It is perhaps emblematic of the dot-com era to have purchased technology for technology's sake. In the heady days of the boom, caution was often thrown to the wind, along with decision-making processes that tied together business and technology requirements.
"Throw technology at a problem -- that will solve it." This was the first wave.
Today, the lessons of that period have not been lost, and managers use such measures as return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) to aid in making such purchasing determinations.
"Run the numbers." This is the second wave.
Organizations within every large enterprise are seeking the optimal path to enterprise-wide Collaborative Business Environments (CBEs) -- the nexus between knowledge sharing, collaboration, and the business itself. Companies that build solid and well-structured CBEs will leverage their people and knowledge while creating environments that enable people to work more productively.
But until now, it has been difficult to assess the impact of such a deployments on the organization in meaningful terms. And what is meaningful is to look at how such technologies may positively impact the knowledge workers who, increasingly, have become a significant feature in the corporate landscape.
This enquiry brings us to the third wave, where buyers relate a tool or technology to how it will impact those who use it, which naturally has a further impact on bottom-line profitability, as well as on an organization's ability to best its competition.
Basex developed the Knowledge Worker Impact Quotient (KWIQ) Index to help companies planning to deploy Collaborative Business Environments identify, understand, and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the available tools as they apply to specific business and IT requirements.
The goal of continuously developing this index is to improve the ability of IT buyers to identify Collaborative Business Knowledge Solutions, which synchronize people, places, and applications, that will increase productivity, lower costs and accelerate the enterprise.
Your thoughts are welcome on this topic. If you have any thoughts on how to ensure that such deployments positively impact the knowledge workers who use them, e-mail kwiqcomment@basex.com.
Jonathan B. Spira is CEO and chief analyst at Basex, an analysis firm that specializes in collaborative business knowledge in the enterprise. Click here to contact Basex.
