(image)As you can imagine, we think about return-on-investment (ROI) all the time when talking about or selling our collaboration software. Most of us inherently know lots of goodness comes from collaborating more effectively with our colleagues, partners or customers, but the really important thing to focus on for ROI is not collaboration by itself. Collaborating more effectively yields other goodies that generate ROI like time saved, expenses reduced, increased sales, etc.. To really calculate ROI, you need metrics, a baseline, and measured improvement. This sounds obvious but people don't often take it one step further. I'm finding they rarely have a business case or even have access to metrics to prove it out. I'll give you a very simplistic example I used with a customer the other day who was asking about ROI for a consulting organization:

Jott is a great tool if you haven't tried it out. In a nutshell (I saw
Austin Powers for the 100th time the other night), you call a number on your
phone, dictate a note, schedule a meeting, or write a to do and the service
transcribes your voice into the appropriate message type; it even creates an
object on your Outlook automatically. It has been free up until yesterday.

Other sources
<

I want everyone to read the text of Steve Jobs commencement address at Stanford.  It is very inspirational and instills the kind of passion I want all of us to have.

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

Revised GroupSwim Datasheet

Fax cover sheet

I used with a client the other day and it was really helpful.  Please upload any newer versions when they become available.

How should someone dress at the front counter of the 5 star hotels?

Make sure to schedule the visit before you show up at the office.  Otherwise, you will sit in the lobby forever

I'm looking to create a GL for my small business. does anyone have a good starting point I can borrow?

How do I integrate my general ledger with my CRM system?  Both are Saas applications so I must need a middleware solution.  Any thoughts?

Here is how to use GroupSwim

Revised GroupSwim Datasheet.  We've updated to provide more information about our newest product features.

How do i connect with my customers and build a relationship with them?  A saas application like GroupSwim is a perfect way

I recommend using a saas product so that you can focus on the core competancy of your firm.  Taking care of computers is not on the list.

(media)

Great article on Oracle caving in on SAAS

This document is a great example of how a wiki page can serve as an FAQ, training, or instruction document for just about anything.  The beauty of using a wiki is you can update it anytime and it is immediately current.  Plus, you can involve others (if you want) in updating and creating the document.

Configure your site

The first decision to make is if you want your site to be public or private.  Public allows anyone to browse your group but a reader must register in order to contribute.  Private sites are invite only and the content cannot be searched or viewed by anyone without an invitation.

test saas

I've just come from a conference on SaaS.  I learned some things I want to share with the team in order to architect the product.  Sharing is a best practice:

we need to update this document

This is an example of best practices when creating an internal community.

(image)Salesforce.com was in Seattle on Thursday promoting its cloud-computing product ahead of Microsoft's anticipated announcements this summer about its competing product Azure. Chief Executive Mark Benioff gave a speech at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Seattle to customers in an event called CloudForce, which is touring the globe.

This is a cool place to discuss best practices around design and community