* Strategic vs. tactical ROI
Over the past two newsletters, we have discussed the fundamental differences between a tactical ROI and a strategic ROI. And, just as a point of reference, the tactical ROI is sometimes called a “hard” ROI while a strategic ROI is sometimes called a “soft” ROI.
But the question for today is whether anybody cares any more. We seem to be in one of those stages where we first overreact in one direction, then we overreact in the other direction, and then a semblance of reality sets in.
In this case, the overreaction phase could be thought of as the “tech boom” of the 1990s. In many cases, IT shops were able to implement new technology simply because it was cool technology. (We’ll spare the guilty parties of the embarrassment of concrete examples here, but the list is relatively long.) Then, as the tech economy took something between a dip and a nosedive, everything had to be cost-justified and required a hard ROI that would delight the bean counters.
Now we believe that a rational, measured approach is starting to set in. That is, if an idea is proposed and it seems to have reasonable merit, the hard ROI is less important than it may have been three of four years ago.
In the Webtorials 2005-1006 VoIP State-of-the-Market Report, the results were somewhat surprising. In the questionnaire, the Webtorials community was asked: “Have you been able to calculate and demonstrate a hard (tactical) ROI/payback for your VoIP/IP telephony implementation?” Of those responding, only about one-fourth (26%) answered in the affirmative, while almost as many (20%) answered that they had not.
However, the other two options – accounting for more than half the responses – provided the mild surprise. One-fourth (25%) answered that a “soft (strategic) payback will be or has been justification enough,” while the largest overall percentage (29%) answered that they didn’t know or hadn’t tried.
And we don’t think that this more middle-of-the-road approach is isolated. While we’re not at liberty to release exact numbers yet, suffice it to say that the responses to a similar question asked in preparation for the upcoming Webtorials Wireless LAN State-of-the-Market Report study had quite similar – and in fact even more striking – results (the full WLAN report will be released later in the summer).
Thank goodness for those occasional moments of sanity!
