I recently read a colleague’s post “return on investment of social technology implementations” where return on investment (ROI) is converted into monetary terms based on the Forrester Consulting report on the Economic Impact of IBM Social Collaboration Tools. In reading the same report a few different lines attracted my attention. These were not the ones highlighting monetary gains but statements such as “More than 12,000 photos have been uploaded. Most of the information entered is related to the person’s area of expertise, product involvement, sales area” or “the company indicates that the “cultural” journey of using social tools within the business is just beginning“.
These two lines really interested me because the first highlights the intangible value that is be created. The most expensive assets of any organisation are it’s people because of the knowledge and the untapped potential they have in their heads. Capturing that as most Information Mangers will testify to, is gold.
The second link mentioned is the enabler that if missing will squash any potential positive ROI and that is a culture receptive to change.
Albert Einstein is to have said, “Not everything that counts can be measured. Not everything that can be measured counts.” In my opinion, there’s sufficient evidence to suggest that Albert Einstein knew what he was talking about – and that social technology is worth the investment.
Tom Scott
tom scott 