Demystifying ROI
Understanding the Financial ROI Elements of the Business Case
Earn 8 PDUs
1-Day Workshop
Project professionals certainly don’t need to be certified public accountants (CPAs) or financial experts to be effective in their roles, but must be proficient and knowledgeable with certain fundamental business concepts that can be applied directly to their projects. Having a solid grasp of these important concepts can greatly assist project teams in achieving optimized and sustained business value for their organizations. Most of us have heard of the terms discounting, WACC, ROI, NPV, IRR and payback, but what do they really mean, what do they entail and how do we apply them to our projects to determine and drive business value? As project professionals, we must not be intimidated by the numbers, but must understand and embrace them to accurately represent and manage our project investments.
Cash flow modeling is one of the most important activities in building effective business cases and in determining the actual amounts of cash that will be expended, saved or generated as a result of project implementations. Cash flow models are constructed by synthesizing all of the information that was gathered during the interviews, focus groups, questionnaires and various other research efforts and then using that information to create a series of projected cash flows over a period of time, typically the useful life of a project. These models forecast how money will move in and out of organizations as a result of project implementations. Cash flow models help decision makers determine whether projects will generate enough money or achieve levels of cost savings that will cover or exceed the overall costs of their projects.
In this session we will discuss key cash flow concepts and focus on their applicability to business and to the overall financial bottom line.
Course Learning Objectives:
- Recognize modern day project management challenges, trends and opportunities
- Understand the strategic elements of project investments
- Appreciate the significance and elements of the business case
- Determine how to classify and apply project benefits
- ROI contributing vs. Value enabling benefits
- Understand how to formulate and gather project metrics
- Understand the key principles and techniques to cash flow modeling
- Evaluate and analyze cash flow modeling ‘words of caution’
- Fully grasp the time value of money concepts
- Understand and apply key ROI measurements
- NPV, ROI, IRR, Payback Period
- Learn how true business value can be attained and sustained
- Learn how to speak proficiently in business and financial terms
“Overall an excellent course. I now have a much better understanding of how ROI and cash flow modeling can be utilized for making informed decisions.”
Prasanna Joshi, Senior Principal Consultant, BT
