A printable, finance-ready methodology pack with the full model inputs, formulas, three-year projection, sensitivity logic, and source citations. Use this offline; rebuild in your own spreadsheet.
Three-year nominal NPV with sensitivity. Inputs configurable per team. Hard benefits only (hours × loaded rate, net of licence and implementation); soft benefits qualitative annex.
Horizon and discount rate
Parameter
Default
Source / rationale
Time horizon
3 years
Long enough to capture full benefit curve; short enough to remain defensible.
Discount rate
10% nominal
European mid-market default 2025–2026. Use company WACC if published. NYU Stern (Damodaran) tables if challenged.
What this excludes: BAFO savings, response-rate uplift, error reduction, planner-attrition reduction. Each requires sourced data and goes into a qualitative annex (Section 6) until you have baseline measurements.
5. Sensitivity analysis — ±25% method
For each input, hold the others constant; swing the focal input up 25% and down 25%; record the NPV change. Rank by magnitude. The top three variables are the ones to defend hardest.
Variable
Base
Low (−25%)
High (+25%)
NPV swing (typical)
Hours saved/RFP (I4)
6.0
4.5
7.5
Largest
RFPs per year (I2)
180
135
225
Second-largest
Planner loaded cost (I3)
€78,000
€58,500
€97,500
Third
Licence (I5)
€9,600
€7,200
€12,000
Small
Implementation (I6)
€4,000
€3,000
€5,000
Smallest (Y1 only)
Lesson: a 25% increase in licence price barely moves the answer; a 25% drop in hours-saved breaks the model. Defend hours-saved with a time study, not a vendor claim.
6. Qualitative annex — soft benefits
Present these alongside the NPV, never blended in. Finance teams discount blended models heavily.
Audit trail completeness — automatic vs manually reconstructed. Cite an actual audit finding if you have one.
Faster decision cycles — proposal-to-contract time reduction. Useful but hard to monetise without baseline.
Planner satisfaction / attrition — only quantify if you have an internal attrition study. Otherwise qualitative.
BAFO savings rate — quantifiable when you have at least 12 months of baseline BAFO outcomes.
Response-rate uplift — percentage of RFPs receiving 3+ qualifying proposals. Quantify from your data, not vendor averages.
Error reduction — contract errors per 100 RFPs. Requires a baseline error log most teams do not have.
7. Source citations
Robert Half 2025 Salary Guide (Europe edition) — planner and meetings-manager salary bands. Pull the latest published edition for your market.
Cvent public pricing — Cvent does not publish list prices; mid-market figures in this pack reflect industry coverage and customer-reported ranges from 2025–2026.
Easy RFP published pricing — Starter €45/month, Pro €119/month, Pro+ €319/month per workspace. easyhotelrfp.com/pricing/
Bizly, MeetingPackage — public pricing pages; pull live the day you build the model.
Aswath Damodaran (NYU Stern) — annual industry cost-of-capital tables. Standard external reference if discount rate is challenged.
Eurofound 2024 — European average working hours used for hourly-rate division (1,800/year).
MPI Meeting Industry Workforce Outlook — qualitative reference for planner workload trends.
8. Customisation guide
Copy this table structure into Google Sheets or Excel.
Replace I3 (loaded cost) with your HR-confirmed figure.
Replace I5 (licence) with the vendor's quote — screenshot the pricing page for the audit trail.
Replace I4 (hours saved) with the output of a five-RFP time study comparing current state to a vendor demo walkthrough.
Lock the formula cells before sharing internally.
Re-run quarterly with actuals. The model gets more defensible the longer it has been calibrated.
Want the live interactive version? Run the same model with sliders and instant sensitivity bars.