Cisco Cisco 2112 Wireless LAN Controller White Paper
Total Economic Impact Study of Unified Wireless Network
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2. Forrester interviewed Cisco marketing and technical sales teams to fully understand the
potential (or intended) value proposition of Cisco Unified Wireless Network.
3. Forrester conducted a series of in-depth interviews with four organizations currently using
Cisco Unified Wireless Network infrastructure.
4. Forrester constructed a financial model representative of the interviews. This model can be
found in the TEI Framework section below.
5. Forrester created a composite organization based on the interviews and populated the
framework using data from the interviews as applied to the composite organization.
Key Findings
Forrester’s study yielded several key findings:
• ROI. Based on the interviews with four existing customers, Forrester constructed a TEI
framework for a composite organization and the associated ROI analysis illustrating the
financial impact areas. As seen in Table 1, the risk-adjusted ROI for our composite
company is 92% with a breakeven point (payback period) after deployment of 15 months.
financial impact areas. As seen in Table 1, the risk-adjusted ROI for our composite
company is 92% with a breakeven point (payback period) after deployment of 15 months.
• Benefits. The organizations that we interviewed migrated to the centrally managed,
wireless architecture where access points are connected to a central controller for ease of
management and consistency of performance to reduce the operational cost of managing
their wireless implementations previously based on standalone or autonomous access
points. By standardizing and centrally managing the wireless network, they have reduced
on-going administrative costs, reduced site monitoring costs associated with RF monitoring
and rogue detection, improved end-user productivity, and reduced the IT effort to assign
and monitor guest access. The present value (PV) of the risk-adjusted total benefits is
equal to $647,529.
management and consistency of performance to reduce the operational cost of managing
their wireless implementations previously based on standalone or autonomous access
points. By standardizing and centrally managing the wireless network, they have reduced
on-going administrative costs, reduced site monitoring costs associated with RF monitoring
and rogue detection, improved end-user productivity, and reduced the IT effort to assign
and monitor guest access. The present value (PV) of the risk-adjusted total benefits is
equal to $647,529.
• Costs. The cost to migrate from autonomous wireless solutions to a centrally managed,
wireless architecture includes: the incremental cost to upgrade non-software upgradeable
access points, the cost to implement controllers to centrally manage access points, the
software license fees to implement wireless control system (WCS), and initial and on-going
administrative costs. The PV of the risk-adjusted total costs equates to
access points, the cost to implement controllers to centrally manage access points, the
software license fees to implement wireless control system (WCS), and initial and on-going
administrative costs. The PV of the risk-adjusted total costs equates to
$337,086
. The
reader should note that the Cisco product costs are list prices and do not include any
discounts.
discounts.
Table 1 illustrates the risk-adjusted cash flow for the composite organization, based on data and
characteristics obtained during the interview process. Forrester risk-adjusts these values to take
into account the potential uncertainty that exists in estimating the costs and benefits of a technology
investment. The risk-adjusted value is meant to provide a conservative estimation, incorporating
any potential risk factors that may later impact the original cost and benefit estimates. For a more
in-depth explanation of risk and risk adjustments used in this study, please see the Risk section.
(Note: numbers have been rounded throughout this document.)
characteristics obtained during the interview process. Forrester risk-adjusts these values to take
into account the potential uncertainty that exists in estimating the costs and benefits of a technology
investment. The risk-adjusted value is meant to provide a conservative estimation, incorporating
any potential risk factors that may later impact the original cost and benefit estimates. For a more
in-depth explanation of risk and risk adjustments used in this study, please see the Risk section.
(Note: numbers have been rounded throughout this document.)