Why does a better investment decision have to turn into an IT project?
Companies invest millions or billions in CAPEX, transformation, infrastructure, and strategic projects.
But before the first better investment decision can even be made, the next major project often gets underway:
IT design.
Requirements engineering.
Workshops.
Customization.
Interfaces.
Data migration.
System Integration.
Training.
Change Management.
External Consulting.
The key question, therefore, is:
Do companies really need a large-scale IT project to make better investment decisions?
Or can decision intelligence start on a much smaller scale?
The real problem isn’t just the software costs
With traditional enterprise solutions, the software license is often only a fraction of the actual total cost.
Added to this are implementation, external consulting, data migration, interfaces, customization, training, change management, and internal personnel resources.
The more complex the existing IT landscape is, the greater the effort can become. As a result, what is essentially a simple business question can turn into a large-scale IT and consulting project.
This does not mean that ERP, PPM, or transformation projects are fundamentally unnecessary. They fulfill important functions.
The crucial question is a different one:
Does all this effort have to be expended if a company initially just wants to mathematically optimize a specific investment decision?
When an Investment Decision Turns into an IT Project
Let’s take a company with 100 potential investment projects.
Essentially, management wants to know:
Which combination of our projects yields the best possible result given our available budget and real-world constraints?
To answer this, only a small amount of structured data is needed at first:
- Project ID
- Expenditures
- Expected revenue or economic benefit (public sector)
- Utility Criteria
- Constraints
- Dependencies
However, this data already gives rise to a vast mathematical decision space.
For 100 projects requiring a yes/no decision, there are theoretically:
2^100 possible project combinations.
That corresponds to approximately 1.27 × 10^30 possible combinations.
This is exactly where StratePlan comes in.
Instead of simply prioritizing projects individually, the combinatorial decision space is mathematically analyzed to identify the optimal project combination under the given conditions.
Traditional IT Project vs. StratePlan Online Decision Service
The following comparison deliberately highlights two different approaches. StratePlan is not intended to replace any existing ERP or PPM system across the board. The Online Decision Service specifically focuses on the mathematical optimization of investment decisions.
| Cost and Effort Block | Traditional Enterprise IT/PPM Project | StratePlan Online Decision Service |
|---|---|---|
| Software | License and Subscription Costs | Starting at 500 EUR/month |
| Implementation | Comprehensive implementation project possible | No traditional large-scale IT project required |
| External Consulting | Workshops, design, and implementation | Not strictly necessary to get started |
| Customization | Project-specific | Standardized Decision Service |
| Data migration | Often a separate project phase | Lean, structured dataset |
| Interfaces | Depends on the system landscape | Not strictly necessary to get started |
| Change Management | Often a component of the project | Minimal organizational effort required to get started |
| Cost estimates | Depends on the licensing and project model | Unlimited cost estimates within the purchased package |
| Cost per additional estimate | Depends on the model | 0 EUR |
A flat-rate pricing plan for Decision Intelligence
The StratePlan Online Decision Service is intentionally designed to operate differently from traditional project-based consulting models.
The customer does not pay for each individual calculation.
Within their booked package, they receive a flat-rate pricing plan.
This means:
You can calculate, simulate, and compare as much as you need in any given month—without additional costs per calculation.
A new budget?
Recalculate.
A project has been canceled?
Recalculate.
Does the board want to know what happens if CAPEX is reduced by 10%?
Recalculate.
A restriction has changed?
Recalculate.
An additional project is added to the portfolio?
Recalculate.
Does management want to compare three different strategic assumptions?
Simply recalculate.
No additional costs per calculation. No consulting days required for each new question. No artificial limits on the number of calculations.
Clear and predictable costs
The Online Decision Service is structured based on the number of projects in the portfolio:
| Portfolio | Price | Calculations |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 15 projects | 0 EUR | Flat rate |
| Up to 50 projects | 500 EUR/month | Flat rate |
| Up to 100 projects | 1,000 EUR/month | Flat rate |
| Up to 300 projects | 3,000 EUR/month | Flat rate |
For example, the service costs 6,000 EUR per year for up to 50 projects, 12,000 EUR for up to 100 projects, and 36,000 EUR per year for up to 300 projects.
And within each package, the customer can recalculate their investment decisions at any time.
Calculate it yourself or: Done 4 U
Not every company wants to handle data preparation and calculations on its own.
That’s why there’s also the StratePlan Done 4 U service.
The principle is simple:
You provide us with your data. We handle the calculations for you.
The Done 4 U service can be particularly useful when a company wants to get started quickly with Decision Intelligence, doesn’t yet have a standardized data structure in place, or needs support for a specific management, CAPEX, or boardroom decision.
This leaves you with two options:
Do it yourself
Prepare your data, import it into StratePlan, and run as many scenarios as you like within the flat-rate calculation plan.
Done 4 U
Provide the relevant data and have mAInthink perform the calculations.
Decision Intelligence can thus start as leanly as suits the company and the decision at hand.
Don’t start by overhauling your entire IT landscape. Start by improving decision-making.
That’s exactly where the difference lies.
The traditional approach often goes like this:
Select software → Hire a consulting firm → Conduct workshops → Configure the system → Develop interfaces → Migrate data → Train employees → Go-live → Realize benefits.
The StratePlan approach is:
Structure data → Perform calculations → Compare scenarios → Make a decision.
ERP, finance, and PPM systems remain important data sources and operational systems.
StratePlan supplements this landscape with a mathematical decision-making layer.
Decision Intelligence 4 All
Mathematical investment optimization should not depend on whether a company initially wants to finance a six- or seven-figure transformation project.
A small company with 15–20 projects faces an optimization challenge.
A medium-sized company with 50 investment projects has an optimization problem.
A municipality with 100 infrastructure projects has an optimization problem.
A corporate group with 300 CAPEX proposals has an optimization problem.
Mathematics does not distinguish between small businesses, medium-sized enterprises, the public sector, and large corporations.
Why should access to Decision Intelligence?
Decision Intelligence 4 All.
No cost per calculation.
No limit on the frequency of calculations.
No mandatory months-long IT implementation.
Calculate yourself or use Done 4 U.
Start with the decision.
Same projects. Different combinations. Better results.
