---
title: "Putting numbers behind an IT support decision"
description: "The case for better remote support is easy to make qualitatively and hard to make quantitatively"
canonical_url: https://rmm247connect.app/tools
section: "Calculators and tools"
product: 247connect
product_website: https://www.247connect.cloud/
site: "247connect Knowledge Hub"
author: "247connect Marketing Team"
date_published: 2026-02-02
date_modified: 2026-08-27
language: en-GB
license: Quotation and citation permitted with attribution to 247connect.
---

# Putting numbers behind an IT support decision

## Key figures

- **Nothing is stored:** In browser
- **Standard TCO horizon:** 3 years
- **Time-saving basis:** Per ticket
- **Concurrency measure:** Peak

## Most IT business cases fail on arithmetic, not on argument

The case for better remote support is easy to make qualitatively and hard to make quantitatively, which is why it often loses to something with a spreadsheet attached. The numbers are not difficult, though. Time saved per ticket multiplied by ticket volume is a labour figure. Avoided site visits multiplied by travel cost and hours is a second. Downtime avoided, valued at whatever an hour of stopped work costs your organisation, is usually the largest and the one people forget to include.

These calculators do that arithmetic with your figures rather than a vendor's. Everything runs in your browser, so nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored, and you can put a real salary cost or a real hourly downtime value in without worrying about where it ends up.

- Labour: minutes saved per ticket, at a loaded hourly rate, across your real ticket volume
- Travel: site visits avoided, including the hours lost travelling rather than just mileage
- Downtime: hours of stopped work avoided, valued at your own cost per hour
- Licensing: peak concurrent sessions rather than headcount, modelled over three years

## The inputs worth getting right

Two inputs dominate every one of these models. The first is your loaded hourly cost, which is salary plus employment costs divided by actual productive hours, not salary divided by 2,080. Using the wrong figure understates every saving by roughly a third. The second is peak concurrency, which is the highest number of sessions running at the same moment rather than the number of people who might connect. Teams routinely overestimate it by a factor of two or more, and it is the number concurrency-based licensing is priced on.

For downtime, use a figure your finance team would recognise. A number you invented will be challenged; a number derived from revenue per hour or from staff cost per hour will not.

## Use the output as evidence, not as a verdict

A calculator produces a defensible estimate, not a decision. The useful output is a range with the assumptions written next to it, because that is what survives a conversation with someone who did not build the model. Every calculator here shows its working for that reason, and each one is paired with the guide that explains the reasoning behind the formula.

## Building the business case in four steps

1. **Gather four real numbers** — Monthly ticket volume, average handling time, loaded hourly cost, and cost of an hour of downtime. Estimates are fine as long as you note them as estimates.
2. **Model the current state first** — Cost the way you work now, including travel and waiting. A saving is only credible next to a baseline someone recognises.
3. **Run the comparison over three years** — One year flatters tools with low entry pricing and hides renewal increases. Three years is the horizon most approvals are judged over.
4. **Present a range with the assumptions attached** — A conservative and an optimistic figure, with the inputs listed, is far more persuasive than a single confident number nobody can reproduce.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do you calculate the ROI of remote support software?

Add the labour saved (minutes per ticket times ticket volume at a loaded hourly rate), the travel avoided (site visits times cost and hours), and the downtime avoided (hours times your cost per hour). Subtract the licence and rollout cost, then express the result over three years so renewals are included.

### What is a loaded hourly cost and why does it matter?

It is salary plus employer costs divided by genuinely productive hours, rather than headline salary divided by total hours. It is typically 25 to 40 per cent higher than the naive figure, and using the naive figure understates every saving in the model.

### How many concurrent remote sessions does a team actually need?

Far fewer than its headcount. Count the highest number of sessions running simultaneously during a busy period, not the number of people with a login. Most small teams peak at two or three, which is why concurrency-based licensing is usually cheaper than per-technician pricing for them.

### Is any data from these calculators sent anywhere?

No. Every calculation runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is transmitted, logged or stored, so you can use real salary, cost and downtime figures without them leaving the machine.

## Where 247connect fits

If the model points at concurrency-based licensing, 247connect prices exactly that way: unlimited operators with five concurrent connections per user on fixed pricing, so the figure you model is the figure you pay.

---

Source page: https://rmm247connect.app/tools
Product website: https://www.247connect.cloud/