Forrester Total Economic Impact survey: a maritime transport company achieved 80% ROI with the Thinkwise Low-Code Platform
By selecting Thinkwise the maritime transport company is ready for digital transformation
The replacement of the outdated ERP customized software by the low-code model-driven software from Thinkwise has provided a maritime transport organization with an 80% Return on Investment (ROI). This is also apparent in a report from the market research company Forrester that carried out a Total Economic Impact (TEI) survey into the potential ROI for companies that develop software with Thinkwise.
According to the Forrester report, the maritime transport organization that was analyzed has improved the effectiveness and efficiency of its financial and accounting functions through the implementation of the Thinkwise ERP solution. By opting for the low-code ERP solution the transport company has laid a sound foundation for the future. They can now easily adapt to changes in the market, among other things through the use of portals, and continue to grow as an organization. The company is now well prepared for its digital transformation
Forrester has made an independent cost-benefit analysis with the following results.
Quantified benefits
Administrative efficiency: With the old ERP solution the salesmen had to manually reserve containers for the transport of cargoes for customers via the online system, Odyssey. A form was subsequently generated containing all the information about the cargo. Using Thinkwise, the organization has integrated its ERP system directly with this reservation system, so that the process of uploading, enriching and calculating the costs has become fully automated. Partly as a result of this it was no longer necessary to increase the administrative staff, despite the growth of the organization and the delivery of new services in new harbours. Through this improvement in efficiency it was not necessary to employ four FTEs over a period of three years, which resulted in a saving of $ 333,007.
Financial efficiency: Automation of the invoicing and accounting reconciliation have greatly improved the efficiency of the finance department. When the organization started a new terminal service, the company did not need to employ an additional financial FTE to cope with the increased workload. This improvement in efficiency saved the organization $307,126 over a period of three years.
No customization costs and license fees: If the company had contracted a traditional ERP package supplier for the development of the ERP solution instead of using the Thinkwise low-code software development platform, then a considerable investment in customization would have been necessary to achieve the same functionality. Or the company would have had to fundamentally change its operating procedures to adapt to the rigid framework imposed by a package solution. The low-code software solution that has been developed to support the current business activities has saved the organization $187,854 over a period of three years.
Cost-benefit analysis
The cost-benefit analysis carried out by Forrester results, over a period of three years, in total benefits of $827,987 and costs of $458,803. This results in a Net Present Value (NPR) of $369,184 and a ROI of 80 percent for the maritime transport company. Furthermore, the break-even point was reached within 1.5 years.
The complete TEI report from Forrester can be downloaded here.