➤ UNDERSTANDING ROI Te biggest selling point for any product or service is the re-
turn on investment (ROI) the district will experience because of it. To Mike Shrontz, vice president of strategic development at Synovia, ROI discussions are paramount.
❝ Public officials can and should
be held to the highest standards to ensure the public’s trust. Vendors need to recognize and respect that responsibility. ❞
“Since ROI is measured at many levels such as fiscal, safety, perfor-
mance and efficiencies, all discussions will focus on ROI regardless of the product or service offerings,” explained Shrontz. “Return on educational investment is the responsibility of everyone including parents, supers, teachers, students and school business officials. However, return on educational investment is achieved by accept- ing the challenge, invoking ingenuity, creativity and leadership and is the first duty of all vendors to school districts.”
Many vendors agree, with some calling it the most important
part of the equation when districts are considering purchasing a school-bus-related product. Dave Wehmeyer, pupil trans- portation mobile video specialist for Safety Vision, wants to see districts ask more questions. How does the product per- form over time? What will the product deliver in relation to the greatest need? What is the warranty relation to actual cost factor? Can the product help reduce cost of operation? And what is the payback time for the mony spent? “Not always do products have the ability to produce abstract
tangible ROI. So evaluating the overall objective of the expecta- tions of the products is very important,” said Wehmeyer. Te “when” of a product installation can also be used as a sell-
ing point to districts. For example, many times school districts will implement a change when there is an incident that causes them to take a second look at their policies and procedures. But, many times, this type of reactive purchasing decision costs the district much more up front and in the long run. “We’ve found that often schools will look to implement a
product such as ours after an incident has already occurred with the transportation operations or student safety,” said Keith Halasy, senior marketing manager for TeleNav Enterprise Mobil- ity. “We try to stress to potential customers that implementing a tracking product before something happens, as opposed to do- ing it reactively, can save them in the long run.” ■
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www.ewss.org | 10939B Reed Hartman Hwy. • Cincinnati, OH 45242 42 School Transportation News Magazine April 2011
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