Question

A retail company is deciding whether to fund a custom procurement agent built on Microsoft Foundry. The finance team wants the business case to reflect a realistic total cost of ownership (TCO) and defensible ROI over a three-year horizon. The initial proposal only lists the one-time development cost and the projected labor savings in year one. As the solutions architect, which addition to the analysis would most improve the accuracy of the ROI and TCO calculation?

Accepted Answer

Include recurring operating costs such as model inference/token consumption, monitoring, retraining, and support, plus phased benefit realization across all three years

Answer

Replace the three-year horizon with a single-year payback calculation to simplify approval

Answer

Add the marketing value of being seen as an AI-forward brand as the primary quantified benefit

Answer

Base the benefit projection solely on the vendor's published benchmark savings for similar agents