Social tools’ ROI is one of the hottest topics on the enterprise 2.0 debate.
I found a very interesting post titlted “don’t use the old rules to justify web 2.0” which message was nearly “2.0 tools have a ROI that’s nearly impossible to evaluate without changing the way we consider things”. And I understand ” the performance of a knowledge enterprise doesn’t have to be appreciated with the criterias that were used in the industrial era”.According to Tom Davenport, those tools have a “social” rather than a purely business value, so the ROI is harder to quantify. An opinion close to the first I mentionned with one common point : what’s important is not measuring but quantifying.
The stake is to find a method to quantify the immaterial. That’s the key issue : a method. That also supposes that people know how to stand in a new paradigm.
Objective value Vs Subjective value ? In fact we all learned how to quantify “real” things, must they be present or future. Everything was about models and equations. But now we’re talking about an human potential that’s unquantifyable by definition. We know than when shifting from a rational and mathematical paradigm to a human-based one, 1+1 that used to be 2 could now be 3. Or 4. Or even 1. And what about 1+1+1….?
The best ROI demonstration at this time, since we didn’t find the new Taylor so far, is to show an effective organization 2.0 to a CxO let him admit “that would be a great improvement”. Because, without any number, just by observing, the humain brain can compare qualitative thing and advised people doesn’t need bottom line to understant what’s good for their organization.
