The limits of ROi

The limits of ROi

The limits of ROi in investments in intangible assets are generating increasing interest in the development of methods of value analysis other than financial methods.

It is with this in mind that the companies CISCO and Verizon have attempted to define a new measure: Return on Collaboration (ROC). The latter measures the impact of the collaboration on key functional areas or businesses.

It can be used to measure collaboration across human resource development, sales, public relations, etc.
While the ROi measures the financial resources spent on a given project, the ROC on the other hand tracks the quantity of improvements resulting from a financial investment in the collaborative domain.

The first is an objective measurement, since a result measurement, while the second is a process measurement.
Thus, if the ROC exercise is more difficult than that of the ROi, it is just as relevant and, with the right indicators, an organization can better manage 4.0 projects.

The ROC is also different depending on the number of employees in an organization. Just like the use of more traditional technologies, for example the telephone, it evolves according to the number of users or collaborators in the company.
In the context of 4.0 technologies whose critical mass can justify the ‘natural’ adoption by peers, the ROC becomes increasingly high with the arrival of a new member, which brings value to the use and maintenance of the community.