A good mathematical model (at least for starters) might be to think about expectation values for random variables. Have you ever gone to the store and wondered what line to stand in? I remember recently looking at two lines: one quite long, but full of people with comparatively few items, and one much shorter, but with at least one person having many items. Which is preferable?
--- Nancy Anthracite <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You are so right. You might be able to stick a dollar amount on > money saved > on maintaining and finding paper records, but how can you put a > dollar amount > on having a machine double check your orders for drug interactions, > always > having that chart at your fingertips, etc. > > "Priceless" for an answer probably won't hack it. > > On Tuesday 20 September 2005 03:45 pm, Christoph Guenther wrote: > Yes, I realize that there is a benefits as well as cost side of this. > So > then the question becomes whether you can lower the costs > sufficiently > for the benefits to outweigh the costs. That in turn assumes that > benefits and costs can be quantified in some way. Has anyone ever > done this? > > My gut feeling is that it is easier to quantify the costs (or at > least > get an estimate on the lower bound of those costs) then to quantify > the > benefits. After all, I can say that depending on the environment, I > will > probably have to spend at least so and so much money on hardware, > software licensing, installation, support, training, etc. > Getting a dollar amount for the benefits seems to be much more > difficult > since in my mind those benefits are much less well-defined. > > Christoph > > Greg Woodhouse wrote: > >How about lowering the barriers to entry? There is a cost as well as > a > >benefit side, too > > > >--- Christoph Guenther <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>What's the way out of this conundrum? > > > >=== > >Gregory Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > > > >"Without the requirement of mathematical aesthetics a great many > discoveries > > would not have been made." > > > >-- Albert Einstein > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >------------------------------------------------------- > >SF.Net email is sponsored by: > >Tame your development challenges with Apache's Geronimo App Server. > Download > >it for free - -and be entered to win a 42" plasma tv or your very > own > >Sony(tm)PSP. Click here to play: > http://sourceforge.net/geronimo.php > >_______________________________________________ > >Hardhats-members mailing list > >Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net > >https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > > ------------------------------------------------------- > SF.Net email is sponsored by: > Tame your development challenges with Apache's Geronimo App Server. > Download > it for free - -and be entered to win a 42" plasma tv or your very own > Sony(tm)PSP. Click here to play: http://sourceforge.net/geronimo.php > _______________________________________________ > Hardhats-members mailing list > Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > > -- > Nancy Anthracite > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > SF.Net email is sponsored by: > Tame your development challenges with Apache's Geronimo App Server. > Download > it for free - -and be entered to win a 42" plasma tv or your very own > Sony(tm)PSP. Click here to play: http://sourceforge.net/geronimo.php > _______________________________________________ > Hardhats-members mailing list > Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > === Gregory Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "Without the requirement of mathematical aesthetics a great many discoveries would not have been made." -- Albert Einstein ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Tame your development challenges with Apache's Geronimo App Server. Download it for free - -and be entered to win a 42" plasma tv or your very own Sony(tm)PSP. Click here to play: http://sourceforge.net/geronimo.php _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
