ROI Viewer Scenarios
Scenarios allow recipients to explore different sets of assumptions within your Calculator or ROI Model and compare how those assumptions affect the resulting business case.
Instead of presenting a single outcome, recipients can adjust the model, save different scenarios and compare their inputs and results side by side.
This can be particularly useful when a business case contains assumptions that stakeholders may want to challenge, test or evaluate under different conditions.
How scenarios work
When a recipient changes inputs in your model, the calculated results update automatically.
The Scenarios feature allows them to capture the current state of the model so they can return to it later or compare it with other alternatives.
A recipient might, for example, explore:
Conservative → Expected → Optimistic
Or scenarios could represent different operating conditions, implementation approaches, adoption levels or investment choices.
The scenarios themselves are created by the recipient while interacting with your published model. You do not need to create predefined scenarios for them.
Why scenarios are useful
Business cases rarely depend on a single assumption.
Stakeholders may want to understand what happens if adoption is lower than expected, implementation costs increase, productivity improvements are more conservative or the scale of deployment changes.
Scenarios allow recipients to explore these questions without losing the assumptions they have already tested.
This can help turn your model from a single ROI calculation into an interactive decision-making tool.
Tip: Scenarios are particularly valuable when your model contains assumptions that recipients are likely to challenge or want to explore. Giving them the ability to test alternatives can make the relationship between assumptions and business outcomes much clearer.
Saving a scenario
Recipients can adjust the available inputs until the model represents the situation they want to evaluate.
They can then use the Scenarios menu to save the current state as a scenario.
For example, a recipient might configure a model using cautious assumptions and save it as:
Conservative Case
They could then change several assumptions and save another version as:
Expected Case
Each saved scenario captures the model state required to return to that scenario later.
Screenshot: Save Scenario interface showing a scenario being named.
Loading a scenario
A saved scenario can be loaded again from the Scenarios menu.
Loading it restores the saved model state, allowing the recipient to revisit the assumptions and calculated results associated with that scenario.
The model remains interactive after a scenario has been loaded, so the recipient can continue adjusting values and exploring the business case.
The Default option can be used to return the model to its original published values.
Comparing scenarios
Once a recipient has saved at least two scenarios, they can use the comparison feature to examine them side by side.
The comparison brings together the important model values so recipients can see how different assumptions influence the resulting outcomes.
Information is organised into two broad groups:
Core Inputs — the assumptions and values used by each scenario.
Results — the calculated outcomes produced from those assumptions.
This makes it easier to understand not only which scenario produces the strongest result, but why the result is different.
Screenshot: Scenario comparison view showing two or more scenarios side by side.
Example scenario comparison
Imagine an ROI Model where the recipient wants to understand the effect of different adoption and efficiency assumptions.
They might create three scenarios:
Core Inputs
Adoption
40%
60%
80%
Efficiency improvement
10%
20%
30%
Results
Annual Benefit
£180,000
£310,000
£445,000
ROI
72%
148%
224%
Payback
14 months
8 months
5 months
The values above are illustrative and are not predefined Ekphrastic scenarios.
The comparison makes the relationship between the assumptions and results easier to evaluate.
For example, rather than simply seeing an ROI of 148%, the recipient can see which assumptions produced that result and how a more conservative set of assumptions would affect the business case.
Comparing more than two scenarios
Scenario comparison is not limited to a simple A/B comparison.
Recipients can save multiple scenarios and select two or more of them for comparison.
This can be useful when evaluating several potential business-case positions, such as:
Conservative → Expected → Optimistic
or alternatives such as:
Current Plan → Phase 1 Deployment → Full Deployment
The scenario names are determined by the recipient, so the comparison can reflect whatever alternatives are relevant to their evaluation.
Designing models that work well with scenarios
You do not need to design a different calculation model to support scenario exploration.
However, scenarios become more valuable when the adjustable inputs represent meaningful business assumptions.
Consider exposing assumptions that genuinely influence the decision, such as adoption, volumes, operating costs, implementation costs, productivity improvements or other important value drivers.
This allows recipients to explore the sensitivity of the business case rather than simply reproducing a predetermined result.
A well-designed model should make it easy to understand:
What changed → Why it changed → What impact it had
Scenario comparison reinforces this relationship by displaying the assumptions and resulting outcomes together.
What appears in a comparison
The comparison experience focuses on model inputs and calculated results.
Display-only text input blocks are excluded from scenario comparison. This keeps the comparison focused on the values that distinguish one scenario from another rather than repeating explanatory content.
The exact values available for comparison therefore depend on how your model has been designed.
Deleting scenarios
Recipients can remove saved scenarios they no longer need from the scenario management options.
Deleting a scenario removes that saved version from their browser and it will no longer be available to load or include in comparisons.
Deleting a scenario does not change your published model.
Where scenarios are stored
Saved scenarios are stored locally in the recipient's browser.
They are not saved as shared scenarios within the Ekphrastic platform.
This means saved scenarios are specific to the browser and device where they were created.
Important: A scenario saved on one device or browser will not automatically be available on another device or browser. Clearing browser storage may also remove saved scenarios.
This local approach allows recipients to explore and retain scenarios while interacting with your model without changing the model you originally published.
Scenarios do not change your published model
Recipients are free to change inputs, save scenarios and compare alternatives without modifying your underlying Calculator or ROI Model.
Your published model remains unchanged.
Scenarios represent the recipient's exploration of that model rather than new versions of the model itself.
This distinction is useful when sharing ROI Models with multiple stakeholders: each recipient can explore assumptions relevant to their own situation without affecting the experience presented to anyone else.
Using scenarios effectively
Scenarios are most valuable when they support a genuine business decision.
Rather than thinking of them simply as a way for recipients to save values, consider how someone evaluating your business case might use them to answer questions such as:
What happens if we use more conservative assumptions?
How sensitive is the ROI to adoption?
What would a larger deployment look like?
How does a phased implementation compare with full deployment?
Which assumptions have the greatest impact on the outcome?
Giving recipients the ability to explore these questions can make your ROI Model more useful during internal evaluation and business-case discussions.
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