The ROI-model mistake I see constantly in software buying decisions (not just ERP)

Was reading a breakdown of how to properly calculate Odoo ERP ROI, and the core lesson generalizes way beyond ERP — it applies to basically any B2B tool purchase decision.

The mistake: start with the software's price, then invent big enough benefits to justify it. The fix: start by pricing what your current broken process already costs you (manual work, reconciliation time, errors, delays). That number is almost always bigger than people expect — because it's hidden inside payroll and rework instead of showing up as an invoice.

Other things worth stealing for your own buying (or selling) decisions:

• Split cost into 3 buckets: initial investment, recurring cost, annual benefit — don't blur them together or your payback period becomes fiction
• Don't count "mature state" gains as year-one wins — adoption takes time, model it honestly
• Build 3 scenarios (conservative/expected/upside), not one optimistic number
• Deliberately stress-test your own model — if it only works in the best case, you're not looking at an ROI case, you're looking at hope
  If you're building a SaaS product and want to help buyers make this case internally, a "cost of inaction" calculator baked into your sales funnel is a genuinely underused conversion tool.

Full piece here: https://theintechgroup.com/blog/odoo-erp-roi-guide/