It's this quality-of-life ROI that's going to be tough to calculate. Imagine, for example, that you've downloaded a corporate PowerPoint presentation to your Palm handheld and can now show it on your Palm m505 using Documents To Go 4.0's Slideshow To Go software (at http://www.dataviz.com). Now imagine you're on the train, coming home from a tradeshow. You start up a conversation with your seatmate and discover this is a key person from a client you've been trying to pitch. Assuming they're interested, out comes the Palm m505, and you're instantly able to illustrate your point with slides on your device. It's hard to quantify this sort of synchronicity, but it happens all the time.

ROI examples
On the other hand, since some of the real ROI stories are so impressive, one way to get an idea about your ROI is to look at the ROI other companies have achieved. So let's take a look at a number of firms that have reported substantial benefits.

Analysts International
Analysts International estimates a savings of $1,700 per person. The company provides technical consulting and information technology solutions to more than 900 corporate and governmental organizations around the world. With headquarters in Minneapolis, the 5,000-person firm has offices in 48 locations within the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Employees of Analysts International use Palm VII handhelds and Lotus Notes to synchronize information, check calendars, and look up contact information wirelessly. The experience has been so successful that its analysts now recommend the solution to customers, offering their own success as proof of its value.

"If an attorney keeps track of just one hour that might have been forgotten in the past, a Palm computer has already paid for itself!"

McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore
Attorneys in the Houston law firm of McGinnis Lockridge & Kilgoe LLP use their Palm VII handhelds to access email, check the status of cases, track billable hours, and keep their schedules with them at all times. By choosing a Palm handheld instead of a laptop for this particular application, the firm reduced the expected costs of IT by 25 to 35 percent. In addition, it increased revenue by helping attorneys keep track of billable time more accurately.

According to Vince Marbibi, the firm's Network Applications Manager, "We tried laptops and a number of handheld devices, but for the money you can't beat Palm. Before Palm, the attorneys would lug around their laptops wherever they went. It was an expensive and non-ergonomically friendly way to solve the problem. With Palm handhelds, the attorneys are able to be connected and still do the footwork that comes with being a barrister.

"Up to 30% of an attorney's time is not usually logged, and thus unbilled. The attorneys use Time Reporter on the Palm handheld to keep track of billable hours in real-time. This information is automatically synchronized with the firm's accounting system. If an attorney keeps track of just one hour that might have been forgotten in the past, then the Palm computer has already paid for itself!"