Modification of the discount rate for evaluating effectiveness of IT projects aimed at reducing labor costs

The article examines the discount rate for projects in the field of information technology (hereinafter referred to as IT projects), the cash flow of which is formed by reducing labor costs. The relevance of the study is due to the high role of information technology in all the sectors of business and growing digitalization of companies. In the study the author analyzed the classification of IT projects and proposed an extended classification. The author examines the assessment of project effectiveness through discounting cash flows with the determination of inflows and outflows for an IT project aimed at reducing labor costs. The studies of other authors in the field of modifications of discount rates for IT projects and methods for calculating the discount rate are considered. As a result, based on the methodology for calculating the discount rate based on the Russian data, the methodology for modifying the discount rate is proposed. The modification of the dis-count rate consists of refusal from taking into account the tax shield when calculating WACC for the projects financed by attracting borrowed capital, and adding a factor for increasing the value of the discount rate. The proposed methodology for modifying the discount rate was tested on the data modeled for constructing cash inflows and outflows of the project and real indicators needed to determine the discount rate. The calculation is performed using the oil and gas industry as an example, but the methodology is applicable to other industries. As a result of testing, the author concludes that the obtained values of the modified discount rate can be used in modern realities.

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