Recommendation: Approve — this replacement is not optional. CareLink Classic's vendor end-of-support timeline forces a replacement regardless of ROI; "do nothing" was never an available option, so a traditional payback-driven approval gate doesn't apply here the way it would for a discretionary investment. What this analysis actually justifies is the scope chosen — a full native mobile rebuild rather than a bare like-for-like legacy replacement. At full benefit realization the corrected $3,713,000 investment (RAIDD DEC-06) produces a 7-year discounted NPV of approximately −$1,469,000 at an 8% discount rate, with undiscounted payback around Year 9 — later than the 7-year window a consumer mobile app's typical refresh cycle would suggest. That's shown here honestly rather than reframed to look better: the case for approving isn't that this pays for itself quickly, it's that the money has to be spent on something, and this scope is the right one for what has to happen anyway. See the reasoning below.
The NPV and payback figures above are informational, not an approval gate — a payback-period test only means something when spending is optional. Since the vendor end-of-support date removes that option, the real decision this analysis supports is the scope comparison in the section below, not whether to act.
Quantified Annual Benefits (Full Realization)
| Category | Annual Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Legacy Vendor License Elimination | $340,000 | CareLink Classic (Vantix) annual license retired at cutover |
| Provider Throughput / Visit Capacity Gains | $250,000 | Faster visit setup (~6 min → under 2 min) frees provider capacity |
| Reduced Patient No-Show Rate | $220,000 | Mobile reminders reduce missed appointments |
| Patient Retention / Satisfaction | $180,000 | Mobile-first experience reduces churn to competitor telehealth apps |
| Reduced IT/Help Desk Support Burden | $140,000 | Support tickets: ~410/mo → under 150/mo (see Vision & Roadmap OKRs) |
| TOTAL ANNUAL BENEFIT | $1,130,000 |
Cost Summary
| Category | Amount |
|---|---|
| One-Time Implementation Cost (Year 0) | $3,713,000 |
| Annual Ongoing Cost (Year 1+) | $600,000 / year |
Ongoing cost = PulseConnect Video SDK ($210K) + Cloud Infrastructure ($114K) + Internal Sustainment Team ($220K) + Periodic Enhancements ($56K). Implementation figure is the approved program baseline (see Program Budget) — the final actual closed slightly under this, at $3.63M. Full detail on the Costs Detail tab of the Excel workbook.
7-Year Cash Flow & Payback
| Year | Realization | Net Cash Flow | Cumulative (Undiscounted) | Cumulative (Discounted @ 8%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | — | ($3,713,000) | ($3,713,000) | ($3,713,000) |
| 1 | 60% | $78,000 | ($3,635,000) | ($3,640,778) |
| 2 | 90% | $417,000 | ($3,218,000) | ($3,283,267) |
| 3 | 100% | $530,000 | ($2,688,000) | ($2,862,536) |
| 4 | 100% | $530,000 | ($2,158,000) | ($2,472,971) |
| 5 | 100% | $530,000 | ($1,628,000) | ($2,112,261) |
| 6 | 100% | $530,000 | ($1,098,000) | ($1,778,272) |
| 7 | 100% | $530,000 | ($568,000) | ($1,469,022) |
Neither cumulative column turns positive within the 7-year window shown. Extending the same $530,000/year steady-state benefit forward (not shown in the table above), undiscounted payback would occur around Year 9 and discounted payback around Year 14 — both past a consumer mobile app's typical 7-year refresh cycle. This is presented as-is rather than reframed, because the approval case for this program was never that it pays for itself quickly (see the recommendation above) — it's that the vendor end-of-support date removes "do nothing" as an option, and this is the right scope for the replacement that has to happen regardless.
How This Relates to the TCO
The Total Cost of Ownership analysis shows that, on raw cost alone, this platform's 7-year TCO ($7.91M) is higher than simply continuing to pay for CareLink Classic ($2.38M) — and this Cost-Benefit Analysis shows the same thing from a different angle: at the corrected budget, the quantified provider-capacity, retention, and support-cost benefits ($1.13M/year at full realization) don't fully offset the incremental cost within a typical 7-year window (7-year NPV of −$1.47M). Neither analysis argues this program pays for itself quickly. Both exist because "continue paying for CareLink Classic" isn't actually available past Vantix's end-of-support — so the real question both documents answer is what the right-sized replacement costs and delivers, not whether replacing it is worth doing. Read TCO and CBA together — TCO answers "what will this cost," CBA answers "what do we get for it."