Another day, another article which looks at making the case for Enterprise 2.0 ROI.  The premise is:

• the average amount of productivity lost due to ‘distraction’ is 2 hours per day,
• the average hourly salary of a knowledge worker is $21
• therefore the monthly productivity loss is 21 * 2 * 20 = $840 / month / knowledge workers.
• therefore $100 – $200 / month / knowledge worker is a not unreasonable price to pay for an Enterprise 2.0 platform

I’ve looked a fair bit at wiki ROI and other ROI subjects around Enterprise 2.0 - and there are definitely two approaches.  One is the above approach, but I still can’t help but feel that it has an abstract and not particularly measurable feel to it.  Is this something you would be comfortable approaching your CFO with?

The other way is to start with a small pilot that costs so little it doesn’t need approval.  Get positive stories around its success and start to grow and spread useage of the system.  Then you have a provable ‘ROI’ based on metrics and success within your own company.  It may not be a case of “we can save each employee 37 minutes and 21 seconds a day” but more of “if we didn’t have it that team wouldn’t have won that contract” - therefore we’ll get more wins of similar sizes if it is rolled out to other teams.

The best course of action will always depend on the personality of your CEO / CFO / decision maker.  But the low entry cost of Enterprise 2.0 allows you to ask for forgiveness rather than permission, and avoid having to have an all or nothing conversation with unenlightened decision makers.