StackValue Calculator™
** Coming Soon**
Introducing the StackValue Calculator™
One of the key elements in managing and assessing a marketing technology stack is the value that each piece of technology delivers in supporting the Company's marketing objectives. In an ideal world, we'd be able to calculate a return on investment (ROI) for each piece of technology that would quantify value and provide us with a timeframe for payback on investment. For products where there is a tangible cost benefit in the form of new revenue, measurable productivity improvements, or cost savings, a straightforward ROI calculation makes sense. Unfortunately, not every piece of technology lends itself to an ROI calculation -- it just isn't possible to pinpoint financial gain for all of the products in a stack.
Is there another way to assess product value? To provide a means to assess product value we've built a StackValue Calculator™, a qualitative model to assess product value as both a standalone product and in the context of the overall stack. This calculator has been designed to provide you with a qualitative way to rank and assess the value of the tools in your Marketing technology stack to aid in prioritizing product investment, expansion, replacement, training, etc. We shared our initial model with a number of key industry influencers who graciously took the time to review what we'd done and provide feedback and recommendations. We now have a workable model which we'll continue to refine over time.
There are two versions of the model:
Single Product StackValue Calculator™ - this version makes it quick and easy to assess one product. This is a good option if you want to have multiple team members assess the same product.
Multi-Product StackValue Calculator™ - this version makes it possible to assess a collection or your entire stack of products and compare products side by side.
The best way to familiarize yourself with the models is to start using them.
The calculator provides three key scores (see below for more score information and for details on how these scores are calculated).
Product Value Score (PVS) -The Product Value Score is a standalone score designed to show how impactful the product is and how well it meets expectations. The maximum possible PVS is 1. The lower the score the less effective the product. Any product scoring .5 or less should be evaluated for potential action including replacement.
Stack Value Score (SVS) -The Stack Value Score takes into account the product's importance within the Stack. SVS's should be used to create a value ranking of all the products in the stack in order to prioritize investments, training, upgrades, and replacements.
Stack Opportunity Score (SOS) -The Stack Opportunity Score (SOS) provides a qualitative metric to assist in prioritizing feature expansion projects by identifying valuable products with an opportunity to increase impact through the deployment of additional functionality.
Behind the Scores
The model looks at the impact a product has across a number of categories and how well the product has met expectations on a range of criteria.
The Product Value Score (PVS) is calculated as the Sum (Impact Score + Expectation Score)/(Maximum Possible Impact Score + Maximum Possible Expectation Score).
Notes:
- Maximum scores are only calculated for impact categories and expectation criteria that are noted as applicable.
- In calculating the impact score, additional points are added for categories rated 3 or higher.
- In calculating the expectation score additional weight is given to functionality and integration criteria.
The Stack Value Score (SVS) is calculated as the SVS*Product Importance Rating(PIR). The PIR is a measure of a product's importance and place in the stack.
The Stack Opportunity Score (SOS) is calculated as: (SVS*Opportunity for Impact)*(% of features not utilized).
What's Next? Industry Benchmarking
The current model will assist you in creating an internal view of your technology. Our long-term goal is to provide you with data that will enable you to benchmark your assessments against the rest of the industry. To that end, we'll be recording the data that you provide about each product in an anonymized fashion to produce those benchmarks.
For CabinetM Users
If you are a FREE CabinetM user, we recommend providing links to the resulting reports in your drawers. If you need assistance with this just reach out to support@cabinetm.com
Paid subscribers, use either Best Practices & Reports or Drawers to keep track of your scores.
But Wait .... There Are More Models
We are not the only ones working to provide models to assist marketing operations teams in managing and assessing their stacks.
Trendemon has created an ROI calculator that can be adapted for any product metric.
Frans Riemersma of Martech Tribe has created a Stack Maturity Benchmark tool that will compare your stack to the 650 he has in his database.
John Avola of Pega Systems is creating a Stack Maturity tool. His tool will provide the ability to assess a current stack against internal metrics. He's currently making final refinements, stay tuned for more on this.
A Big Thanks To......
It takes a lot of input to create a model like this. We'd like to thank Juan Mendoza (The MarTech Weekly), John Avola (Pega Systems), Mike Rizzo (MarketingOps), Frans Riemersma (Martech Tribe), Katie Linford (Forrester), and Jordie van Rijn (Email Vendor Selection) for not only taking the time to review the model but actively digging in and providing recommendations.
We expect to continue to evolve the model over time, if you'd like to contribute please reach out to support@cabinetm.com.
