Importing a Metric
Import Metric allows you to bring reusable calculations from another reusable model into the ROI Model you are currently building.
Instead of recreating commonly used Inputs, Outputs and calculations each time you build a model, you can maintain reusable calculation blocks and import them when they are needed.
This is particularly useful for calculations that appear across multiple ROI Models.
For example, you might create reusable Metrics for:
employee productivity savings;
labour cost reduction;
avoided operational costs;
time savings;
revenue improvement;
implementation costs;
recurring technology costs.
Importing a Metric gives you a starting point that can then be refined for the specific ROI Model you are building.
What Is a Metric?
In Ekphrastic, reusable Metrics are stored as Reusable Models.
A Reusable Model is a Calculator that has been made available for reuse within other ROI Models.
It can contain calculation components such as:
Inputs;
Outputs;
Formulas;
supporting model structure.
This allows a useful calculation to be created once and then brought into other models rather than rebuilt manually.
Creating Reusable Calculations
Reusable Models are created outside ROI Studio from an existing Calculator using:
Convert to Reusable Model
Once converted, the model becomes available to the Import Metric workflow.
This allows you to build a library of calculation blocks that can be reused as your ROI modelling library develops.
Opening Import Metric
While editing a Calculator in ROI Studio, select:
Import Metric
This opens:
Import & Merge Metrics from Another Model
Ekphrastic then displays the Reusable Models available to you.
If no Reusable Models are available, you may see:
No Reusables detected
In this case, create or convert a suitable reusable model before attempting the import again.
Finding a Reusable Model
The Import Metric window provides a searchable list of available Reusable Models.
Results are presented in pages, allowing you to browse your reusable calculation library or search for the model you need.
Each available Reusable Model includes information to help you identify it, including:
model name;
image;
summary information about its components.
The summary can include counts for elements such as:
Inputs;
Outputs;
Charts.
This provides a quick indication of the content contained within the reusable model before you import it.
Importing the Metric
When you find the Reusable Model you want to use, select:
Add Metrics
Ekphrastic merges the selected reusable model into the Calculator you are currently editing.
One Reusable Model is selected for each import action.
After the import completes, the Import window closes and ROI Studio refreshes so that the updated Calculator can be displayed.
The imported calculation content then becomes part of the Calculator you are working on.
Imported Metrics Are Independent
Importing a Metric creates an independent copy within the destination Calculator.
The imported calculation does not remain connected to the Reusable Model it came from.
This is an important distinction.
After importing a Metric:
you can refine the imported calculation for the current model;
changes made within the current Calculator do not update the original Reusable Model;
later changes to the original Reusable Model do not automatically update calculations that were previously imported.
This gives each ROI Model the flexibility to adapt reusable calculations to its own business case.
Reuse First, Then Refine
Reusable Metrics are intended to accelerate model creation rather than prevent model-specific changes.
For example, you might maintain a reusable productivity calculation containing the Inputs and Outputs needed to calculate annual employee time savings.
After importing it into a particular ROI Model, you could then refine:
assumptions;
labels;
values;
calculations;
presentation;
to suit that specific use case.
The reusable Metric provides the foundation while the destination Calculator remains independently editable.
Building a Reusable Metric Library
Import Metric becomes increasingly useful as you build a library of calculations that are common across your business cases.
Instead of repeatedly creating the same calculation structure, you can reuse established calculation blocks and concentrate on the parts of each ROI Model that are specific to the opportunity.
A reusable library might contain Metrics for areas such as:
Employee Time Savings
Convert time saved into annual productivity value
FTE Cost Savings
Calculate labour savings from capacity reduction
Revenue Improvement
Calculate financial impact from increased revenue
Cost Avoidance
Estimate costs prevented by an initiative
Implementation Cost
Represent one-time deployment costs
Recurring Cost
Represent annual software or service costs
The Metrics you create should reflect calculations that are genuinely useful across multiple models.
When to Use Import Metric
Import Metric is most useful when a calculation:
has already been created;
is likely to be used across multiple ROI Models;
contains several related Inputs and Outputs;
would otherwise need to be rebuilt manually;
provides a useful foundation that can be refined after import.
For a calculation that is unique to one business case, creating it directly within the ROI Model may be simpler.
Importing vs Copying an Entire Model
Import Metric is intended for reusing calculation building blocks, rather than using another Calculator as the finished business case.
The destination Calculator remains the model you are editing.
The selected Reusable Model contributes reusable calculation content to that model.
This allows an ROI Model to combine reusable calculation foundations with calculations created specifically for the current opportunity.
After Importing
After the import completes, review the imported content within ROI Studio.
You can then continue building and refining the Calculator using the normal ROI Studio tools.
As with any calculation added to a model, review the imported assumptions and results to make sure they are appropriate for the business case you are creating.
Reusable calculations provide a starting point, but the assumptions used in one model may not necessarily be appropriate for another.
Import Behaviour
Ekphrastic handles the technical merge between the Reusable Model and the Calculator when Add Metrics is selected.
The exact internal handling of duplicate components, identifiers and merge conflicts is not exposed as part of the normal ROI Studio workflow.
For this reason, review the resulting Calculator after an import, particularly when importing related Metrics or importing reusable content into a model that already contains similar calculations.
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