The Total Economic Impact™ Of Puzzel
Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By Puzzel
A Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Study Commissioned By Puzzel, October 2024
In the modern era, great customer service solutions are an integral vehicle to delivering great customer service experiences. Customer service is a cornerstone of a company’s customer experience (CX) strategy, and it is critical to driving business growth. Although many companies still struggle to optimise their service experience with outdated technology and processes, future-forward leaders recognise the business value of investing in customer service solutions.1 Great customer service organisations empower customers to interact with companies via their preferred channels and touchpoints and to receive complete, personalised resolutions to their issues. This keeps customers satisfied and loyal to the brand and affects top-line revenue.
As a customer experience ecosystem, Puzzel unifies contact centres with a holistic view of the customer, and it allows agents to meet customer expectations and needs by improving visibility and delivering seamless experiences. Brands use Puzzel to increase agents’ productivity, consolidate legacy technologies, and improve agent retention.
Puzzel commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realise by deploying Puzzel.2 The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Puzzel on their organisations.
Return on investment (ROI)
278%
Net present value (NPV)
€9.55M
To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed four representatives with experience using Puzzel. For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results into a single composite organisation that is a European insurance organisation with 750 agents. It has around 3 million interactions per year across many channels, including voice, email, and messaging with and without chatbot assistance.
Interviewees said that prior to using Puzzel, their organisations used to rely on traditional call centre technologies and the phone for customer service. Organisations with contact centres located in multiple countries had disparate systems across the regions in which they operated. Typically, these were on-premises solutions with limited functionality that required regular updates. Subsequently, they struggled with siloed, compartmentalised information because there were separate agent teams and customer queues for different channels. To better service customers, they needed an integrated omnichannel system to facilitate dynamic blending along with solid reporting capabilities. For these reasons, interviewees and their organisations turned to the Puzzel platform.
The interviewees said that after investing in Puzzel, their organisations benefitted from the agility and flexibility provided by a cloud-based solution. They explained that Puzzel enabled their organisations to expand their service options, allowing customers to interact with them via their preferred channels and touchpoints. The solution also enhanced the visibility of agents’ performance and easily integrated with workforce management (WFM) systems, which subsequently engendered notable productivity gains and better resource management. As a blended omnichannel solution, Puzzel provided teams with a holistic view of the customer underscored by strong reporting capabilities that brought both internal and external impact. This not only contributed to the development of agents’ skill sets and improved retention, but it also elevated the overall customer experience.
Key Findings
Quantified benefits. Three-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits for the composite organisation include:
- Agent productivity gains worth €10.3 million. Puzzel’s automation, additional functionality and streamlining of processes engenders agent productivity gains for the composite organisation. The dynamic blending of channels enables its customer service agents to become multi-disciplined and service customers through a range of touchpoints simultaneously. This is worth €10.3 million to the composite organisation over three years.
- Decommissioned and consolidated legacy solutions worth €2.4 million. With Puzzel, the composite organisation cuts excess technology costs each year. Over three years, with the decommissioning of an obsolete on-prem solution and technology consolidation, the savings are worth €2.4 million.
- Improved retention worth €293,000. Because Puzzel plays a significant role in job satisfaction and career progression, the composite organisation improves its retention rates. Over three years, the retention improvements are worth close to €293,000 to the composite organisation.
Unquantified benefits. Benefits that provide value for the composite organisation but are not quantified for this study include:
- Improved customer experience and satisfaction. Legacy tools and processes created friction in the customer service journey, leading to long wait times and sometimes frustrating routing processes. Because Puzzel provides a holistic view of the customer, knowledge management capabilities, and elevation of agents’ productivity, this enables the composite to provide better CX. As indicated by Forrester Research, better experiences lead to promotion of the brand and increased spend and retention.3
- Improved analytics, insights, and reporting. Thanks to Puzzel, the composite organisation is able to view more granular level data across channels. The integration with a WFM system enables better resource management.
- Improved agent experience. With an intuitive user experience (UX) along with a modern, consumer-grade interface, Puzzel assists agents in executing their daily workloads in a simpler, elevated way.
Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the composite organisation include:
- Licensing costs of €3.2 million. The composite has 750 agents and opts for concurrent licensing that covers 80% of the total number of agents at any one time. The composite’s license fees for Puzzel total €3.2 million over three years.
- Implementation and training costs of €259,000. These costs include professional services costs, internal effort for implementation, training, and decommissioning legacy systems, totaling €259,000 over three years.
The representative interviews and financial analysis found that a composite organisation experiences benefits of €12.98 million over three years versus costs of €3.43 million, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of €9.55 million and an ROI of 278%.
Key Statistics
-
Return on investment (ROI)
278%
-
Benefits PV
€12.98M
-
Net present value (NPV)
€9.55M
-
Payback
<6 months
Benefits (Three-Year)
Agent productivity gains Cost savings through the removal of legacy on-prem platform Increased retention
TEI Framework And Methodology
From the information provided in the interviews, Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for those organisations considering an investment in Puzzel.
The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep approach to evaluate the impact that Puzzel can have on an organisation.
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Due Diligence
Interviewed Puzzel stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to Puzzel.
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Interviews
Interviewed four representatives at organisations using Puzzel to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks.
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Composite Organisation
Designed a composite organisation based on characteristics of the interviewees’ organisations.
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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 interviewees.
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Case Study
Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in modeling the investment impact: benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks. Given the increasing sophistication of ROI analyses related to IT investments, Forrester’s TEI methodology provides a complete picture of the total economic impact of purchase decisions. Please see Appendix A for additional information on the TEI methodology.
Disclosures
Readers should be aware of the following:
This study is commissioned by Puzzel 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 study to determine the appropriateness of an investment in Puzzel.
Puzzel 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.
Puzzel provided the customer names for the interviews but did not participate in the interviews.
Consulting Team:
Ashleigh Cohen
Salma Hamdani
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Drivers leading to the Puzzel investment
Interviews
| Role | Industry | HQ and operations region | Number of agents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nordic digital development lead | Insurance | HQ:
Sweden Operations: Nordics, Baltics |
5,000 |
| Head of customer centre | Travel | HQ:
Sweden Operations: Nordics |
90 |
| Head of contact centre | Insurance | HQ:
UK Operations: UK |
1,150 |
| Customer service director | Retail | HQ:
Denmark Operations: Europe |
3000 |
Key Challenges
Before investing in Puzzel, interviewees’ organisations provided customer service either with an on-premises solution using separate voice and chat channels or, in the absence of a solution, they used traditional phones as the only access to customer service agents. The interviewees’ organisations had separate teams designated to specific channels, and emails were detached from the contact platform. Rudimentary reporting capabilities — or the absence of them — encumbered leaders’ visibility of demand and agents’ performance. This prevented the standardisation of KPIs and optimal management of resources to effectively meet demands.
The interviewees noted how their organisations struggled with common challenges, including:
- On-premises solutions with limited functionality. Interviewees said the on-prem solutions their organisations used had only basic functionality that did not best serve customers. Furthermore, these solutions were in need of regular updates, which meant service downtime and limited or no flexibility.
- Siloed channels that impeded agent efficiency and CX. Prior to Puzzel, the interviewees’ organisations had separate teams serving queues for individual channels. The process was not only inefficient, but it also prevented having an overall view of demand and the customer. The inability to blend channels infringed on agent productivity and led to suboptimal CX.
- Rudimentary reporting that hampered decision-making. Interviewees shared that their organisations struggled with the lack of automation in reporting processes. Team managers had to log in manually to extract reports. The absence of automated, consolidated, scheduled, and customisable reports limited managers’ visibility into queue levels and the overall view on demand. Furthermore, rudimentary reporting capabilities gave little insight into KPIs, such as average handling time. There were limited or no performance statistics at the agent level, and visibility of queue volume was at a team level, which made it difficult to predict resource requirement due to the lack of visibility.
Solution Requirements
The interviewees’ organisations searched for a solution that could:
- Be a blended omnichannel solution that’s delivered via cloud to amplify flexibility.
- Pivot to skills-based routing for better agent targeting.
- Provide real-time visibility into queue-level and resource requirements for better system management.
- Have strong reporting capabilities.
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Integrate seamlessly with a WFM system.
Composite Organisation
Based on the interviews, Forrester constructed a TEI framework, a composite company, and an ROI analysis that illustrates the areas financially affected. The composite organisation is representative of the four interviewees, and it is used to present the aggregate financial analysis in the next section. The composite organisation has the following characteristics:
Description of composite. The composite organisation is a European insurance firm with approximately 3 million interactions annually across all channels. The supported channels are voice, email, and messaging that includes self- and agent-assisted customer service. The organisation has Europe-based operations across several contact centres and employees 750 agents.
Deployment characteristics. The composite adopts concurrent Puzzel licenses that cover 80% of the 750 agents at any one time. The use of Puzzel starts in Year 1 after a three-month implementation time involving six FTEs.
Quantified benefit data as applied to the composite
Total Benefits
| Ref. | Benefit | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atr | Agent productivity gains | €4,151,250 | €4,151,250 | €4,151,250 | €12,453,750 | €10,323,544 |
| Btr | Cost savings through the removal of legacy on-prem platform | €920,550 | €969,000 | €969,000 | €2,858,550 | €2,365,714 |
| Ctr | Increased retention | €80,325 | €120,488 | €160,650 | €361,463 | €293,298 |
| Total benefits (risk-adjusted) | €5,152,125 | €5,240,738 | €5,280,900 | €15,673,763 | €12,982,556 | |
Agent Productivity Gains
Evidence and data. Interviewees said Puzzel reduced agents’ time to value for delivering high-quality customer interactions through increased automation, dynamic blending of customer service channel offerings, and other levers of operational efficiency. They specifically said their organisations experienced the following benefits:
- Optimisation of service underpinned by blended omnichannel capabilities. For many of the interviewees’ organisations, Puzzel facilitated an operational pivot from siloed customer service teams that focused on individual channels to a unified department complete with multidisciplined agents that could serve customers through whichever touchpoint necessary. The Nordic digital development lead in insurance said this allowed agents to become organised by product knowledge rather than by channel, leading to enhanced service. By facilitating the change to multidisciplined agents, Puzzel accelerated the organisation’s agent efficiency and allowed them to take on up to 20% more tasks daily due to omnichannel blending.
-
Improved KPIs. These
included:
-
Reduced average handling time.
Interviewees stated that average handling time
decreased thanks to Puzzel. They said the solution enabled their
organisations to optimise their operational efficiency and empower
agents to become more reactive to customer needs. As a result, this
reduced handling times by between 8% and 33%. With average handling
time reduced, agents could take on more calls per hour.
The head of customer centre for a travel organisation said: “Average handling time went down by nearly 50 seconds. ... It was around 600 seconds in our previous environment, and now it is around 550 seconds.” They cited two main reasons: “There are fewer system crashes. There is also functionality in Puzzel [called] the after-work call feature [that has a] countdown that incentivises the agent to limit [downtime].” - Reduced queue waiting time. Interviewees reported that the Puzzel platform enabled their organisations to better meet their queue wait time targets. For example, the Nordic digital development lead at a Swedish insurance firm said their organisation had a target that all calls were to be answered within 10 minutes and that introducing Puzzel enabled the company to meet this target 80% of the time. This was a significant improvement from a common wait time of 40 minutes. The head of contact centre for a UK insurance firm shared that queue routing and reduction in internal transfers also contributed to improvements for this KPI.
- Reduction in idle time. Interviewees said Puzzel is robust and stable. An interviewee from an insurance company shared that Puzzel facilitated around a 33% reduction in idle time. And the interviewee from the travel industry shared that their organisation’s agents previously had to reboot the system at least once daily but that this doesn’t happen with Puzzel, particularly because it’s a cloud-based platform.
-
Reduced average handling time.
Interviewees stated that average handling time
decreased thanks to Puzzel. They said the solution enabled their
organisations to optimise their operational efficiency and empower
agents to become more reactive to customer needs. As a result, this
reduced handling times by between 8% and 33%. With average handling
time reduced, agents could take on more calls per hour.
-
Better resource allocation. Interviewees said Puzzel provided managers with an overview of the
demand and utilisation of resources and that it enabled real-time visibility
for managers, which empowered customer service teams to swiftly react to
customers’ needs. They said that with Puzzel, their organisations had
better, granular-level views on capacity and that they could allocate
resources accordingly.
The Nordic digital development lead at an insurance company stated: “[Managers] got [an] overview of demand. [They] can plan and balance what is used.” They also said Puzzel easily integrates with WFM solutions and that it provides data that “estimates and [provides a] prognosis about capacity needs … and which skill is available as a result of skill-based blending.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organisation:
- The composite organisation has 750 agents.
- Puzzel enables a 15% productivity gains for agents.
- The average fully burdened annual salary for a customer service agent is €41,000.
Risks. Forrester recognises that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The impact of this benefit will vary depending on the following:
- The average annual salary for a customer service agent, which may vary by location, experience, and specific industry.
- The number of agents.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of €10.3 million.
Agent Productivity Gains
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Agents with Puzzel | Composite | 750 | 750 | 750 |
| A2 | Productivity gains | Interviews | 15% | 15% | 15% |
| A3 | Average fully burdened salary for a customer service agent | Interviews | €41,000 | €41,000 | €41,000 |
| At | Agent productivity gains | A1*A2*A3 | €4,612,500 | €4,612,500 | €4,612,500 |
| Risk adjustment | ↓10% | ||||
| Atr | Agent productivity gains (risk-adjusted) | €4,151,250 | €4,151,250 | €4,151,250 | |
| Three-year total: €12,453,750 | Three-year present value: €10,323,544 | ||||
Cost Savings Through The Removal Of Legacy On-Prem Platform
Evidence and data. Interviewees said that because Puzzel is a cloud-based solution, their organisations gained the ability to decommission their former on-premises solutions, which saved on costs related to the legacy technologies.
In their prior environments, the interviewees’ organisations had on-premises customer service tools with limited functionality. These tools were siloed, had disconnected data, and required regular updates, which prevented integration and dynamic blending. Interviewees recognised that moving to a cloud-based solution gave their organisations increased flexibility and agility to meet customers’ needs, and they said aligning tools and processes was necessary to ensure that all customer interactions and correlated data were housed in a single place.
Furthermore, interviewees said their organisations saw savings by removing the costs of licensing software and the upkeep of hardware and services from previous tools. The head of customer centre in the travel industry shared that their organisation saved around €16,000 annually by no longer paying maintenance costs for legacy technology, while the Nordic digital development lead at an insurance company estimated total cost saving of €5 million per year through the removal of legacy platforms.
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organisation:
- The composite organisation’s previous on-prem solution had licensing fees of €850,000 per year, and the organisation paid €170,000 per year for additional costs related to its infrastructure, such as hardware and maintenance fees.
- After investing in Puzzel, the organisation makes an effort to decommission its legacy tools. This effort takes the composite two years to complete with 70% of the legacy tools decommissioned in Year 1.
Risks. Forrester recognises that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The impact of this benefit will vary depending on the company’s culture and change management processes to ensure the swift transition to a cloud-based platform from legacy technology.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of €2.4 million.
Cost Savings Through The Removal Of Legacy On-Prem Platform
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | Licensing of previous on-prem platform | Interviews | €850,000 | €850,000 | €850,000 |
| B2 | Savings on additional costs of on-prem infrastructure | Interviews | €170,000 | €170,000 | €170,000 |
| B3 | Value realisation | Composite | 70% | 100% | 100% |
| Bt | Cost savings through the removal of legacy on-prem platform | B1+(B2*B3) | €969,000 | €1,020,000 | €1,020,000 |
| Risk adjustment | ↓5% | ||||
| Btr | Cost savings through the removal of legacy on-prem platform (risk-adjusted) | €920,550 | €969,000 | €969,000 | |
| Three-year total: €2,858,550 | Three-year present value: €2,365,714 | ||||
Increased Retention
Evidence and data. Interviewees noted that their organisations historically had high rates of attrition, but that Puzzel had a positive impact by playing a significant role in the career progression and employee retention.
Information provided by interviewees illustrated that the customer service role was monotonous and that there wasn’t room for learning and progression, which contributed to low job satisfaction and high turnover. The head of contact centre at the UK insurance firm shared that Puzzel enabled their organisation to introduce skill-based call routing and modular training. They said, as a result, Puzzel significantly contributed to increased retention: The previous average tenure at the organisation was less than six months, but Puzzel helped increase it to 3.5 years.
Interviewees also said multiskilled agents were empowered to use all channels and build product-specific knowledge to support customer needs. They explained that Puzzel capabilities underpinned the contact centre’s ability to build a competency framework and levelling structure for clear career progression planning whereby agents could continue to add to their skill sets and knowledge and be merited with promotion. Agents gained the ability to enter at the entry level, develop their expertise to become a specialist, and then become a team lead. The head of contact centre at the UK insurance firm said Puzzel contributed to a decrease of 163 percentage points in attrition.
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organisation:
- The composite organisation has 750 agents.
- The voluntary attrition rate of agents in the previous environment was 70%.
- Although many external factors influence attrition, the composite organisation attributes Puzzel’s with reducing agent attrition rates by 4% in Year 1, by 6% in Year 2, and by 8% in Year 3.
- The agent cost per hire is €4,500.
Risks. Forrester recognises that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The impact of this benefit will vary depending on the following:
- The cost per hire of a contact centre agent, which will vary by location, experience, and industry.
- Attrition rate for contact centres, which will vary depending on a range of factors, including but not exclusive to company culture, salary, agent experience, and macroeconomic conditions.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of €293,000.
Increased Retention
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | Agents | Composite | 750 | 750 | 750 | |
| C2 | Voluntary attrition rate pre-Puzzel | Composite | 70% | 70% | 70% | |
| C3 | Agents who leave voluntarily | C1*C2 | 525 | 525 | 525 | |
| C4 | Reduction in attrition rate for agents due to Puzzel | Interviews | 4% | 6% | 8% | |
| C5 | Agent cost per hire | Interviews | €4,500 | €4,500 | €4,500 | |
| Ct | Increased retention | D3*D4*D5 | €94,500 | €141,750 | €189,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓15% | |||||
| Ctr | Increased retention (risk-adjusted) | €80,325 | €120,488 | €160,650 | ||
| Three-year total: €361,463 | Three-year present value: €293,298 | |||||
Unquantified Benefits
Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organisations experienced but were not able to quantify:
- Improved customer experience. Interviewees said legacy tools and processes created friction in the customer service journey, leading to long wait times and sometimes frustrating call transfers, and they recognised that Puzzel contributed to improvements in important CX metrics, such as customer satisfaction and retention.
- Improved analytics, insights, and reporting. Interviewees said that Puzzel allows their organisations to receive more meaningful, granular-level data on which they were empowered to act. Analytics regarding agent and contact centre performance, customer service demand, and resourcing contributed to productivity gains and workforce management, which ultimately impacted operational costs.
- Improved agent experience. Interviewees said using a consumer-grade solution to support day-to-day tasks assists with their productivity and job satisfaction and that Puzzel improved their overall experiences because it has good UX and UI and is stable.
Flexibility
The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Puzzel and later realise additional uses and business opportunities, including:
- In-house ownership over the optimisation of CX. The head of contact centre from the UK insurance company said, “[Puzzel empowered teams to] manage call-flow journeys, design the customer journey, and optimise [our] CX and UX in-house.” They also explained that Puzzel provided contact centre insights that opened this opportunity and, as a result, they are able to implement change quickly and get a better understanding of their customers’ needs.
- Flexibility and agility to adjust to external extenuating circumstances. Many of the interviewees shared that Puzzel was a great benefit during unforeseen circumstances. They said that because it’s a cloud-based customer service platform, it gave their companies unprecedented agility for customer service agents to be able to work without having to be logged into an on-premises platform. This was a key contributor to continuity of service.
Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Appendix A).
Quantified cost data as applied to the composite
Total Costs
| Ref. | Cost | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dtr | Licensing costs | €0 | €888,451 | €1,301,822 | €1,716,634 | €3,906,907 | €3,173,301 |
| Etr | Implementation and training costs | €247,645 | €12,320 | €0 | €0 | €259,965 | €258,845 |
| Total costs (risk-adjusted) | €247,645 | €900,771 | €1,301,822 | €1,716,634 | €4,166,872 | €3,432,146 | |
Licensing Costs
Evidence and data. Puzzel follows a tiered pricing model that includes a concurrent licensing structure based on volume, package choice, and additional costs for extra functionality. Pricing may vary. Contact Puzzel for additional details.
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organisation:
- The composite organisation has 750 agents, and it chooses to adopt concurrent licensing that covers 80% of the total number of agents at any one time.
- Channels include voice, email, chat, and chatbot.
Risks. Forrester recognises that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The impact of this cost will vary depending on the following:
- The size of the customer service organisation and the number of concurrent licenses.
- The type of package purchased.
- Chosen additional functionality.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of €3.2 million.
Licensing Costs
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D1 | Licensing fees | Puzzel | €0 | €667,200 | €1,000,000 | €1,334,000 | |
| D2 | Chatbot fees | Puzzel | €0 | €73,176 | €84,852 | €96,528 | |
| Dt | Licensing costs | D1+D2 | €0 | €740,376 | €1,084,852 | €1,430,528 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↑20% | ||||||
| Dtr | Licensing costs (risk-adjusted) | €0 | €888,451 | €1,301,822 | €1,716,634 | ||
| Three-year total: €3,906,907 | Three-year present value: €3,173,301 | ||||||
Implementation And Training Costs
Evidence and data. Implementation and training costs are reflective of the internal effort required to deploy and use Puzzel, as well as the effort to decommission the previous on-prem solution. Costs include:
- Professional services. Interviewees’ organisations typically used Puzzel resources to implement the solution, and they incurred one-time professional services fees.
- Internal effort for implementation. Interviewees said internal business and technical resources both participated in the implementation of Puzzel. Project managers, IT developers, and contact centre operations resources were typically part of the implementation teams. Interviewees said it took their organisations between three and 10 months to implement Puzzel, depending on complexity and number of resources involved. Interviewees from organisations that adopted a phased implementation approach shared that the heavy lifting was completed up front in the first country rollout and that it took half the time to deploy in other countries.
- Training efforts. Training typically took 2 hours for the agents to complete.
- Effort to decommission previous on-prem platforms. Technical resources were assigned to decommission legacy solutions.
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organisation
- The composite’s implementation takes just over three months with six internal resource FTEs.
- Resources dedicate all of their time to implementation across 14 weeks.
- The fully burdened hourly salary for a project manager is €58.
- The fully burdened hourly salary for an IT developer is €85.
- The fully burdened hourly salary for a contact centre resource is €35.
- The average fully burdened hourly salary for an agent to train is €20.
- The composite pays €38,372 in Puzzle training fees.
Risks. Forrester recognises that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The impact of this cost will vary depending on the following:
- Salaries for FTEs involved in implementation, which will vary by region.
- The degree to which the organisation’s industry is regulated and the pace of change management.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of €259,000.
Implementation And Training Costs
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E1 | Professional services | Interviews | €12,000 | |||
| E2 | Project managers | Interviews | 2 | |||
| E3 | Time spent on project management per FTE (hours) | Interviews | 210 | |||
| E4 | Average fully burdened hourly salary for a project management resource | Composite | €58 | |||
| E5 | IT developers | Interviews | 2 | |||
| E6 | Time spent on IT development per FTE (hours) | Interviews | 315 | |||
| E7 | Average fully burdened hourly salary for an IT developer resource | Composite | €85 | |||
| E8 | Contact centre operations resources | Interviews | 2 | |||
| E9 | Time spent on contact centre operations (hours) | Interviews | 315 | |||
| E10 | Average fully burdened hourly salary for a contact centre operations resource | Composite | €35 | |||
| E11 | Subtotal: Internal effort for implementation | (E2*E3*E4)+(E5* E6*E7)+(E8*E9*E 10) | €99,960 | |||
| E12 | Agents to train | Composite | 750 | |||
| E13 | Time spent on initial training for agents (hours) | Interviews | 2 | |||
| E14 | Average fully burdened hourly salary for an agent | Composite | €20 | |||
| E15 | Training fee | Puzzel | €38,372 | |||
| E16 | Subtotal: Training effort |
(E12*E13*E14)+ E15 |
€68,372 | €0 | €0 | |
| E17 | IT resources assigned to decommission previous on-prem platform | Composite | 2 | 2 | ||
| E18 | Time spent decommissioning on-prem platform (hours) | Composite | 560 | 140 | ||
| E19 | Average fully burdened hourly salary for an IT resource | Composite | €40 | €40 | ||
| E20 | Subtotal: Effort to decommission previous on-prem platform | E16*E17*E18 | €44,800 | €11,200 | ||
| Et | Implementation and training costs | E1+E11+E16+E20 | €225,132 | €11,200 | €0 | €0 |
| Risk adjustment | ↑10% | |||||
| Etr | Implementation and training costs (risk-adjusted) | €247,645 | €12,320 | €0 | €0 | |
| Three-year total: €259,965 | Three-year present value: €258,845 | |||||
Consolidated Three-Year Risk-Adjusted Metrics
Cash Flow Chart (Risk-Adjusted)
Total costs Total benefits Cumulative net benefits Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3-
The financial results calculated in the Benefits and Costs sections can be used to determine the ROI, NPV, and payback period for the composite organisation’s investment. Forrester assumes a yearly discount rate of 10% for this analysis.
These risk-adjusted ROI, NPV, and payback period values are determined by applying risk-adjustment factors to the unadjusted results in each Benefit and Cost section.
Cash Flow Analysis (Risk-Adjusted Estimates)
| Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total costs | (€247 645) | (€900 771) | (€1 301 822) | (€1 716 634) | (€4 166 872) | (€3 432 146) |
| Total benefits | €0 | €5 152 125 | €5 240 738 | €5 280 900 | €15 673 763 | €12 982 556 |
| Net benefits | (€247 645) | €4 251 354 | €3 938 915 | €3 564 266 | €11 506 890 | €9 550 410 |
| ROI | 278% | |||||
| Payback | <6 months | |||||
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 realise the tangible value of IT initiatives to both senior management and other key business stakeholders.
Total Economic Impact Approach
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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 organisation.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Appendix B: Endnotes
1 Source: The Customer Service Solutions Landscape, Q4 2023, Q4 2023, Forrester Research Inc., December 19, 2023.
2 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.
3 Source: The Three Customer Service Megatrends In 2023, Forrester Research Inc., March 20, 2023.
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