A credible business case for remote visual inspection rests on your own numbers: how many visits you make, what a visit really costs, and what share of those visits better information could realistically avoid or improve. Keep assumptions conservative, state them openly, deduct software and implementation costs, and validate the key assumption in a pilot before scaling.
Start with the cost of a visit
Calculate a fully loaded cost per visit: labour for the whole door-to-door duration, vehicle and travel cost, overhead per field hour and administration. Many organisations find the true figure is higher than the informal one.
Identify which visits could change
Only count categories a visual assessment could realistically change. Everything else stays in the plan.
- Visits made only to identify the fault
- Repeat visits caused by a missing part
- Visits reassigned because of the wrong skill set
- Faults resolvable by instruction, reset or consumable
- Requests outside contract or another party's responsibility
- Supervisor visits made only to verify completed work
Be explicit about what is not included
A gross saving is not a net return. Deduct licence and implementation costs, allow for adoption — not every customer or technician will use the workflow from day one — and accept that some visits are necessary whatever information is available.
Validate in a pilot
The most uncertain assumption is usually the share of avoidable visits. Measure it on one request type during a pilot, against a baseline, and update the business case with what you actually observe.