Many companies that work with probation, parole, or court programs, don’t post their prices publicly. Pricing information must be requested and—even then—the quoted price doesn’t necessarily include the hidden fees. Fees for things like installation, training, or certain types of customer service.
But pricing only paints a partial picture, Competitor X costs this much less than Competitor Y. A fuller picture is revealed when you examine how much money and time your program stands to save by utilizing a given solution. We’re going to call that fuller picture the return on investment (ROI).
Calculating ROI
Most criminal justice programs don’t have budget surpluses, which makes examining the ROI of a new solution before investing a prudent choice. One way programs can determine ROI is manually. Let’s explore the process with a hypothetical program, Webster Farm Rehabilitation (WFR).
WFR is enrolling six new clients into its program. Using a research-based risk assessment tool, WFR has determined that some of the new clients would benefit from extra accountability, which they provide through 24/7 monitoring. WFR provides some monitoring with in-person checks, but primarily depends on traditional electronic monitoring hardware. Monitoring is expensive and WFR doesn’t have a huge budget. So WFR wants to make sure their current monitoring solution is the most cost-effective choice for their program.
Determining the potential ROI in this situation is relatively simple. WFR can compare the price and features of the current solution to the price and features of the new solution, and a relatively clear picture of the ROI will emerge.
Still, it’s not just financial obligations that drain WFR’s resources. The administrative work related to checking on client adherence to program conditions consumes a substantial amount of staff time. However, determining how much time a solution will save WFR is a little more complex.
WFR will need to gather baseline data about the amount of time currently spent by staff on administrative tasks. Tasks like curfew checks, assigning and collecting forms, keeping up with client participation in required meetings or appointments, and home visits. Then WFR will need to estimate how long those tasks will take using the new solution. The estimate can be built by talking to current users of the solution, watching a demo, using the solution for a trial period, reading a case study, a combination of these, or something else. When both data sets are available, WFR can compare and get a relatively clear picture of each solution’s ROI.
Knowing the full ROI a product offers can help ensure a program chooses the right solution to support program staff and clients.
Figuring Out ROI with Reconnect
As noted, programs can manually figure out if solution X is worth it for them, but programs can also use Reconnect’s ROI calculator. We built our calculator to do the work for you. Programs just plug in the numbers and know exactly what they’re getting into before committing.
Here’s how it works.
Fill out our simple form telling us a little about your program and the tasks program staff perform. We’ll ask things like, are program staff responsible for curfew checks? Does staff follow-up on meeting attendance? That information coupled with average industry pricing vs. Reconnect pricing, and how much time programs typically save on tasks automated by Reconnect allows us to calculate the return on investment for programs using Reconnect’s platform.
It takes most programs around 5 minutes to answer all the questions and submit the form. Then Reconnect emails over the ROI estimate and the calculation is complete.
Curious? Fill out the calculator yourself and learn what savings Reconnect can offer your program today.
Want to learn more about how programs use Reconnect to eliminate busywork and save time? Check out Reconnect’s “6 Ways to Save 6 Hours.”
Many companies that work with probation, parole, or court programs, don’t post their prices publicly. Pricing information must be requested and—even then—the quoted price doesn’t necessarily include the hidden fees. Fees for things like installation, training, or certain types of customer service.
But pricing only paints a partial picture, Competitor X costs this much less than Competitor Y. A fuller picture is revealed when you examine how much money and time your program stands to save by utilizing a given solution. We’re going to call that fuller picture the return on investment (ROI).
Calculating ROI
Most criminal justice programs don’t have budget surpluses, which makes examining the ROI of a new solution before investing a prudent choice. One way programs can determine ROI is manually. Let’s explore the process with a hypothetical program, Webster Farm Rehabilitation (WFR).
WFR is enrolling six new clients into its program. Using a research-based risk assessment tool, WFR has determined that some of the new clients would benefit from extra accountability, which they provide through 24/7 monitoring. WFR provides some monitoring with in-person checks, but primarily depends on traditional electronic monitoring hardware. Monitoring is expensive and WFR doesn’t have a huge budget. So WFR wants to make sure their current monitoring solution is the most cost-effective choice for their program.
Determining the potential ROI in this situation is relatively simple. WFR can compare the price and features of the current solution to the price and features of the new solution, and a relatively clear picture of the ROI will emerge.
Still, it’s not just financial obligations that drain WFR’s resources. The administrative work related to checking on client adherence to program conditions consumes a substantial amount of staff time. However, determining how much time a solution will save WFR is a little more complex.
WFR will need to gather baseline data about the amount of time currently spent by staff on administrative tasks. Tasks like curfew checks, assigning and collecting forms, keeping up with client participation in required meetings or appointments, and home visits. Then WFR will need to estimate how long those tasks will take using the new solution. The estimate can be built by talking to current users of the solution, watching a demo, using the solution for a trial period, reading a case study, a combination of these, or something else. When both data sets are available, WFR can compare and get a relatively clear picture of each solution’s ROI.
Knowing the full ROI a product offers can help ensure a program chooses the right solution to support program staff and clients.
Figuring Out ROI with Reconnect
As noted, programs can manually figure out if solution X is worth it for them, but programs can also use Reconnect’s ROI calculator. We built our calculator to do the work for you. Programs just plug in the numbers and know exactly what they’re getting into before committing.
Here’s how it works.
Fill out our simple form telling us a little about your program and the tasks program staff perform. We’ll ask things like, are program staff responsible for curfew checks? Does staff follow-up on meeting attendance? That information coupled with average industry pricing vs. Reconnect pricing, and how much time programs typically save on tasks automated by Reconnect allows us to calculate the return on investment for programs using Reconnect’s platform.
It takes most programs around 5 minutes to answer all the questions and submit the form. Then Reconnect emails over the ROI estimate and the calculation is complete.
Curious? Fill out the calculator yourself and learn what savings Reconnect can offer your program today.
Want to learn more about how programs use Reconnect to eliminate busywork and save time? Check out Reconnect’s “6 Ways to Save 6 Hours.”