Web-based central department diary Vs hard copy version

The Careers Service at Lancaster University offers a number of services that operate in parallel to each other on a daily basis. The wide provision of services demands a significant amount of flexibility from a limited number of staff to ensure these services run smoothly. Areas of provision include reception, enquiries (telephone, email, web-based and face-to-face), scheduled guidance appointments, learner support, workshops, employer visits and meetings, project work (off and on-campus), and regular promotional activities. The majority of staff can be expected to be involved in delivering or supporting any combination of these services depending on the specific commitments that have been previously agreed upon for colleagues that particular day. The key component, that ensures the appropriate staff member is available to deliver these services as effectively and smoothly as possible, is a central (single) department diary.

The system would work by noting all appointments or timetabled staff activities and annual leave notifications in a central hard copy diary. The diary was located centrally in the Careers Service general office as the most convenient place for members of staff to enter, edit and view all entries. Entries for the current day were photocopied and distributed to each member of staff every morning, to be used as quick reference sheets in their respective work areas or offices.

Disadvantages of the system included:

• as soon as someone amended the entry in the central diary for that respective day, the distributed single sheets were then outdated and incorrect
• if someone wished to make a new entry in the diary for a future appointment, for most members of staff this meant leaving their work space or offices and walking to the general office. This could then be complicated further if the individual was:
• off-campus and / or in a meeting and needed to consult the diary (this became even more problematic if the need arose outside normal working hours)
• arranging a convenient appointment date on the telephone
• and / or someone else was currently using the diary at the same time
• and / or they were delayed en-route by a colleague or client

Consequently a business case was made recently for the adoption of an electronic diary in order to alleviate these problems. Unfortunately, the groupware currently used by the service, and those alternative proprietary products available on the market, were insufficiently flexible to meet the specific needs of the department for this purpose. For this reason an in-house web-based solution was sought.

In using the simple examples cited previously, the ROI for this particular case study is illustrated below.

Hard copy diary costs

Proposed web-based diary costs

Savings (annual operating costs)

Referring to the previous calculations, the following savings (per annum) can be identified in favour of adopting the proposed web-based diary:

ROI calculations

Return as a percentage of Investment over a fixed period:

• (Return / Investment) × 100
• £5,985.40 / (training + system development costs) × 100
• £5,985.40 / £322.00 × 100 = 1859%

Return after deducting Investment for fixed period:

• Return - Investment
• £5,985.40 - £322.00 = £5,663.40

How long until Return equals Investment:

• Investment / Return per week
• £322.00 / (£5,985.40 / 52) = 2.8 weeks

Calculating the ROIs of such Intranet applications and processes above are relatively straightforward. This is due to the explicit factors relating to time and motion being easily identified, observed and therefore measured. Despite the case study being a relatively simple example, it still provides an insight as to how the early pioneers of Intranet deployment could lay claim to ROIs of a 1,000 percent and more (Campbell, 1996).

Less tangible areas of Intranet ROIs are those benefits that are derived from the adoption of more effective collaborative working and knowledge sharing practices. These factors are inherently difficult to measure due to the implicit way in which each individual absorbs information or knowledge which is then rationalised with their existing knowledge, resulting in new knowledge or ideas being formed, that may then be shared with others (employees, business partners or customers). Xerox is just one example of an organisation that has managed to quantify the benefits gained through Knowledge Management initiatives implemented through Intranet applications (see case study - chapter 6.)