How to Justify the Cost of Scientific and Engineering Software

Answer this simple question: What do you spend most of your time doing?

Say you're a chemist looking for chemistry software in the latest SciTech Software for Science, or in any of an increasing number of catalogs offering scientific software. There is a bewildering array of programs to choose from - all designed to make you more productive. How do you go about finding the one or two programs that you need? Narrowing the scientific discipline to only chemistry in the latest SciTech Software for Science for example, you would still find some 500 (out of over 1,500) different chemistry products to consider.

You might start by looking under a particular index heading - let's say you were interested in programs that would help you handle graphical analysis of your data. The index heading, "Curve Fitting" produces a more manageable list of only 18 products, but most likely you will want to broaden the scope to include related programs. The number of programs that you will have to consider quickly escalates: "Data Acquisition" (42), "Data Management" (25) , "Data Analysis" (120) and "Statistics" (144). Clearly such an approach is not going to be very productive. So - do we have a solution for them?

Should the Cost of the Software be your Guide?

It is tempting to make your decision about software based on price. Why should a Chemist spend, say, $499 or more for a molecular modeling program, when one might be able to get a program for only $29.95? Most scientists and engineers have learned the hard way that a low price generally does not guarantee the long term quality that you are looking for. Furthermore, do you know that a majority of low-priced software sits on the purchaser's shelf unopened or unused? The only value in software is when it is used and saves the user time and money.

The "MPV" Plan to Determine Software Value

Remember the old days when you were trying to decide whether or not to buy your first PC? Before you spent $3,000 - $5,000, you were asked what were you going to use the computer for. The computer you chose was based on the types of tasks (software) that the computer could handle. Since most computers can now handle most of the software you would be interested in, today the problem is how to select and manage the software for the multitude of tasks you need to complete. Here are some tips that can help you choose the tools you need to get your job done:
  1. Make a List. First start by making a list of the tasks you do and the amount of time you spend each week on these tasks.
  2. Compute a Monthly Cost. To compute the monthly cost, multiply the weekly hourly time figures by your hourly pay, and then by 4 (see below).
  3. Monthly Productivity View (MPV) Estimate. If you are presently doing these tasks "by hand" and are planning to purchase software to improve your productivity, I suggest you assume that you will get a 20% productivity increase from using the computer (you can use any number you want) to obtain a "Monthly Productivity View" (MPV) of what might be a reasonable expenditure for the software that you should expect to recover by your productivity increase. For example, suppose you are working in a laboratory at $12/hour and each week you spend about three hours calculating molar masses (using a hand-held calculator), one hour writing and balancing chemical equations and determining theoretical yields, and three hours on related calculations (e.g. preparing solutions, looking up data, etc.) The MPV calculation result suggests that an expenditure of $67 on the appropriate software would be recovered in productivity increases in only one month. When you are doing a variety of "little" tasks, it is probable that you cannot justify the purchase of the several software programs that would accomplish each of these tasks. You may find that you are financially better off to keep the paper, pencil and calculator!

Using Multi-tasking Productivity Software Tools

The solution is to seek out software that meets more than one of your tasks. This is why you will see offerings of "suites" or "office" bundles such as Microsoft Office, as ChemOffice, or as SigmaSuite. Other developers strive to provide similar "multiple-tasking" in their programs. Chemical Concepts Corporation, for example, has concentrated on making it easier for chemists to complete many of the "routine" types of chemical calculations encountered by chemists in their everyday work into one software program. Combined within the The availability of all of these tools in one package saves the user time and money that would otherwise be spent on learning to use several different programs that perform only one or two functions. Thus spending your time first on a task analysis can help you identify those truly multi-task software programs that are most likely to result in substantial savings in your next software purchase, as well as the time and money spent on the tasks themselves.

--Bert Ramsay, President, Chemical Concepts Corporation 


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