Workaround Tax

The workaround tax is the ongoing labor cost an operation pays, year after year, to compensate for disconnected systems instead of fixing the root cause.

Unlike a one-time integration project, the workaround tax recurs every week the fragmented systems stay in place, which is why it compounds faster than most operators expect.

Related: The workaround tax is essentially the ongoing version of what the Total Cost of Fragmentation Calculator measures as a one-time annual snapshot.