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Measuring the contribution of collaboration technologies

'Count what is countable, measure what is measurable. What is not measurable, make measurable' (attributed to Gallileo)

I've recently been struggling with ways to measure the contribution of social media and other collaboration technologies for existing businesses. With the vast variety of initiatives, technologies and tools, what framework can we use to measure the value of these tools?

As a base - I've taken the Hayes and Wheelwright model of operational effectiveness, and tried to put a digital media spin on it. Anyone who has any ideas or contributions to make, would be most welcome.

Stage 1:
In this organisation, there is no strategy for collaboration technologies (invisibility) or the current implementation is reactive and limits the strategic options of the business.

Stage 2:
Basic web presence - involving "broadcast" webpages, and maybe some e-commerce. There is no active involvement in Web 2.0 technologies.

Stage 3:
The organisation has started building communities around its products and services, potentially enabling these communities through blogs/twitter etc.

Stage 4:
The organisation uses its interaction with its userbase to shape and drive forward its strategy.

Thanks to massdistraction on Flickr for his "benevolent ruler" above.

Tags: and, digital, framework, hayes, innovation, management, measure, media, operations, organisations, More…social, wheelwright

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Comment by Ray Macsweeney on April 2, 2009 at 13:40: Hi Stuart:

Agree completely with what you are saying - which is why I've tried to keep the language high level and general in the model. For someone to make use of it in a particular situation, it needs to be refined in the context of the organisational environment/strategy/goals. What drives innovation for Unilever - better understanding of a consumer need - is a world away for innovation at Dell - new ways to operate a leaner supply chain.

Comment by Stuart Cosgrove on March 25, 2009 at 12:24: I like this too Ray. My only caveat would be to always interrogate the notion of what 'innovation' means for the company. Whilst web 2.0 may have value to say an architectural company in areas like marketing their brand and reputation via twitter, and/or harvesting knowledge from a facbook of clients, purposeful innovation might be via CAD, or new materials or eco-sytems, or the historic past, or deep heritage. Its back to what innovation means. At Channel 4, an innovation like teh first series of Skins is more important than how we marketed it via myspace.

Comment by Matt Johnston on March 25, 2009 at 10:57: I love this! Helps me figure out where I am, where I want to be and how I'm going to get there.