As a domain registrar and hosting provider it’s obviously in our best interest that people use the internet.
Without the internet we wouldn’t have a business.
Maybe I’d go back to one of my former careers … Who knows?
It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that people in our industry will post articles trying to show how web services can bring value and cost savings to business.
However most of the articles I’ve seen have been written by people from our industry, so while they can be an interesting read they’re usually a bit biased ie. we’re all really subjective!
So when you come across a breakdown of how much web services save an organisation, which is written by the organisation and not by an industry insider, it really is refreshing and quite an eye opener.
Lincolnshire County Council‘s Head of Web and Information Governance, Peter Barton, posted a fascinating analysis of what their website and services was worth to them.
Instead of just looking at some invented costs etc., he put together figures based on what the real costs would be for providing the same services without a web site (and related online services).
The figures are scary, but what really hit home for me was the summary of costs per interaction by medium:
- Face to face £6.56
- Phone £3.22
- Web 27p
Based on the council’s 177k visitors to their site per month, if only 10% rang them, seeking the information that they can currently access online, it would cost a staggering £51000 a month!
A lot of the cost saving, as he points out, are hard to put an exact figure on, but even without a clear figure it’s easy to see how the organisation would be impacted.
The full article, which is discussed here and here, is well worth reading.