How do you make the case for investing in research administration software—and prove its return on investment (ROI)? That was the focus of our recent Maximizing Research ROI webinar, featuring Carrie DePetris Duell, Grants and Contracts Specialist at Quinnipiac University, and Tyler Howe, Account Executive at Cayuse.
The webinar focused on the challenges of managing growing research activity with limited staff, and how Quinnipiac successfully built a data-driven case for implementing Cayuse solutions to help improve productivity and efficiency without adding headcount.
If you would like to watch the full webinar recording, you can access it here; otherwise, we have recapped it for you in the post below.
From Growth to Growing Pains
When Carrie joined Quinnipiac, the research office had expanded modestly from just one person to a small team of three. However, their proposal submissions and award volume had grown exponentially, but the systems supporting them—mostly Excel and email—weren’t keeping up with the pace.
Three main issues were highlighted with the bottleneck of these manual systems:
- PIs couldn’t see their budgets in real time
- Compliance risks became a struggle due to the manual workarounds they had in place
- The constant back and forth between the admin and the PI was frustrating on both sides, leading to hesitation for continued growth
The Quinnipiac team quickly realized that growth wasn’t sustainable without a sustainable system in place.
Building the Case with ROI
Carrie knew she needed a platform to help improve communication, transparency, and efficiency but she also knew that it would take some convincing of leadership to spend funds on new software. To help her evaluate options and present a case to leadership, Carrie developed a structured ROI tool to quantify:
- Time savings across pre- and post-award tasks
- FTE equivalents of work saved by automation
- Financial impact of improved IDC recovery and reduced errors
- Payback period (in Quinnipiac’s case, they were able to showcase return on their investment in just 3.1 months!)
This detailed analysis gave leadership what they needed to agree to move forward – a clear, numbers-driven case for software investment.
Why Cayuse
After vetting multiple vendors, Quinnipiac chose Cayuse. While not the lowest-cost option in the market, Cayuse checked the most critical boxes:
- A centralized platform for proposals, awards, and fund management
- Improved transparency for faculty and administrators
- A scalable solution to support continued growth
- A clear and transparent implementation plan, backed by ongoing support
As Carrie noted, “Just the proposals and awards platform has already saved us countless hours on email, version control, and communication. The impact on efficiency and trust with faculty has been priceless.”
Early Results and Momentum
Since implementing Cayuse Sponsored Projects, Quinnipiac University has seen strong momentum and experienced high team satisfaction:
- Proposal submissions increased
- Win rates remained strong
- Transparency improved
And Quinnipiac is just getting started. With the upcoming implementation of additional Cayuse solutions, Fund Manager and Project Effort, Carrie anticipates even greater efficiency, PI satisfaction, and ROI.
Key Takeaways for Institutions
Thank you to Quinnipiac University for sharing their success story of moving off manual processes to improve team satisfaction, operational efficiencies, and compliance requirements. We hope their story inspires other research offices considering software investment and put together a few key takeaways to help you get started in your analysis:
- Audit your processes – Map workflows, identify gaps, and quantify the true costs of inefficiency with manual processes.
- Build an ROI tool – Translate time saved into FTE equivalents and financial impact.
- Tailor your case – Speak the language of different stakeholders (compliance for provost, ROI for CFO, faculty satisfaction for PIs).
- Plan for growth – Choose a system that scales with your research enterprise and will be there to support you in each stage.
