Calculator vs ROI Model
Ekphrastic models can be used as standalone Calculators or extended into ROI Models with an ROI Hub business case presentation layer.
This allows you to build and maintain the underlying calculations in ROI Studio while using ROI Hub to present the model as a more complete, structured business case.
Calculator and ROI Model
Models in My ROI Models & Calculators can be identified as either a Calculator or an ROI Model.
Calculator
A standalone interactive model for capturing assumptions, performing calculations and presenting results.
The Calculator contains the inputs, outputs, formulas and calculation logic that power the model.
ROI Model
An ROI Model combines your interactive Calculator with an ROI Hub business case presentation layer.
ROI Hub provides additional context around the financial model, helping users understand the business case, key outcomes and how the underlying calculations connect.
The Calculator remains the source of the model's calculations and can continue to be edited in ROI Studio.
What the ROI Hub includes
When you create an ROI Model, Ekphrastic automatically generates an initial ROI Hub from the underlying Calculator.
The Hub includes:
Title and Introduction
A title and introductory narrative provide context for the business case and introduce the model to the viewer.
Key Metrics
Important outputs from the Calculator are surfaced as key metrics, helping viewers quickly identify significant financial and operational outcomes.
Business Case Sections
Structured sections organise the wider business case into clear areas, providing additional context around the model and its value.
Q&A
Generated questions and answers provide supporting information that helps viewers understand important aspects of the business case.
Calculation Flow
The Calculation Flow provides an interactive visual representation of how the underlying model works.
It shows the relationships between inputs, calculations and outputs, allowing viewers to explore how values flow through the model and contribute to its results.
Hovering over elements provides additional information about individual parts of the calculation.
The Calculation Flow is generated automatically from the actual Calculator structure. It cannot be manually edited within ROI Hub.
Conclusion
A conclusion provides a closing summary of the business case and its key outcomes.
Create an ROI Model
To create an ROI Model from an existing Calculator:
Open My ROI Models & Calculators.
Locate the Calculator you want to use.
Open the model's Asset Configuration options.
Under Business Case Production, locate Create Business Case.
Select Generate.
Ekphrastic begins generating the ROI Hub.
A notification confirms that processing has started, and the Calculator displays a processing indicator while the Business Case is being prepared.
Generation typically takes around 30 seconds.
When processing is complete, the asset automatically changes from Calculator to ROI Model in My ROI Models & Calculators.
Your underlying Calculator and its calculations remain intact.
Editing the ROI Hub
The initial ROI Hub is automatically generated, but its presentation content can be refined to better reflect your business case.
You can edit:
the Title
the Introduction
Key Metrics
Business Case Sections
Q&A
the Conclusion
Managing Metrics, Sections and Q&A
Metrics, Business Case Sections and Q&A can be managed directly within the ROI Hub.
You can:
edit existing items;
add new items;
delete items you no longer need; and
reorder items to control how information is presented.
This allows the automatically generated business case to act as a starting point that can then be refined for your audience and use case.
Calculation Flow
The Calculation Flow is different from the other ROI Hub content.
It is derived automatically from the inputs, outputs and calculation relationships in the underlying Calculator and cannot be manually edited in ROI Hub.
To change the calculation structure itself, edit the underlying Calculator in ROI Studio.
Updating the underlying Calculator
The Calculator remains the editable source for the financial model and its calculation logic.
You can continue to edit its inputs, outputs, formulas and structure in ROI Studio as normal.
If you make changes to the Calculator, you can run Generate again from Asset Configuration to update the ROI Hub from the latest version of the model.
This ensures that the generated business case can be refreshed as the underlying model evolves.
Generated first, refined by you
ROI Hub is designed to provide a structured starting point rather than requiring you to build a business case presentation from scratch.
Ekphrastic generates the initial:
Title and Introduction
Key Metrics
Business Case Sections
Q&A
Calculation Flow
Conclusion
You can then refine the presentation content to suit your business case.
The Calculator remains the source of the calculations, while the Calculation Flow remains an automatic representation of those calculations.
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