Not sure where to start in finding Return on Investment (ROI) for your Social Intranet business case? Bryan takes a look at some of the intranet value and ROI models in the industry and helps you categorize your organization for best fit. This review will put some structure around your thinking and give you a launch pad for having the ROI discussion with your CFO.
7. Introduction Ideas are plentiful Money and Time are scarce ROI is what makes the difference between ideas that are implemented and those that are not
19. Hard Numbers Require: real currency, directly linked investment to outcome, must be realized Traditionally digitization and automation Associated with Intranet 1.0, largely evaporating
22. ROI? Wrong question. That may not be a popular thing to say in a CFO’s office, or perhaps a CIO’s office, but these people are not the ones driving 2.0 adoption, or buying 2.0 tools, in the vast majority of instances. What’s the ROI on email? What’s the ROI on IM? If there’s a study, I guarantee it’s crap. ROI studies on any software are famous fiction. Jeffrey Walker (late) CEO of Atlassian, 2007
26. ROI Not possible: Some believe that it isn’t worth quantifying benefits as financials Value of these “Intangible Assets” is in the ability it provides an org to implement strategy Time/Money required can be used to compare opportunity costs
29. Lagging ROI: Request an innovation bucket of funds Treat it as a stock portfolio. Return at portfolio level not individual projects Make clear there will be some failure Report back regularly on progress and ask for more money or cancel program
32. The conclusion I took away was that ROI only makes sense when applied to a specific business problem - then you piggy-back on the ROI of that business problem, rather than trying to make a generic ROI case for widespread wiki, blog, or social software adoption. Jon Mell Social Business blogger, 2008
34. In my argument, breakthrough ROI comes from seeing these technology through the lens of collaboration, which in turn implies process and context. I am mindful that huge amounts of value continue to be locked up in supply chains. AMR quoted a number of $3 trillion in 2005. Has that materially changed? Simply being able to communicate across supply chains in a meaningful manner could do wonders to lubricate those rusty wheels. Dennis Howlett ZD Net blogger, 2008
36. Solved problems: Solve a specific problem instead of making a generic business case e.g. Make case to solve supply chain issues rather than justify extranet
39. Human Resources Sales Customer Service Productivity Application Access Competitiveness Infrastructure Collaboration Time to market Finding ROI: Measuring Intranet Investments Prescient Digital
42. Soft/proxy numbers: Use non-financial numbers that will show improvement in an aspect of corporate performance Use caution when using time savings metrics