Cost And Benefit Categories

In developing cost estimates for a system, we need to consider several cost elements. Among them are hardware, personnel, facility, operating, and supply costs.

1. Hardware costs relate to the actual purchase or lease of the computer and peripherals (for example, printer, disk drive, tape unit). Determining the actual cost of hardware is generally more difficult when various users than for a dedicated stand-alone system share the system. In some cases, the best way to control for this cost is to treat 'it as an operating cost.

2. Personnel costs include EDP staff salaries and benefits (health insurance, vacation time, sick pay, etc.) as well as pay for those involved in developing the system. Costs incurred during the development of a system are one-time costs and are labeled developmental costs. Once the system is installed, the costs of operating arid maintaining the system become recurring costs.

3. Facility costs are expenses incurred in the preparation of the physical site where the application or the computer will be in operation. This includes wiring, flooring, acoustics, lighting, and air conditioning. These costs are treated ac one-time -costs and are incorporated into the overall cost estimate of the candidate system.

4. Operating costs include all costs associated with the day-to-day operation of the system; the amount depends on the number of shifts, the nature of the applications, and the caliber of the operating staff. There are various ways of covering operating costs. One approach is to that operating cost as overhead. Another approach is to charge each authorized user for the amount of processing they request from the system. The amount charged is based on. Computer time, staff time, and volume of the output produced. In any case, some accounting is necessary to determine how operating costs should be handled.

5. Supply costs are variable costs that increase with increased use of paper, ribbons, disks, and the like. They should be estimated and included in the overall cost of the system.

A system is also expected to provide benefits. The first task is to identify each benefit and then assign a monetary value to it for cost/benefit analysis. Benefits may be tangible and intangible, direct or indirect, as we shall see later.

The two major benefits am improving performance and minimizing the crust of processing. The performance category emphasizes improvement in the accuracy of or access to information and easier access to the system by authorized users. Minimizing costs through an efficient system-error control or reduction of staff-is a benefit that should be measured and included in cost/benefit analysis.