Illustrative model in USD; no measured client results. Assume 600 CVs/month, administrative handling reduced from 18 to 8 minutes/CV, 12 months at steady-state volume and $40/hour fully loaded labor cost.
- Capacity released: 600 × (18 − 8) ÷ 60 = 100 hours/month.
- Annual capacity value: 100 × 12 × $40 = $48,000.
- One-time design, build, migration and training: $30,000. Recurring operations and support: $700/month ($8,400/year).
- First-year ROI: ($48,000 − $30,000 − $8,400) ÷ ($30,000 + $8,400) = 25%.
- Simple payback: $30,000 ÷ ($4,000 − $700) = 9.1 months after go-live.
This values redeployable staff time, not guaranteed cash savings or headcount reduction. It assumes full adoption from go-live and excludes ramp-up, financing and tax. At 50% of the assumed time saving, first-year ROI is −37.5% and payback is 23.1 months. Validate time savings, extraction quality, rework and adoption in a pilot.