Free tools/Enterprise architecture ROI
Build a credible business case for enterprise architecture
Estimate avoidable technology cost, recoverable value and payback. Every result shows the assumptions and confidence level.
Your operating context
Your inputs, ranges and confidence.
A decision aid for planning and review.
Test the case with an experienced adviser.
Method
How this calculator works
Every assumption is published here with its source, so you can check the logic, challenge it, or rebuild it in a spreadsheet. Nothing is hidden and nothing is tuned to flatter the answer.
Research puts wasted cloud and software spend at 25 to 29%, project spend lost to poor performance at 5 to 11%, and the IT spend recoverable through enterprise architecture at 3 to 12%. This calculator applies those published ranges to your figures, then assumes a properly designed EA capability recovers only part of the result. It reports ranges because a single precise number would be false.
The assumptions and their sources
Benchmarks last reviewed 17 July 2026. Where you mark an answer as not sure, the benchmark replaces your figure and the confidence level drops.
Why the calculator reports ranges
A single figure like £2,734,291 looks rigorous and is not. It hides every assumption inside false precision, and boards see through it. A defensible business case states what is known, what is assumed, and how wide the true range is. That is what this calculator produces, and it is deliberately more cautious than the tools published by software vendors, which exist to sell software.
The caution matters for a second reason. Gartner has found that only around half of first attempts at enterprise architecture succeed, and far fewer produce measurable value. The gap between organisations that recover this money and those that do not is not the size of the opportunity. It is whether the capability is designed around decisions the business makes. That design question is exactly what an independent assessment answers before you commit.
Questions
Questions about the ROI calculator
Plain answers on value, payback and cost. If the question is specific to your estate, ask an architect.
What is the ROI of enterprise architecture?
Research puts the recoverable value at 3 to 12% of annual IT spend for organisations that build the capability properly, through application rationalisation, less project rework, faster decisions and fewer failures. For a business spending £5 million a year on technology, that is £150,000 to £600,000 a year. The realistic answer for your organisation depends on your estate, which is what this calculator estimates.
How is enterprise architecture ROI calculated?
Add up the avoidable cost of poor technology decisions: duplicated applications, wasted cloud and software spend, project rework, slow decisions and failures with an architecture cause. Then assume the capability recovers only a share of that pool, typically 20 to 60% depending on how well it is designed, and set the recovery against what the capability costs to run. The full method and every assumption used here is published on this page.
Why does the calculator give a range instead of one number?
Because one number would be false precision. The inputs are estimates and the benchmarks are ranges, so the output is a range. A board will trust a stated range with published assumptions far more than a number with seven digits of confidence it did not earn.
How much does enterprise architecture cost in the UK?
A fractional capability starts from around £6,500 a month. An independent assessment with a fundable roadmap starts from £18,000 + VAT. An in house team costs from roughly £90,000 a year per senior architect before overheads. Our guide to enterprise architecture consulting costs in the UK breaks down what organisations pay.
How long does enterprise architecture take to pay back?
With a properly scoped capability, most mid sized organisations see payback within 12 to 24 months, driven first by application and licence savings, which release cash fastest. The calculator estimates your payback window from your own figures and shows the three year position.
Is enterprise architecture worth it for smaller organisations?
Below roughly £1 million of annual technology spend, a full EA function is rarely justified, but the decisions still need owning. A fractional arrangement, a few days a month of senior architecture, usually returns more than it costs by preventing one bad platform decision a year. The calculator will tell you honestly if the numbers look thin.
We have no architects today. Where do we start?
Start with an independent baseline of your systems, integrations and technology debt, and a roadmap the board can fund. That is what an EA QuickScan produces, from £18,000 + VAT. Designing the capability around your actual decisions is what separates the organisations that recover this value from the majority that do not.
Is this calculator a quote or a promise of savings?
No. It is planning guidance built from your inputs and published benchmarks, with every assumption disclosed. It exists to tell you whether the prize is big enough to investigate properly. A real business case needs your application inventory and contracts, which is exactly what an assessment builds.
Turn the estimate into a fundable business case
Thirty minutes with a senior architect on your estate, your numbers and whether the prize justifies the work. If the honest answer is that it does not, you will hear that too. A reply within one UK business day.
Keep reading
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Written and maintained by the Intelance architecture team. Benchmarks last reviewed 17 July 2026 against the Flexera 2026 State of the Cloud report, PMI Pulse of the Profession and published Gartner enterprise architecture research.