Making customer’s investment return transparent with a customized calculator

In general, when contemplating investments business management usually compares different investment opportunities and their returns aiming to select the most productive and useful ones for implementation. Sometimes it’s challenging to evaluate both the costs and the benefits  of the investment, or they remain hidden or unclear. Without a comprehensive business case, it can be difficult for a customer organisation to persuade the management to accept the investment.

The DevOps company Eficode had a mission to help their customers clarify those costs and benefits especially for people looking to invest in the Eficode ROOT DevOps platform. They wanted to provide an online calculator that helps the potential customer estimate the benefits and costs of the DevOps platform. With the calculator, a potential buyer sees how much money can be saved or new business opportunities generated by adopting the DevOps Platform, and how those benefits accumulate. 

According to Eficode’s experts, the DevOps Platform has what a company needs to develop software efficiency, but as it can be a substantial investment, Eficode wanted to make both the cost and benefits transparent to the client thinking about purchasing it. With the calculator, it would be much easier to see the benefits of the platform, and also to sell it internally. The hidden costs would be displayed, as well as the benefits that the customer may not have considered earlier, making the advantages of the DevOps platform easy to see and calculate in euros. The calculator is simple, free and easy to use and helps people present a business case to their management.

“We wanted to provide DevOps Platform investment project leaders with a calculator that helps the project leaders to convince their management of the attractiveness of the investment. The calculator gives an accurate answer to the costs and benefits of deploying the DevOps platform. At Eficode, we also have a more comprehensive edition of the calculator available for our sales people when they discuss the DevOps platform with their potential customers”, says Eficode’s Chief Marketing Officer Lauri Palokangas.

Kaksio Labs as a technical partner

At Eficode, it was rather clear what kind of knowledge was needed to create the calculator. The model existed but to be able to build the calculator - they needed help. Eficode’s marketing team lacked the technical know-how and they didn’t want to interrupt the company’s technology consulting teams working with their customer cases. After the decision of outsourcing the project was made, the right partner was found quickly; Kaksio Labs. During the search Kaksio Labs stood out with the technical know-how, and soon it was time to kick off the project.

The project team started working with the user experience and UI design. Based on the model made by Eficode, Kaksio’s project team finalized a prototype paying close attention to the calculator's usability and its technical matters. Next step of the project was the technical planning of the calculator such as front-end and back-end coding and JavaScript programming, followed by the technical implementation of the calculator. Last weeks of the project the project team focused on implementing the calculator and improving its qualities. Each part of the service was tested separately to achieve the best possible outcome.

“Creating the logic of the product was interesting. Eficode’s calculator for sales that already calculated the investment’s current value, payback period and yearly cash flow was quite complex so we created this all as a JavaScript module for the new calculator. The visualization code was written at the same time and then combined into the client’s template for HubSpot CMS testing and feedback”, Jan-Mikael Lepistö, Kaksio Labs’ Chief Technical Officer tells.

The project’s end result is a concrete tool for increasing sales

Both Eficode and Kaksio’s teams are very happy and satisfied with the project’s end result. The calculator works as intended and especially the UX-design, Web development and HubSpot integration work done by Kaksio Labs team is valued.

“The project ran very smoothly, very fast and very efficiently. What was nice during the meetings, is that we got some valuable expert advice as feedback. Kaksio gave us lots of knowledge of how things work with HubSpot and what is the best way to implement them”, Eficode’s International marketing manager Jasmine Crozier tells.

The project flow is also valued at Kaksio Labs and Lepistö especially highlights the cooperation and project phasing. According to him the last details of the calculator were finished up together with Eficode’s team to secure the best possible end user experience in the final product.

“The entire project was a success and we wanted to keep the technical team with us from the very beginning of the development until the end of it. That’s how we gained experience of different user interface choices and their implementation. Time and resources were allocated efficiently and simultaneously with the UI design finishing we created the calculation component. For us at Kaksio Labs the project was very pleasant. Eficode had a clear vision of what they wanted, it was fun working with them and they were capable of making justifiable choices in a quick manner. It was great seeing how the level stayed high through the entire project and all the details were planned keeping the functionality and UI in mind” Jan-Mikael Lepistö tells.

Jasmine Crozier also  gives recognition to Kaksio Labs on their team work. 

“Very friendly people, easy to work with. To the point, efficient. Things were done on time. Reliable.”