Comments on: You Can’t Build a Business Case for Social Software

By: Rainer Thiel

Rainer Thiel — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:59:11 +0000

Thanks for your response. The business case work is now well under way, it is specifically for an intranet development proposal. The client is currently on an old client-server information portal that has lost all credibility within the user community. In that sense, a new browser based intranet is a pretty easy sell. The business understands that “they have to do it” so that there is an enabling (browser based) platform for exploiting the many features of other web-enabled business applications they use.

Is that framework you mentioned in your post available yet?

By: Anthony Bradley

Anthony Bradley — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:32:12 +0000

Rainer, minimizing the technology spend is always a good idea but only if you still deliver the capability needed to meet your social media goals. Be exhaustive in articulating qualitative benefits but also work hard to quantify what can be quantified.

By: Rainer Thiel

Rainer Thiel — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:34:12 +0000

Antony,
I’m glad i found your post. It articulates a suspicion i have had for some time. I am embarking on a business case development exercise (various work streams) that may include social media proposals. So far i am thinking as follows (given that it is a greenfields environment):
* Don’t spend any money on technology. Explore and experiment with the myriad free open source tools and widgets out there.
* Make your investment in adopting peoples mindsets to embrace interaction and collaboration – this is not easy.
* Be creative and thorough in defining non-financial benefit measures. Not an easy task, they must be meaningful, they must be persuasive.

By: Don’t Approach Social Media Like Traditional Collaboration

Don’t Approach Social Media Like Traditional Collaboration — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:43:53 +0000

[...] a client conversation yesterday I was going through my now standard monologue on purpose, purpose, purpose as the three most important criteria for social media success (playing off the 3 most important [...]

By: How High is the Failure Rate for Social Media Initiatives?

How High is the Failure Rate for Social Media Initiatives? — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:57:43 +0000

[...] I have been talking about “a purposeful approach” for a few years now hoping to spare Gartner clients this intermediate failure step. See “Toolkit: Planning for Social Software Applications Using a Purpose Road Map” and “Ten Primary Design Considerations for Delivering Social Software Solutions: The PLANT SEEDS Framework” (available to Gartner clients or for a fee). Also see previous posts here, here, here, and here. [...]

By: Links for 2009-06-02 [del.icio.us] | Trinitude Network

Links for 2009-06-02 [del.icio.us] | Trinitude Network — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:20:32 +0000

[...] You Can’t Build a Business Case for Social Software You Can’t Build a Business Case for Social Software: http://bit.ly/a0JrI Not generically. My take on Enterprise 2.0 ROI: http://bit.ly/TPQ0t [from http://twitter.com/dhinchcliffe/statuses/2009300155 [...]

By: You Can’t Build a Business Case for Enterprise Mashups

You Can’t Build a Business Case for Enterprise Mashups — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:01:02 +0000

[...] now it is starting to seem gratuitous after my post titled “You Can’t Build a Business Case for Social Software.” But I do actually have a [...]

By: Links For 2009-06-05 | MarkSimon.de

Links For 2009-06-05 | MarkSimon.de — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:43:43 +0000

[...] You Can’t Build a Business Case for Social Software [...]

By: Anthony Bradley

Anthony Bradley — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:31:19 +0000

I have not changed my mind at all. I’m glad you brought this up so I can clarify My point is that you can’t build a generic universal business case for social software but that you should build a business case for how you intend to apply social software (i.e., the purpose). You will find this very consistent with our earlier dialog.

I want to repeat myself for emphasis. I am not advocating abandoning the business case effort. On the contrary, I am currently sinking a bunch of my time in building a framework to help enterprises build “purposeful” business cases enabled by social software. Enterprises should build business cases for social solutions to defined business challenges and opportunities. What they should not do is try to build a generic social software (or Web 2.0) business case that is devoid of any concrete business application.

By: Andrea Di Maio

Andrea Di Maio — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:44:05 +0000

I’m really surprised, Anthony. How comes that you changed your mind? If you go back to my old post http://blogs.gartner.com/andrea_dimaio/2009/01/28/forget-a-business-case-for-web-20/ where I was advocating for the uselessness of business cases for Web 2.0, you seemed to disagree quite strongly.
I’m glad to see that our views are converging. Maybe I should start aiming at the difference you and others make between Enterprise 2.0 and social software, as I believe that’s a bit artificial, and certainly so in the government industry.
Looking forward to your response.