What is a Cost Analysis in IMPACT™?
Updated
by
Mary Styers
Rapid Cycle Evaluation with IMPACT™ can reveal many insights about the usage and effectiveness of your edtech products including the identification of potential cost savings. Specifically, it can help you determine where your team may be spending money on products that aren’t being used or are underperforming.
What data is needed to run a Cost Analysis RCE report with IMPACT™?
What is included in the cost per student user? Your product contract may include both licenses and professional learning, plus a set up fee. The important thing to note here is that you’ll want to include any direct or indirect costs associated with the use of that edtech product, so that a true cost per student is calculated. Further, the potential cost savings should be based on the expected implementation of a product.
TIP: By visiting the Management Tab, you can access previously entered pricing information for a product. Starting in 2022, pricing information entered through the product library will not be connected to any IMPACT™ analyses and must be entered in the RCE Wizard.
How do I interpret the cost information in IMPACT™?
When you run a Cost Analysis RCE report with IMPACT™, all or part of the cost analysis below will display as an output:
A breakdown of Cost Analysis components are:
- The total contract value with potential cost savings based on the Cost by Fidelity Group report (#2, below). If you do not have a Usage with Fidelity goal, the potential cost savings will not populate in this section.
- If your Cost Analysis in IMPACT™ includes a Usage with Fidelity goal (a recommended use for a particular metric), you will see a breakdown of use in this section that corresponds to the way that fidelity is measured in the Usage with Fidelity Analysis section of IMPACT™. A dollar value will be assigned to every level of use between zero, and met or exceeded fidelity requirements. This makes it easy to determine, at a glance, how much of your total product cost is going to usage that did not meet your stated fidelity benchmarks. (Please note: This portion of the Cost Analysis may look different if another usage metric is used for this same edtech product.)
- All Cost Analyses will contain this breakdown of Cost by Usage Group. You can hover over each Usage Group and understand how many dollars are going to each level of use. These groups should match with the same number and configuration of Usage Groups from that portion of your IMPACT™ Analysis.
- Another way to consider potential cost savings is through cost per engagement. In this section of the Cost Analysis you can learn, among other data points, the cost of each engagement with the edtech product broken down by Usage Group. This can help you determine what it actually costs per use for this edtech product, which can be a lot higher than contract costs per license.
What if I still need help?
We know that there are many different ways that your team may be purchasing and paying for edtech products. The information here assumes that purchasing is being made at the district level. If your schools are purchasing products individually, please reach out to our RCE Support Team, who can help determine the best way to handle this situation.
