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ResourcesDiscover the 'Hidden Value' in your staffing firmsIn the article 'Hidden Value,' in the April issue of "Informationweek", Eric Shabrow and Eileen Colkin, make the argument that there is significant value in the 'intangible assets' of your companies. Technology expenditures should be used to support the intangible assets of your staffing businesses. What are intangible assets? Communication within a company, an empowered staff, the ease in which decision makers can access information, a knowledgeable and well trained staff. Can these assets be put on a balance sheet? The article quotes John Low, senior research fellow at the Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation, "Indeed, intangible assets account for a whopping 50% of the market value of most large industrial and services companies." There is a serious initiative to have auditing firms value these assets for corporations, so they can be part of the company's portfolio. According to the article, there is currently a special accounting standards board investigating how accountants and regulators can "report the value of intangible assets to shareholders and regulators." What does this mean to small and medium size staffing firms? We have stressed to our clients the strategic advantage to develop ROI metrics to define the success of IT projects such as system deployments. According to the experts, we need to go beyond the metrics that define tangible benefits of automation, and look at how software will improve and support the intangible assets of our organizations as well. This is one of the reasons that companies have been expressing so much interest in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology. The Informationweek article references research done by Erik Brynholfsson, co-director of the Center for E-Business at MIT's Sloan School of Management. The research findings indicate that "aligning IT spending with corporate culture and practices...can result in a highly productive and innovative 'digital organization'." Brynjolfsson says, "Companies that combine higher computer investments with intangible assets have disproportionate increases in their market valuations." |
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