help justify the cost of Power Platform licenses. We've talked about capturing "value" metadata in the product, but it seems like the COE Starter Kit would be able to provide that capability sooner. We should workshop this sometime and bring it back to the community for feedback :)