Enterprise 2.0 How To’s

In the past we have brought to you many posts on how to effectively utilize Enterprise 2.0 tools. Martin White provides his take regarding this topic in his paper titled: “Achieving effective Enterprise 2.0”. He comments on a recent survey conducted by the McKinsey that found only 21% of individuals were “satisfied overall with their 2.0 initiatives” and that 22% were “voicing clear dissatisfaction.” Some of the topics that White covers include: making the most of human capital, intranets and Enterprise 2.0, the challenge of social networking, and making Enterprise 2.0 work for you.

Read more here, and let me know what your thoughts are on his views.

Social Networks to Improve Your Company’s Bottom Line

Enterprise networking still receives a fair amount of skepticism in this day and age. Most companies fear that employees will waste time and that overall productivity will decrease. Despite major criticism, this latest article on eWeek discusses how Wachovia, the nation’s fourth largest bank, is launching an enterprise social networking site for its 110,000 workers.

The real value of enterprise networking shines the more it’s used. Wachovia envisions a knowledge management system where employees can not only build relationships across departments, but where they can easily collaborate, share ideas, and locate information. This will be done through blogs, an in-house encyclopedia and an intricate intranet made accessible through a Facebook-like service.

Burton Group analyst Mike Gotta, analyst at Burton Group mentions:

"Social networks improve the ability of people to do their work.”

Web 2.0 applications in the enterprise make it easy for employees to get together online and offline on projects. Workers can easily combine expertise from across departmental boundaries which were previously unattainable through a social enterprise. Traditional organizational charts and the nature of organizational hierarchies are changing with each growing day. Out with the old and in with the new.

Enterprise Networking Through Social Sites 2.0

I came across this article on Market Wire today, and it details the NewsGator Technologies’s latest release of Social Sites 2.0, which is a huge improvement from their social computing solution offered for Microsoft Sharepoint 2007. This release will aid users to interact more easily, collaborate, and to find the right content and people that they are looking for more efficiently.

Social networking trends in the enterprise have allowed for this application to come alive. NewsGator transformed its corporate intranet into a social network where colleagues can easily exchange information across departments.

Joe Toth, assistant VP for CME Federal Credit Union mentions:

“These features, along with the other social computing capabilities provided by the solution, have led to improved productivity by saving our employees an average of 30 minutes per day."

The release of Social Sites 2.0 is a step in the right direction for organizations that are looking into implementing collaboration software within the company.

Enterprise 2.0 Adoption: One Step at a Time

In a recent post at The Fast Forward blog, James Robertson gives his top five pointers on how to integrate Enterprise 2.0 into your business. The overall theme was to adopt the skills you have and know to this new software that can then enhance your skills.

1. Create a prototype or a pilot: James suggests you start with one group of individuals, and teach them to use this new software. After this group of individuals has taken the E2.0 ideas and their work has improved because of these tools, tell the company about it. Use them as examples to show that this software is worth adapting into your daily routine.

2. Use stories to articulate and capture needs: It’s a way for you to capture the interests of individuals, and at the same time, show them how their needs can be solved by using the software.

3. Build on existing platforms: Everyone in your office knows how to use your company’s intranet, so start with a few tools there. Then, they can be expanded and used in other places.

4. Use case studies from similar organizations: Find other organizations with similar structures and cultures to yours, then use this as an example for your employees.

5. Be passionate about the right thing: Know what problem you need to solve, then use the tools available to get there.

These are James Robertson’s five way to help a smooth transition of E2.0 into your enterprise. What would be your five tips?

Google: Aiding in Enterprise Collaboration Once Again

Google recently launched Google Sites, which allowed companies to use this service on their own domains. Now, according to this post on The Official Google Blog, they’ve made it even easier for companies to build websites and share information throughout the enterprise.

Now on Google Sites, organizations can look forward to being able to collaborate on team projects, share information on company intranets, create community groups, forums, updates, and many more things. Companies no longer have to host the service on their domain, they can safely host their website at http://sites.google.com/[your-website]. The best part of all is that it is free!

It will be interesting to see how this will perform against other enterprise applications like Zoho People, which allow human resource departments to keep track of employees through an intranet.

Zoho Nation

What’s next for your company’s intranet portal? Well, Zoho People, the latest addition to the Zoho Suite is a great HR application that allows companies to organize reports and key employee information within a secure intranet.

What is so special about this application? There are many HR apps that include modules for hosting HR forms and a way to search for job openings. With Zoho People, you are eliminating the dedicated HR person needed in order to track employee benefits, recruitment, vacation, and skill management. The ability to post a picture gives it a Facebook-like style that many employees in the corporate setting will find familiar.

Is Zoho People the answer to the age old collaboration conflict within organizations? I’m not sure if it’s the solution, but it’s definitely a start…

Strive to make Enterprise 2.0 Fit, and It Can Make the Difference

Enterprise 2.0 presents a company with something new. And, as we know, organizations, just like humans, are not warm to new ways of working. So, that’s why many of today’s organizations are wondering why they need to learn about Enterprise 2.0 if they’re not going to use it. It’s simple, it’s the future. In this blog post by Bertrand Duperrin, he looks at the key factors that are essential to change when adapting enterprise 2.0 into an organization.

As he points out, organizations are built to repeat the same task endlessly. With this new software, we can work together and help each other adapting to tasks that are not usually repetitive.

The company’s intranet is usually one of the first things companies try to start with to adapt Enterprise 2.0. So they ask the experts whether they should adapt 1.0 web software or 2.0. Well, the answer truly is that the company has to find what works for them. This is usually a mix between 1.0 and 2.0.

Current organizations are built on a top down managerial model. The interaction that Enterprise 2.0 encourages makes the defined lines shift. As the next generation of workers enters the workplace, they will have a better idea of how the internet tools work. Collaboration between all can promote a fully successful Enterprise 2.0 atmosphere.

The last main topic Duperrin pulls on is brand and corporate culture. Your company has evolved over the years, and so has the way the business industry has been. It’s all about differentiation now, and that’s where you’re going to get the future talent to work for your company. Adapt to what is right for your company, and your talent will find you.

Look into the future, don’t be afraid to adapt to the coming revolution.

Facebook evolving

In a new article on CNet, the divulge that Facebook is making several changes to the way they operate in the first quarter of 2008.
They are:
-- Friend list privacy controls
-- Facebook in new languages
-- Blasting messages to groups with more than 1,000 members

The business world has been waiting for the first change. Now, will this propel Facebook up the list of preferred networking sites for professionals?

The move for Facebook to create more languages is obvious. Obviously, it is used around the world, but now that they are creating a new way for users to read in their own language, membership should climb.

And finally, Facebook will add messaging a group with more than 1,000 members. It will serve a need that business lookers have been searching for, the ability to spread news and communicate as a whole group.

In a post in December, we wrote about Serena Software and how they use Facebook as their corporate intranet. So now, we might not only see Facebook as a way to network with other professionals, but we will begin to see corporations use it on a daily business. With the ease of collaboration that Facebook provides with groups and communication, mass messaging employees will now be possible. Will this encourage companies to adapt Facebook, not to mention that now employees will be able to separate their personal life from their professional life, as well as the ability to message everyone together?

Enterprise Intranets: A Detailed Picture

In a recent post at Web Strategy by Jeremiah, he details the evolution of enterprise intranet, along with the challenges, and what has to be successful. I was surprised that many of the topics were things that we’ve been stressing here in our blog, such as the ease of many of the procedures that are necessary for a corporate intranet to go fully successful in an enterprise, as well as the complications that present themselves in the process.

First off, Jeremiah discusses the challenges of the intranet. They are:
-- Leadership is not employee focused
-- IT does not give the corporate intranet the time of day
-- The value of it is not recognized
-- There are too many people trying to have their input into the intranet
-- The people who make the decisions are oblivious.

The point that catches my interest the most is that too many people are trying to have their input. In Jeremiah’s example, he states that many people from marketing, HR, IT, and many other business units are trying to give their two cents on how things are put together. If too many people are trying to give their input, it’s very easy for a project like this to be set aside, and never returned too.

Second, Jeremiah gives the stages of evolution:
1) Disparate – This is when one person in the company sees the opportunity the value of thecorporate intranet and starts the process
2) Common user experience – A company realizes that the intranet is available 24/7 allaround the world, unlike email. At this point, an intranet team may emerge to helpmanage the program.
3) Unified content management system – The need for the proper software begins toemerge. The Intranet team wants to help find the tools to make this happen, and a CMStool is usually found.
4) Personalization and Enterprise Search – Massive content is starting to frequent thesystem. Many pages and lots of documents are uploaded on the system. A commonsearch tool is developed to sort through all these things.
5) Collaboration – These tools are created and uploaded as businesses realize thatcollaboration can happen around the world on this single site.
6) Socialization – Exactly what we see from Facebook and LinkedIn. Employees begin toshare about themselves, as well as ideas and other information with others on theintranet.
7) The Future -- According to Jeremiah, this probably has to do with the portable phonerevolution. Who knows the next step in this rapidly expanding world, but it will probablyhave to do with the evolution of technology such as the Blackberry.

However, Jeremiah believes that there can be several things that hold back the intranet revolution: a centralized body that controls the User Experience, business and personal users have freedom to publish, expiration of content, IT gets ahead of the need, and it could become a social sandbox for employees.

A which step is your company in the process? Have you seen any of the road bumps that Jeremiah describes?