Return On Investment

Business and profit

So let’s cut to the chase. First, businesses need to turn a profit. If not, then they cease to exist.
Profit may not be the prime motivator, lots of businesses set out to make the world a better place or market the next great thing. Still, salaries have to be paid, administration costs settled, and supplier accounts satisfied. Never mind capital equipment costs.

Business owners, senior management, and accountants are well aware of this, and detailed spending plans are scrutinized to the finest detail. So, buying something new in any business can meet some initial resistance.

Confusion

Back in the day, just as the industrial revolution hit the US, mechanical and early electrical machines had primitive forms of instrumentation. UI and UX were well, non-existent. Gauges were stuck anywhere. Early industrial plant design was a mess, information was frequently misinterpreted, and accidents occurred.

Mimic Panels

Something had to change, enter the Mimic Panel. These were the first form of visualization or diagramming to explain industrial processes.
Mimic panels were beautifully constructed, complex, and hugely expensive. The control electronics behind these panels were pure steampunk. Electromechanical relays, moving coil meters, incandescent bulbs, and reams of resistors, inductors, and capacitors.

This early lighting control panel shows the circuit diagram drawn on the cabinet with switches and meters controlling and monitoring the system placed appropriately on the diagram.

Early industrial visualization of a complex system.

If you think Health and Safety is expensive, try an accident

The cost and complexity of the Mimic Panel sometimes exceeded the cost of the plant it was designed to monitor. Still, these factory owners and their management deemed the purchase worthwhile. Not only could an accident kill or maim, but it also meant days or weeks of lost production and, perhaps more importantly, the loss of key members of staff.

Today we use visualization everywhere, but successful diagramming requires tools that users feel at home with.

Simplicity and power

With draw.io you don’t need to be a Picasso. Watch how easy it is for those of us who are artistically challenged to produce a professional diagram in minutes.

Project complexity

Another avenue of ROI is successful project management, eliminating wasted time as projects evolve, draw.io works seamlessly inside of Confluence, especially regarding revision history. Every change or modification is recorded. A complete version history stored so that should one path in projects development lead to a dead-end, it’s relatively easy to backtrack and try another route.

Recouping costs or ROI

Early industrial pioneers clearly saw the cost benefits of visualization and were prepared to spend money implementing diagramming.
They saw the benefits in increased productivity brought about by better communication, but what really sold the idea was diagramming helped avoid costly mistakes. This took diagramming into a whole new league in recouping its investment.

The same can be today. draw.io helps teams communicate, improving productivity, but the real return is when a diagram helps catch or unearth a potentially significant error. The day a diagram prompts a team member to do a double-take at a section of code or project implementation. That’s the day when draw.io will have paid for itself many times over.

Good ideas never go out of fashion. Today visualization and Mimic Panels are still as important as ever and can be found everywhere from nuclear power plants to automobile production lines.

Industrial America knew a good idea when it saw one, the medium may have evolved from steampunk hardware to software, but the concept remains, and the Return On Investment is as strong as ever.

Why don’t you visit the Atlassian marketplace and see how draw.io can help you and your business improve its ROI.

Keen to learn more, visit our YouTube Channel for a constantly updated playlist of how-to videos.
Visit our one-stop tutorial shop to pick up all the ins and outs of draw.io diagramming.
Or book a free demo to learn more about the limitless ways in which draw.io can make life easier and more productive for you and everyone in (and outside) your company!

Happy diagramming!