Do Productivity Increases Generate Economic Gains?. Jakob Nielsen tackles the question Do Productivity Increases Generate Economic Gains? I've been thinking about this because of this article: Time saved—a misleading justification for KM
It makes sense to save the user's time, but the justification of the Knowledge Management system ultimately has to be demonstrated by better decisions and improved performance.
Why? Because users satisfice at the typical 20-25% mark for information seeking, no matter how successful they are. Because of that, making the time = value equation may be too simplistic, as illustrated here. (Shockwave required, not recommended for dial-up)
There are some interesting thoughts on activities that don't fit traditional models for ROI. But in all of this, I wonder if the industry's focus on ROI is neglecting the users' perspective? What's in it for them? What about the users' Return On Experience? (the User ROX It's only when a project generates ROI for the business, and 'ROX' for the users that it truly creates sustainable value. [ia/ – information architecture news]