But … I am going to venture a small comment now. I started thinking about this early on when reading this post, and wondered if I would come across “it”.

And I did …

In case 1, you offer full control to the end-users to choose the tool they want, but this would inevitably result in a costly mess to maintain. In case 2, 95% of the control is given back, but the tool is standard. The ROI will of course differ widely in the two cases. Standardizing always brings cost-savings, and can more and more be done without impacting the returns on the applications.

Within the larger context you offer … implementation and pricing on a large scale where value-added and value-obtained are movable targets (let’s take as a given that the organization is reasonably serious about social computing and that crossing the basic ROI hurdle is taken for granted .. a large assumption, I know, but one I believe is appropriate), I keep wondering about the ongoing issue of the personalization of knowledge work tools, the “mass customisation of work” if you will.

I think it’s basically an unknown, but maybe an even bet, that increasingly people will want to an organization to use systems and tools that let the users choose what and why they want to use certain tolls, and helps them adapt their own style(s) of working and yes, of collaborating to the objectives at hand.

Yes, there must be a common substrate for mission-critical information and knowledge (that’s [probably the ERP + system in the guise of SAP etc.), but because of the influence of the consumer web 2.0 people are going to get fussy about tools and services, I suspect. And I think that massive personalisation is a long term, inescapable trend.

You state that it would be a “costly mess to maintain”. I think that’s probably true today, but I think there’s a decent chance that needn’t be the case in the relatively near-term future. What the implications for pricing models are I am not sure, but I think some of the advanced platforms from some of the leading smaller vendors are anticipating this eventuality.

But both of you guys know more about the technicalities of information systems than do I. It’s fun just trying to think alongside you two.

But … I am going to venture a small comment now. I started thinking about this early on when reading this post, and wondered if I would come across “it”.

And I did …

In case 1, you offer full control to the end-users to choose the tool they want, but this would inevitably result in a costly mess to maintain. In case 2, 95% of the control is given back, but the tool is standard. The ROI will of course differ widely in the two cases. Standardizing always brings cost-savings, and can more and more be done without impacting the returns on the applications.

Within the larger context you offer … implementation and pricing on a large scale where value-added and value-obtained are movable targets (let’s take as a given that the organization is reasonably serious about social computing and that crossing the basic ROI hurdle is taken for granted .. a large assumption, I know, but one I believe is appropriate), I keep wondering about the ongoing issue of the personalization of knowledge work tools, the “mass customisation of work” if you will.

I think it’s basically an unknown, but maybe an even bet, that increasingly people will want to an organization to use systems and tools that let the users choose what and why they want to use certain tolls, and helps them adapt their own style(s) of working and yes, of collaborating to the objectives at hand.

Yes, there must be a common substrate for mission-critical information and knowledge (that’s [probably the ERP + system in the guise of SAP etc.), but because of the influence of the consumer web 2.0 people are going to get fussy about tools and services, I suspect. And I think that massive personalisation is a long term, inescapable trend.

You state that it would be a “costly mess to maintain”. I think that’s probably true today, but I think there’s a decent chance that needn’t be the case in the relatively near-term future. What the implications for pricing models are I am not sure, but I think some of the advanced platforms from some of the leading smaller vendors are anticipating this eventuality.

But both of you guys know more about the technicalities of information systems than do I. It’s fun just trying to think alongside you two.