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11. Cost Analysis

This section presents a breakdown of the costs you can expect within the project life cycle, together with a look at the savings that should come about when the service is up and running. As with all IT projects a reliable cost benefit analysis is difficult to perform so be wary that any figures given here, though based on experience with several user sites, are estimates only and are derived using several assumptions. Actual costs and manpower required will vary considerably depending on circumstances. As such any figures provided in this section should be used for rough guidance only. The main use of this section is as a `shopping list' of cost items which can be used as the basis for a more appropriate estimate of projected expenditure.

11.1 Outlay

11.1.1 The Development Phase

The length and cost of the development phase will vary considerably. Larger organisations will require greater planning effort as a result of more complex and distributed management models. Specific factors:

• Multiple and varied data sources. Organizations may have distributed data sources. All e-mail addresses, for example, may not be managed at a single point, especially if the organisation is geographically distributed. Similarly different data sources may need to be employed for different kinds of information, e.g. the e-mail database for e-mail addresses, the internal phone book (if available electronically) for phone numbers, etc.
• Multiple sites. An organisation with many sites will require a more involved service design, especially in the areas of replication and security.
• Complex data model. A complex management model will correspond with a complex data model, especially if a functionality rich directory service is required.
• External staff affiliation. Larger enterprises are likely to make use of non-permanent staff or have on-site workers belonging to closely co-operating external organisations. This means that a significant number of workers will contribute to the data management overhead - short term, contract or seconded staff may not be stored in the personnel database and will then require loading from other sources. The greater movement of such staff will also add to the total amount of change required in the directory database.
• Politics. Co-operation is required between various management elements of the enterprise. The bigger an organization the greater the need for `buy in' by and the subsequent backing of upper management.