Ipsos-Reid Analysis on BlackBerry Deployment ROI Study, 2007:
What it Means for IT Management

Ipsos-Reid recently conducted a research study to measure the typical company’s Return on Investment of a BlackBerry® deployment.

An executive summary of the study is provided here, with highlights of the most compelling findings for IT management. You can also download the complete report which includes useful reference tables to help you estimate at-a-glance the ROI of your organization’s BlackBerry deployment.

Highlights for IT Management

• The 1,387 IT managers that completed this study have reaffirmed that supporting the BlackBerry solution inside organizations is not burdensome.
• 50% of IT managers report spending 9 hours or less per month supporting their BlackBerry® Enterprise Servers.
• 50% spend 10 hours or less per month supporting BlackBerry smartphones, including new deployments.
• Average total IT time investment is 23 minutes per user per month.
• Every working day, each BlackBerry user recovers almost 3 times the monthly IT time investment through personal productivity alone.

In this study, Ipsos-Reid surveyed 1,335 BlackBerry end users and 1,387 IT managers responsible for administering 1 to 500 BlackBerry smartphones in their organizations. This is the largest sample of IT managers and wireless device end users that have ever participated in a wireless ROI survey.

The report presents ROI and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a BlackBerry deployment based on the value derived from enhanced productivity, workflow, immediacy and cost savings.

Productivity Benefits
Productivity can be improved by performing current activities more efficiently or by adding more productive hours to the workday. 98% of respondents agreed that the BlackBerry solution “has allowed me to convert downtime into productive time by giving me access to my email at all times.”

The typical (median) end user converts 60 minutes of downtime into productive time per day.

This translates to the recovery of approximately 250 hours per year. Figure 3 from the report, shown here, presents the value of this recovered downtime for various salary levels.

ROI of a BlackBerry Deployment Calculated at 238%
Using personal productivity as the sole source of value (and using an end user salary of $50,000) the ROI of a BlackBerry deployment is calculated at 238%. This equates to a payback period of 154 days, or approximately 5 months.

Workflow Benefits
In addition to increasing individual productivity, the BlackBerry solution also allows mobile staff to keep work moving for others while they are out of the office. For example, a manager that is able to respond to requests for sign-off on project terms or costs using his BlackBerry smartphone enables others on his team to move ahead with project tasks.

96% of those surveyed agreed that BlackBerry wireless email capabilities “have enhanced my workflow efficiency.” When asked to quantify this enhanced efficiency, the median response was that respondents’ teams are now 38% more efficient due to the workflow enhancements of a BlackBerry solution.

This equates to over US$33,000 per BlackBerry user per year, based on international productivity per employee data from the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook.

With these workflow benefits included in the ROI calculation, BlackBerry deployment ROI surges to 1,516%, and the payback period drops to approximately 4 weeks.

Immediacy Benefits
Immediacy refers to the unique, often one-off gains that can be achieved because of the speed of the BlackBerry solution voice and data awareness. For example, numerous respondents discussed single multi-million dollar immediate emails that were attributed to gaining or retaining major clients or allowing end users to take advantage of short-term information for direct financial gain.

For those who want to include a value for immediacy in their organization’s ROI calculations, conservative values for this contributing factor are included in the report.

Cost Savings
Cost savings attributable to the BlackBerry solution primarily result from remote access server (RAS) savings. These savings equate to over US$230 per user per year.

Incremental TCO Calculated at Under $800 per User
Figure 7 from the report, shown here, calculates the Net TCO and Incremental TCO from the BlackBerry implementation. 

Download the report for more information, including explanations of the assumptions used in calculations, and useful reference tables to help you estimate at-a-glance the ROI of your organization’s BlackBerry deployment.

Resource Links:

The Report: Analyzing the ROI of a BlackBerry Deployment, 2007

Streaming Flash Presentation Explaining the 2007 BlackBerry ROI Study

The BlackBerry ROI Calculator

About the Study
This study was conducted by Ipsos Reid, one of the world’s leading and most reputable market research firms. Subscribers to RIM’s BlackBerry Connection® newsletter were sent an email invitation to complete an online study in November 2006.

Respondents who indicated that they are responsible for the management, administration or support of 500 or less BlackBerry smartphones within their organization were linked to an Information Technology Administrator questionnaire.1,387 IT Administrators completed the questionnaire, providing a margin of error of ±2.6%, 19 times out of 20.

BlackBerry users who indicated that they are not responsible for the management, administration or support of a BlackBerry deployment within their organization were linked to the BlackBerry End User questionnaire. 1,335 End Users completed the questionnaire, providing a margin of error of ±2.7%, 19 times out of 20.

The study was conducted among users in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Six percent of End User responses and 15% of IT Administrator responses were received from outside North America. Over 25% of all BlackBerry users are from outside North America, but the study was conducted in English only. 

All monetary figures in this report are presented in US dollars. Responses were found to be consistent from all regions.

The report presents ROI and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a BlackBerry deployment of between 1 and 500 smartphones, based on the value derived from enhanced productivity, workflow, immediacy and, to a lesser extent, cost savings. Cost savings have only been counted where concrete and material in recognition of the fact that IT managers typically deploy productivity for the value they derive, not their ability to save costs.

Median values are used in the report because they are less susceptible to outlier effects than mean (average) values.