Is it time for the Return-on-MACH (RoM) Investment Metric?

Is it time for the Return-on-MACH (RoM) Investment Metric?

MACH technologies have changed the business world by enabling companies to become more agile and responsive to market threats and opportunities than ever before, such as by shortening the time to add new channels to market. 

But, what is the true value of MACH, and how should business and technology leaders determine some sort of return on investment? I believe that the standard industry metrics used to determine the business outcomes of technology investments in an era of Microservices-based, Application programming interface (API) first, Cloud-native and Headless (MACH) are too limiting today.

Traditional Return-on-Investment (ROI) is too vendor-centric, needing more credibility with many buyers.  Lowering the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is good but is focused on costs. So how should organisations look at quantifying the myriad of business outcomes from investing in MACH technologies. We believe a new metric is required.

Why is a new metric required? 

For starters, most business leaders struggle to articulate the benefits of MACH technologies, even though they know instinctively it is in the right direction. MACH adoption is accelerating at breakneck speed. Driven by visionary IT leaders who understand the importance of implementing a modern, agile and scalable future-proof architecture, the business value that MACH technologies can deliver is deep and wide in organisations. (To learn more about the benefits of MACH, check out our User Guide to Creating a Composable Business).   

For this reason, the traditional ROI metric isn’t sufficient to capture the entirety of the comprehensive value of MACH technologies delivered now and in the future by organisations. That’s why a new metric is required – Return-on-MACH (RoM). 

How are we going to do this? For starters, it’s not just Xiatech looking at this important topic. In partnership with OneStock, and with members of the MACH Alliance, we have launched the world’s first end-user survey that will quantify the business value of composability and, specifically, MACH technologies.  

This initial activity is raising the awareness of the need for organisations to focus on quantifying the business value of MACH investments. (Though still relevant and important, currently, the vast majority of business cases for MACH have been focused on technical-related outcomes such as reducing development time and costs.)

Secondly, the results from this survey, to be published in October 2023, will help us, the industry, to collaboratively define a new metric for the comprehensive business value of MACH technologies – Return-on-MACH (RoM).

What’s next?

To get involved, and if you work at an organisation that has deployed MACH technologies, please complete the end-user survey here. It will only take 10 minutes.  If you would like to support our initiative to quantify the business value of MACH, and to develop tools to support companies, please contact me to schedule a call.