Breaking Down IDC’s 469% ROI Finding: What the Numbers Really Mean
A 469% return on investment will turn heads in any industry. But when IDC validated this outcome for organizations using IFS Copperleaf® to transform capital planning, the finding represented far more than impressive statistics. It signaled a shift toward a more disciplined, strategic, and value-based approach to deploying capital.
IDC’s analysis shows that ROI at this scale emerges not from a single benefit category, but from the cumulative effect of better planning efficiency, stronger governance, increased agility, improved data quality, and more confident allocation of funding and resources. In short: organizations aren’t just planning faster — they are investing smarter.
Where the Value Truly Comes From
One of the largest contributors to ROI is efficiency. IDC found that organizations achieved a 17% improvement in capital planning efficiency and an 18% increase in asset manager productivity. These gains are not about incremental workflow improvements; they reflect a structural reduction in waste.
Teams no longer spend weeks assembling spreadsheets, reconciling conflicting data, or debating inconsistent prioritization criteria. Instead, they redirect their time to analyzing risk, assessing trade-offs, and shaping strategy. This shift embodies one of IFS Copperleaf’s core value drivers: improving planning efficiency so people can focus on higher-value decisions.
These efficiency gains set the foundation — but they are only the beginning.
Optimizing Capital Deployment: Better Decisions, Better Outcomes
IDC reported that organizations using value-based planning increased the economic value of their portfolios by an average of 3%, with one organization achieving a 13% uplift. Importantly, this increase does not come from reducing spend. It comes from funding the right projects at the right time.
This is enabled by the Copperleaf Value Framework, which evaluates every proposed investment on a common economic scale — financial impacts, risk reduction, reliability, compliance, environmental benefits, customer outcomes, and strategic contribution. With this clarity, organizations eliminate guesswork and reduce advocacy-driven prioritization. They build portfolios grounded in evidence, not opinion.
This directly reinforces the value driver: allocate funding and resources with confidence.
Agility: The Multiplier Effect on ROI
IDC found that organizations became 55% more efficient at shifting capital when conditions changed. In today’s environment — shaped by volatile markets, regulatory pressure, supply chain uncertainty, and climate-driven disruptions — agility is no longer optional.
IFS Copperleaf enables organizations to rapidly model alternatives, assess the impact on risk and strategic outcomes, and adapt with confidence. This scenario agility, powered by AI-enabled optimization and “what-if” modeling, is a hallmark differentiator of the IFS Copperleaf AIP solution.
When organizations can pivot quickly, they avoid costly delays, protect service continuity, and respond proactively to emerging risks — all key contributors to enterprise value.
Strengthening Governance and Regulatory Confidence
Better planning leads to better governance. IDC documented organizations that significantly improved the defensibility of their regulatory submissions through clearer logic, more transparent assumptions, and more consistent evidence.
In one example, a utility secured a 17% increase in approved revenue because it could clearly demonstrate how its proposed plan would manage risk and deliver outcomes. This is exactly what the value driver communicate, visualize, and defend your plan is designed to achieve.
Stronger cases mean faster approvals, fewer challenges, and greater confidence from oversight bodies — all of which feed directly into ROI.
The Real Meaning Behind 469% ROI
IDC’s research reinforces a critical truth: ROI is not driven by digitizing existing processes. It comes from transforming how capital decisions are made.
Organizations using IFS Copperleaf:
- Make more strategic, value-aligned decisions
- Adapt faster to changing business conditions
- Manage risk proactively and transparently
- Build portfolios that deliver stronger long-term performance
- Create a repeatable, defensible capital planning discipline
The 469% ROI is not a headline — it is a blueprint for how modern capital planning, powered by the IFS Copperleaf AIP solution, elevates planning from a technical exercise to a strategic lever that strengthens enterprise value.
IFS Copperleaf doesn’t just accelerate planning. It gives organizations the confidence that every dollar is deployed where it will create the greatest impact — today and into the future.