"How do I justify this investment to my CFO?"
Every technology leader asks this question when evaluating new platforms. And every CFO demands the same answer: numbers that matter.
Over the past three weeks, we've explored Centro's technical capabilities, AI-powered automation, and the strategic partnership with Vantage Point. Today, we're answering the ROI question with frameworks, calculations, and real examples you can adapt for your own business case.
Because transformation requires investment—and investment requires justification.
Let's start with transparency about costs. Centro implementation includes several components:
Centro Licensing – Predictable subscription pricing based on your deployment:
Vantage Point Consulting – Implementation expertise and customization:
Internal Resources – Your team's project involvement:
Training and Change Management – Ensuring adoption:
Now let's look at the other side of the equation: returns.
Traditional model requires Salesforce licenses for everyone who needs CRM access. Centro's platform fee model changes this equation dramatically.
Example: Regional bank with 20 customer service representatives
Slack-to-Case functionality via custom development:
Centro alternative:
Self-service capabilities reduce help desk burden through AI-powered answers, automated workflows, and simplified troubleshooting.
Example: Wealth management firm with 500 employees
Organizations often run multiple point solutions Centro replaces:
Time savings represent significant value even when they don't directly reduce headcount. Employees accomplish more, serve clients better, and focus on high-value activities rather than administrative overhead.
Centro customers document average time savings of 17 hours per user per week. Let's use a more conservative 5 hours per week for business case purposes.
Calculation components:
Annual Productivity Value: 25,000 hours × $50 × 50% = $625,000
Even with conservative assumptions, productivity gains substantially exceed implementation investment.
Reduced Context-Switching (1.5 hours/week per user)
Work in single interface instead of toggling between apps. Information in context rather than searching across systems.
Faster Information Access (1 hour/week per user)
AI answers questions instantly versus searching or asking colleagues. Knowledge base integration versus scattered documentation.
Automated Status Updates (0.5 hours/week per user)
Systems communicate automatically versus manual emails and messages. Stakeholders notified proactively versus status update meetings.
Streamlined Approvals (1 hour/week per user for approvers)
One-click approve/reject versus email chains. Full context in notification versus searching for details.
Eliminated Manual Data Entry (1 hour/week per user)
Conversations captured automatically versus manual logging. Forms create records versus data re-entry.
Productivity and efficiency gains enable revenue growth without proportional cost increases.
Financial services firms live on recurring revenue. Small retention improvements yield substantial impact.
Example: Wealth management firm with $150M AUM and 1% management fee
Faster approvals and internal processes mean deals close sooner.
Example: Insurance agency with 300 policies sold annually, $2,000 average premium
Revenue producers with more client-facing time generate more business.
Example: Financial advisors save 3 hours weekly on administration
Let's combine these components into a comprehensive example:
Year 1 Net Benefit: $283,500 (208% ROI)
Every organization has unique circumstances. Use this framework to develop your specific ROI analysis:
Catalog current costs – What are you spending on custom development, point solutions, licenses, and IT support?
Calculate time savings – Survey users on time spent on activities Centro would streamline
Quantify productivity value – What's an hour of your employees' time worth?
Assess revenue opportunity – Where can better efficiency drive growth?
Include intangibles – Employee satisfaction, competitive positioning, risk reduction
Be conservative – Use lower-bound assumptions to build credibility
Show sensitivity analysis – Model best case, likely case, and conservative case
Vantage Point can help you build a customized business case specific to your organization, using benchmarks from 400+ financial services implementations.
Modern collaboration platforms aren't nice-to-have productivity tools—they're strategic investments that deliver measurable, substantial returns within the first year.
Centro + Vantage Point customers document 100%+ ROI in year one and 300%+ ROI over three years. These aren't aspirational projections; they're achieved results from firms across wealth management, banking, and insurance.
Next week, we'll move from business case to real-world application—diving deep into use cases in wealth management and banking with specific examples of how Centro transforms client service, advisor productivity, and operational efficiency.
Ready to build your ROI model? Contact Vantage Point for a consultation where we'll develop a customized financial analysis for your organization.
David Cockrum founded Vantage Point after serving as Chief Operating Officer in the financial services industry. His unique blend of operational leadership and technology expertise has enabled Vantage Point's distinctive business-process-first implementation methodology, delivering successful transformations for 150+ financial services firms across 400+ engagements with a 4.71/5.0 client satisfaction rating and 95%+ client retention rate.