InformationWeek SMB TechEncyclopedia

(Return On Investment) The monetary benefits derived from having spent money on developing or revising a system. In the IT world, there are more ways to compute ROI than Carter has liver pills (and for those of you who never heard of that expression, it means a lot). The intangibles are sometimes the most important benefits, but because many of them may be long term, they are typically the most difficult to quantify. See TCO.