Dayle Wheeler

Companies are starting to recognise the potential value that enterprise social media technology can deliver

While social networking’s success among consumers is well-documented, enterprise social media tools are still struggling to gain a foothold in organisations because of the confusion over how to best apply the technology to business operations, and concerns that it could be a drain on worker productivity. According to industry reports, including one issued last year by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, 2011 was a milestone year for social networking.

According to Pew, more than half of all adults in the US regularly turn to social networking sites such
as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to connect with family, friends and fellow professionals. In comparison, a Forrester Research report revealed that just 12% of information workers have access to enterprise social networks (ESNs), and only 8% of them use an ESN at least once a week.

Despite the relatively small user base, Forrester and other analyst groups are projecting significant increases in ESN usage over the next few years. For example, market research firm IDC forecasts that the compound annual growth rate in the enterprise social software category will be 42.4% through 2015, with worldwide spending climbing from $767.4 million last year to nearly $4.5 billion in 2016.

Dayle Wheeler, MD of Modern-Business, points out that trying to define ESN is like saying one definition describes all enterprises. “Not only are enterprises different, but since the advent of the computer, a mountain of business applications have been developed in support of these differences. The modern enterprise, with all its productivity applications, will find its solutions in retrofitting, buying new and, in some cases, replacing old solutions. There will be no one size fi ts all.”

However, because companies are starting to recognise the potential value that enterprise social media technology can deliver, particularly around departmental and cross-department collaboration, the business case has been firmly established. “It goes beyond simply sharing best practices within organisations to enabling employees to quickly and easily identify co-workers with particular expertise, exchange knowledge, and work together efficiently on projects,” says Wheeler. “The primary business case for enterprise social networks is to tap into corporate knowledge. The idea is that there is all this expertise that you probably don’t know about because it’s not relevant to your job. You’d typically never find these pockets of expertise because there’s no reason or no person to expose them.”

Enterprise social media technology therefore adapts and combines features such as employee profiles, activity streams, and discussion forums, in an effort to help employees collaborate. ESNs support the tagging, rating and reviewing of content for workplace use with the primary goals of better connecting members of an organisation and promoting knowledge-sharing between different employees and departments.

“Companies have to stop thinking about it as a technology deployment with a focus on adoption and usage; instead, look at an ESN platform as a means of fostering new ways to communicate and forge relationships with other employees. Because ESNs enable different ways of imparting knowledge and establishing connections, they can bridge gaps that exist in terms of information sharing and decision-making processes.

For this reason, ModernBusiness has taken a completely different approach to social networking in the
enterprise. This is called “ideas”, and when branded, becomes “Your ideas”. Instead of working on who said what, like most social network models, ideas is built around areas of interest which help to fuel innovation. Fully customisable, the portal will allow staff, customers and suppliers to collaborate – together or separately, innovate and manage the enterprise knowledge in a simple and effective manner.

“Innovation is the secret to sustainability in the modern age. If you are not innovating, your competitors are taking market share and ultimately your market. We are moving quickly past the age of cost management and outsourcing; start-ups, Internet businesses, and companies able to pivot quickly are the enterprises of the future,” says Wheeler. “Innovation cannot be created or forced but can be facilitated and nurtured by creating areas of interest and allowing users to follow the areas of interest to
them. This builds on the common definition of weak and strong ties. Strong ties are those within your circle, department, group and typically with the same experience and/or problem as you. Weak ties are those unknown to one another, bringing together a wide array of experiences for a common interest or problem. Weak ties are the better breeding ground for innovation. So if you are going to introduce social networking into your enterprise, make sure you focus on innovation, as by nature, social means collaboration.”

With the emergence of enterprise social networks like ideas, organisations can be well on their way to addressing communication and knowledge-sharing gaps, which in turn opens doors to more effective decision making. “It gives employees a voice when they never had one before,” Wheeler says.