Great comments. I definitely like the approach of applying a probability and factoring that against the ROI calculation. Appreciate the comment very much.

Jason

I think you’re on the right track to determining the ROI. The best approach to determining the ROI will combine all components relating to increased revenue potential and cost savings. To me, these would include:

* Professional time saved in collaboration (as you showed above) across all impacted employees (be sure to consider the costs, if applicable, of wasting time on the wrong document versions).
* Reduced IT costs (for hw & sw infrastructure, salaries, & other professional costs).
* Reduced Support costs (call and email volumes).
* New sales from building a collaborative culture.
* After-market sales from building a collaborative culture..

Specific to a solution like GroupSwim, also consider savings for

* Reduced travel.
* Sales improvements (for example, ensuring sales folks distributed up-to-date materials, have current price lists for quotes, etc).

Depending on the company, there may be other applicable ROI components to consider.

Additionally, I like to consider an ROI in terms of Minimum, Most Likely, and Maximum outcomes. This is particularly useful when considering some of the harder to quantify components like increased sales. For example, set the parameters for the Min case to have a 90% probability of occurring, Most Likely to have a 50% probability, and Max to have a 10% probability. If you take that approach, then you can see a range of possibilities and better access the general opportunity and risk of the software solution.

Thanks for the comment. Very interesting use case. Here are a couple of assumptions:

- The scientists and venture capitalists current rely on email
- There are many back and forth questions associated with this process
- Many of the same issues come up over and over again

GroupSwim is a great alternative for the following reasons:
- Scientists can present their case using documents or wiki pages in GroupSwim groups (within a single site)
- Both parties can have discussions using GroupSwim that are directly linked to the document or wiki page that has the proposal
- Context, history and participants are documented
- Material from the past is easily accessible and linkable in the future to help with future opportunities
- You can segment appropriate VCs and scientists in individual groups based on the appropriate subject matter. For example, you could have groups that focus on nano technology, basic science, materials, etc.

Hope this helps. Please expand further on your use case and if I missed anything. Thanks again for the comment.

Jason

Alan Bergman,
President Vertical Horizons