Comments on: In search of ROI

By: Chris Benjamin

Chris Benjamin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:51:20 +0000

Thanks for sharing this wonderful thought. Chris Benjamin, Rogue CFO

By: Sergio

Sergio — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:19:59 +0000

Trying to calculate ROI with Enterprise Search solutions is similar to do the same with CRM applications. How can we calculate a better idea or make a less risky decision as a result of a better information retrieve? It´s really very difficult. Instead, I think we need to explore the experiences and results from companies that already implemented this type of solutions. I mean, we need to survey the user´s experiences and how they consider this technology improved their jobs, the pros and cons, and what they think if they must return to their previous stage (working without these tools).

By: Rebecca Thompson

Rebecca Thompson — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:58:17 +0000

Jax – most of our customers use a combination of employee satisfaction with search surveys, reports from the search platform itself on usage and anecdotal business productivity stories to make the case both before and afterwards. If we are doing a replacement of another search vendor, typically TCO #’s are also calculated with a combination of hardware/software/operating cost savings estimates.

What I have not seen is any use of the “implement this and you can reduce headcount by x” sort of ROI used by other business productivity apps, nor do I think it would be useful or accurate to do so with search, largely because I think the more interesting question is – “What does the business lose by not harnessing information?” Capgemini will have some data on this that will be presented at the upcoming Enterprise Search Summit in NYC – see my latest blog post on the information superhighway for more details and links.

By: Jax

Jax — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 02:17:35 +0000

You can’t talk about ROI and not include numbers. Anybody who has searched for anything can tell you that there is a benefit to good search, but Investment is qualified, in part, from the numbers. I would appreciate some of your thoughts on the common activity metrics companies use to justify the Investment. R.O.I.

By: Dex

Dex — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 15:57:22 +0000

My thoughts are this:

http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/12/business-language-that-makes-me-squirm.html

By: Phil Lloyd, Deloitte Australia

Phil Lloyd, Deloitte Australia — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:27:01 +0000

I agree with the points you make Rebecca. Another benefit I think is increased staff engagement – its more satisfying / less frustrating with good enterprise search. This leads to reduced costs (lower turnover, easier to attract) and increased revenue (increased commitment to quality service, innovation, etc)

By: r arun

r arun — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:05:06 +0000

I would say that we use search for making informed decisions fast and efficiently. So relevancy and searching across multiple sources (internal) as well as external from a single point of access is more important.This should be like a insurance product against risk. Therfore ROI should be tuned to this. The risk of searching and making decisions on less relevant information presented to you is always dangerous.