http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/2009/01/29/how-important-is-having-a-business-case-for-social-applications/ A member of the Gartner Blog Network Sat, 03 Dec 2011 04:33:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/2009/01/29/how-important-is-having-a-business-case-for-social-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-277 Anthony Bradley Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:27:29 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/2009/01/29/how-important-is-having-a-business-case-for-social-applications/#comment-277 My sentiments exactly. I see many enterprises with too strong an emphasis on technology. The cost of the technology may be cheap but the costs of delivering a social application on that technology are larger and very often the "softer" costs (employee time for example) can be enormous. Without a sufficient (and I specifically choose the word sufficient here) examination of the "return" on the softer costs, the enterprise runs a significant risk of the effort being considered an unproductive use of employee time which feeds the skepticism. There is an art to social applications, no doubt, but this doesn't mean we can ignore the science. There will always be a margin of error and a confidence interval with any investment but numbers matter and must be explored. Get the marketing people involved. Thy know how to crunch the numbers on target communities. My sentiments exactly. I see many enterprises with too strong an emphasis on technology. The cost of the technology may be cheap but the costs of delivering a social application on that technology are larger and very often the “softer” costs (employee time for example) can be enormous. Without a sufficient (and I specifically choose the word sufficient here) examination of the “return” on the softer costs, the enterprise runs a significant risk of the effort being considered an unproductive use of employee time which feeds the skepticism. There is an art to social applications, no doubt, but this doesn’t mean we can ignore the science. There will always be a margin of error and a confidence interval with any investment but numbers matter and must be explored. Get the marketing people involved. Thy know how to crunch the numbers on target communities.

]]> http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/2009/01/29/how-important-is-having-a-business-case-for-social-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-276 Mark Raskino Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:17:11 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/2009/01/29/how-important-is-having-a-business-case-for-social-applications/#comment-276 Hey Anthony - I don't doubt the need for it. Those who proceed without will be the more Type A oriented organisations - acting on exploratory faith and aspiration using risk capital they feel they can afford to lose. The bulk of the mainstream majority nearly always need to write a case. How else to compare disparate IT investment opportunities in a portfolio? The whole point about being a follower (fast or otherwise) is that you learn from the leaders. Some of the most critical early learning points are in the cost structure and value metrics. Nobody said a business case template has to be heavy going - the lighter and more precisely targeted on the few things that really matter - the better. I know some social application projects can appear not to require a case because their setup / entry level technology costs are so small and they rely on iterative learning to evolve. But they grow, perhaps exponentially on occasions and that can cause disruptions. There are other costs as well - not least the time employees will spend in the activities. All the more reason to create a business case framework that paints the picture of the untypical cost profile a social system can incur. Hey Anthony – I don’t doubt the need for it. Those who proceed without will be the more Type A oriented organisations – acting on exploratory faith and aspiration using risk capital they feel they can afford to lose. The bulk of the mainstream majority nearly always need to write a case. How else to compare disparate IT investment opportunities in a portfolio? The whole point about being a follower (fast or otherwise) is that you learn from the leaders. Some of the most critical early learning points are in the cost structure and value metrics. Nobody said a business case template has to be heavy going – the lighter and more precisely targeted on the few things that really matter – the better.
I know some social application projects can appear not to require a case because their setup / entry level technology costs are so small and they rely on iterative learning to evolve. But they grow, perhaps exponentially on occasions and that can cause disruptions. There are other costs as well – not least the time employees will spend in the activities. All the more reason to create a business case framework that paints the picture of the untypical cost profile a social system can incur.

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