Return-on-investment calculation for online meetings
To gain a true picture of the potential savings offered by the various online meeting solutions, we used the following realistic scenario: Company A, located in New York has a Customer B in Washington D.C. (distance about 200 miles). A has two options for holding meetings with B:
- Option 1: Travel and hold meeting at customer's site
- Option 2: Set up an online meeting
| Assumptions | ||
| Travel time (outward and return journey) | 3.0 | h |
| Distance (outward and return journey) | 400 | miles |
| Travel expenses | US$ | 100 |
| Hourly charge for meeting room | US$ | 15 |
| Average hourly rate | US$ | 40 |
| Phone costs per minute and participant | US$ | 0.05 |
| Web conference solution (monthly flatrate) [1] | US$ | 60 |
| Option 1 Meeting at customer site |
Option 2 Online Meeting |
|||
| Number of participants | 4 | 4 | ||
| Number of participants traveling to venue | 2 | 2 | ||
| Meeting duration in hours | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| Number of meetings per year | 50 | 50 | ||
| License costs per month | US$ 0 | US$ 60 | ||
| Cost of time spent traveling (in US$) | US$ 240 | US$ 0 | ||
| Travel expenses (in US$) | US$ 200 | US$ 0 | ||
| Total cost of traveling | US$ 440 | US$ 0 | ||
| Cost of meeting room | US$ 15.00 | US$ 0 | ||
| Cost per online meeting [2] | US$ 0 | US$ 14.40 | ||
| Cost of conference call | US$ 12.00 | |||
| Total cost per meeting | US$ 455.00 | US$ 26.40 | ||
| Total meeting costs per year | US$ 22,750 | US$ 1,320 | ||
| Annual saving | US$ 21,430 | |||
| Saving in percentage | 94% | |||
| Return-on-Investment | 1623% |
[1] The sum is simply an example and is above the average price of the web conference solutions tested for an individual license per month excluding telephone costs. You will find a summary of the license costs for the web conferencing systems tested here.
[2] The costs per online meeting are calculated from the monthly rental license divided by the number of web conferences per month. The more web conferences carried out per month, the lower the rental license costs per web conference. Note: the more web conferences carried out the larger the variable share of telephone conference costs.
