Expert: Emmett Smith - 3/14/2009

Question
How much would organizations pay to give employees/members access to a web based tool that  connects folks to exchange knowledge, collects those conversations in a searchable form and provides reports on usage

Answer
Not knowing anything about your product, it's impossible to say. In order to sell something like this to organizations, you have to create a business model that shows how much will be saved and the results have to be measurable.

What you are describing sounds like something pretty close to what you can get for free by joining social sites and their subgroups like LinkedIn.com. Any information can be obtained for free from the web. It sounds like you will be saving people time and making them more productive. It seems like you would have to establish your product as a credible source.

In the end, the market will determine what people will pay based on the value that you give your product. Perhaps you might want to introduce your product with lower capabilities for free and then have charges as people move to higher levels of capability. Lower the prices until people buy.