John Tate is seduced by marketing hype; but his new technology has a dismal ROI.  

Budgets for 2013 are being finalised throughout the charity world; and, as ever, technology offers a bewildering array of investment opportunities.

Latest laptops and mobile devices; software upgrades; and new web-based products all vie for our attention.

So what sort of return on investment will we get from our expenditure on technology in the coming year? And, as an interesting benchmark, how did we perform over the course of this year?

Personally I made a number of technology investments in 2012, and more are under consideration for 2013. Pride of place in this year’s purchases has been taken by a large heated-and-lit propagator – which takes up one of the two large desks in my home office.

Best buy

I bought a top-of-the-range Vitopod double-length unit with additional six-inch-high add-ons. Temperature control is accurate to 1°C, with a range of 5-30°C, which makes this the most accurate propagator on the market. In fact, the marketing material says the range of high-specification features makes it “the most talked-about propagator among gardeners”.

In previous years I have germinated tender plants, such as chillies and tomatoes, from seeds in my unheated polytunnel. However, a heated-and-lit propagator provides a longer growing season and faster early development for the seeds.

So what were the results? I think my leeks benefited from this as they are a bit bigger than previous years. Also my squash did produce a record yield. I had eight large pumpkins and a couple of dozen other assorted varieties that I am slowly consuming.

However, with my other seedlings it was difficult to tell, compared to previous efforts.

Maybe this was a result of this year’s poor weather? Or was it my lack of green fingers? Or actually, with the development of global warming, do we now get enough natural heat and light in the summer anyway, to maximize the yield on the vegetables that need a long growing season?

I am a bit worried about my return-on-investment data. Capital expenditure on the propagator and lighting ran to a bit over £200. With luck I’ll get five years’ use out of it, as the technology is pretty simple.

The running costs (heat and light) look like they are in the range of £30 to £50 per annum, assuming I use my propagator from January to May each year.

Looking at the revenue side, I think I increased my squash yield by 30 pounds in weight, and my 120 leeks by 15 pounds - apologies to readers more familiar with grams and kilos. Squash currently sells in Tesco for about 50p per pound, and organic leeks cost around £1 per pound.

Oh dear. I think I’ll stop my calculation there as I can see my figures won’t stack up. And I haven’t yet factored in my time to assemble the propagator and then to look after the plants, nor the fact that I am giving away a load of my squash as I have too many to consume personally.

Think again

So how could I have increased my ROI? Perhaps the simplest approach would have been not to buy the propagator in the first place and to have continued to make use of the polytunnel, or even the window sills in my house.

Or I could have purchased a unit of half the size, and kept it heated and lit for shorter periods or at a lower temperature; or bought a cheaper model.

However none of these would have satisfied my desire to own “the most talked-about propagator among gardeners”, nor would they have offered me what I really ‘wanted’. In our personal lives I guess even us accountants can make the odd purchase where the ROI doesn’t stack up.

However, in our work mode we need to take a harsher view. So my advice – if some of the items in your 2013 budgets sound rather too similar to my propagator – is think again.

Meanwhile, the new season’s gardening catalogues are out. I do like the look of the latest heater units available for my polytunnel.

John Tate is a business consultant, IT adviser to CFG and a visiting lecturer at Cass Business School