300 State Street, Suite 400, New London, CT 06320

Phone: (860) 444-6989 | Fax: (215) 243-7454 | www.epathlearning.com © ePath Learning 2013

Enterprise Social Networking Technology

Embracing a New Competitive Advantage Strategy

A White Paper

300 State Street, Suite 400, New London, CT 06320

Phone: (860) 444-6989 | Fax: (215) 243-7454 | www.epathlearning.com © ePath Learning 2013

Introduction

In these dynamic economic times doing more with less has become the norm. Demanding

customers and the proliferation of products and service have driven prices down globally;

therefore there is increasing pressure to reduce costs. The current economic climate is both

challenging and competitive with much uncertainty. Our global marketplace is in a constant

state of change and is more “connected” than ever before. The playing field is level for many

organizations and differentiation is difficult – competition becomes more aggressive every day.

What does a company have to do in order to improve its competitiveness in this type of

environment? Knowledge, data, and analysis of data are all critical for success. Additionally,

companies need to embrace cultural competency and be adaptable to rapidly changing

circumstances. There’s a strong emphasis these days on open communications and

transparency as well as having a knowledgeable and empowered talent pool. The bottom line

is that businesses of all sizes have to go the extra distance in order to maximize their

competitiveness and ultimately their profitability. They need to optimize their business

performance at all levels in order to gain competitive advantage, grow their client bases and

increase revenues & profitability.

Business performance optimization requires making strategic decisions – developing long-term

strategies to improve productivity, enhance business efficiencies and reduce unnecessary

operating costs. Investing in systems, solutions and new technologies can help companies to

improve business performance. Technology is rapidly becoming a strategic asset for

organizations. Technology has increasingly become part of organizations’ overall business

strategy and should be aligned with strategic business goals and objectives. Technology

enables businesses to maximize their employees’ contributions and ultimately business

performance.

In fact, analysts at the research firm Forrester expect modest growth in IT investments for 2013

and beyond. These analysts believe emerging technologies with the potential to transform

businesses will drive future IT spending. These technologies include: Software as a Service

(SaaS), business analytics, and mobile devices.

300 State Street, Suite 400, New London, CT 06320

Phone: (860) 444-6989 | Fax: (215) 243-7454 | www.epathlearning.com © ePath Learning 2013

Enterprise Social Networking Technology

Enterprise social networking technology is one facet of technology that’s gaining a lot of ground

in businesses of all sizes. Social media and social networking has become predominant in many

of our lives, whether it is Facebook, LinkedIn, Pintrest or Twitter. Organizations are recognizing

the power and draw of this type of technology and are now implementing it as a strategy to

help maximize their operating potential.

So what’s driving the use of social technology? According to Forrester Research, the interest in

using social technology or platforms for business is driven by capturing and reusing knowledge,

maintaining and maximizing human connections across remote workforces, and modernizing

systems to meet workforce demands.

1. Capturing and Re-using knowledge - Utilizing social networking technology reduces the

overall “silo effect” that many companies experience. The silo effect can be an enormous

hindrance to businesses so breaking down those barriers that impede progress is of great

importance. Through social network technology, users can collaborate, share best practices

and expertise so that knowledge becomes transparent. Moreover, companies are realizing

that informal knowledge and learning interactions are extremely important, and they are

compelled to capture it and make it available and useful to their company as a whole.

2. Maintaining and maximizing human connections across remote workforces - Thanks to so

many advances in technology, the days of 40+ hours spent in the office are coming to an

end. Welcome in the era of the remote workforce. According to the market research firm

International Data Corporation, by 2015, the world's mobile worker population will reach

1.3 billion, representing 37.2% of the total workforce. There is a growing need to

accommodate this rapidly growing paradigm shift. The greatest challenge of engaging

remote workers is providing them with a support network and facilitating communications

to remove any unnecessary barriers.

3. Modernizing systems to meet workforce demands - Tech savvy individuals, or the millennial

generation, are joining the workforce at rapid rates. Not only do these individuals thrive on

social media technology, they demand it.

300 State Street, Suite 400, New London, CT 06320

Phone: (860) 444-6989 | Fax: (215) 243-7454 | www.epathlearning.com © ePath Learning 2013

Generally speaking, enterprise social networking technology enables employees to connect,

collaborate, and learn from each other, informally and online in a micro blogging format. It’s

about people and socializing and sharing rather than broadcasting information to the masses.

Employees are able to share information as short messages, updates, documents, videos and

links with other interested employees. This technology can be found as a cloud-based SaaS

solution that is mobile user friendly or can be installed directly on an organization’s server.

Since an underlying premise of enterprise social networking is informal learning, social

networking should be incorporated as part of an overall learning and development strategy.

Enterprise social networking provides an efficient way to reap the vast intellectual capital of

your workforce and build dialogue-based communications across the business. Traditional

features and functionality of enterprise social networking solutions include the following:

Integration Seamlessly integrated with a robust Learning

Management System (LMS) to offer comprehensive

formal and informal learning opportunities.

Enterprise Discussions Users can start a conversation, read posts, and actively

collaborate with other users in real-time.

Knowledge Base Each conversation is archived and is fully searchable in

a centralized location.

Favorites Identification Messages can be tagged to make content organized and

easy to find.

Files and Multimedia Files, images and videos and links can be uploaded and

shared within user groups or enterprise-wide.

Security and Administrative Controls Messages can be sent privately and securely within

your organization and built-in administrative features to

maintain network control.

Instant Messaging Chat with other users that are online.

Expert Exchange Users can instantly locate experts within the enterprise

by expertise or specialty.

Groups Create and join private or public groups and collaborate

in teams.

Notifications Automated notifications can be sent to new members

Private Messaging Users can create private one-on-one dialog with other

group members.

User Profiles A personal profile is set-up by ach user that designates

their specialty, expertise and contact information.

300 State Street, Suite 400, New London, CT 06320

Phone: (860) 444-6989 | Fax: (215) 243-7454 | www.epathlearning.com © ePath Learning 2013

Benefits of Implementing an Enterprise Social Network

There are a myriad of benefits associated with implementing enterprise social networking

technology.

1. Optimizes employee interaction: The use of enterprise social networking technology

enhances weak relationships that may exist throughout your organization. People who

wouldn’t normally speak to one another now have that opportunity to get to know each

other. If an organization typically struggles with having successful employee interactions,

then enterprise social networking can give employees the opportunity to find common

ground, and create personal connections that allow for thriving working environments

rather than environments that can be adversarial.

2. Enriches existing business processes and workflows: Social networking can be used to

deliver information to employees about improvements needed for operational processes or

workflows in a quick and efficient manner. Feedback regarding changes can be immediate.

3. Improves collaboration efforts: Enterprise social networking fosters collaboration across

teams, departments, divisions, functions, etc. It can break down the silos or geographic

boundaries that traditionally isolate groups of employees. Transparency flourishes and

employees can be “on the same page.” The technology provides a common platform by

which multi-disciplinary teams can meet, share ideas and skills, solve problems, and

ultimately evolve together. Additionally, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can easily be

sourced online to add immediate value to the task at hand.

4. Reduces expenses: Enterprise social networks can reduce the need to have multiple

meetings – conversations and collaboration can be carried out online in virtual meetings.

This can greatly reduce travel and meeting expenses.

5. Reduces email traffic: Discussion threads target issues and support problem solving, thus

reducing the need and time spent on emails. Also, take into account pertinent information

being stored in email rather than in a centralized area where other employees can access it

– another benefit of reducing email traffic.

300 State Street, Suite 400, New London, CT 06320

Phone: (860) 444-6989 | Fax: (215) 243-7454 | www.epathlearning.com © ePath Learning 2013

6. Interact with partners/customers: Information can be shared with business partners and

customers. Feedback can be monitored and information such as trend identification can be

shared in real-time to help drive business processes and innovation.

7. Improve employee engagement, training, retention: Employees feel more connected and

have a greater sense of empowerment and belonging. Better communication means

greater business insight for everyone – this enhances employee engagement. Enterprise

social networking also proves to be successful for on-boarding new employees, enabling

them to be brought up to speed more expeditiously.

8. Better knowledge management and improved decision making: Enterprise social

networking encourages innovation. Improved information sharing means faster responses

to business and customer demands. Additionally, executives are traditionally forced to

make decisions for the organization when the information they need to make these

decisions lies with employees at varying levels of the organization – having access to these

employees helps execs make more informed decisions.

9. Overall time savings: When ideas and resources can be pooled rapidly, projects can be

completed faster. Less time spent emailing or searching for answers from internal experts

leads to more employee time being productive. Also, small instances of time savings add up

and can have a great impact on the bottom-line.

300 State Street, Suite 400, New London, CT 06320

Phone: (860) 444-6989 | Fax: (215) 243-7454 | www.epathlearning.com © ePath Learning 2013

Putting It All Together - The Competitive Advantage Factor

Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage depends greatly on corporate strategy and is

determined by the competitive dynamics within a company’s industry. For example, a company

in a service-oriented industry seeks competitive advantage differently than a company in the

manufacturing industry; however, the underlying principle is the same – to sustain superior and

optimized performance in relation to the competition. In other words, a company that

outperforms its competitors and creates more economic value for its product or services has a

competitive advantage.

In support of competitive advantage, business performance can be optimized and value can be

added indirectly throughout each stage of a company’s value chain. A company’s value chain

typically consists of: Research & Development, Production, Sales & Marketing, and Customer

Service. Implementing an enterprise social network proactively supports optimizing business

performance in each of these functional areas.

The overall premise of enterprise social networking supports value creation by increasing

productivity within an organization; however the chart below provides additional examples of

how value can be created by functional area.

Value Chain – Functional Area User Examples

Research & Development Open collaboration empowers R&D employees to be resourceful and innovative

Open and rapid communication brings employees up to speed quickly regarding new product developments

Information that is typically lost with a departing employee becomes enterprise knowledge and is accessible to all new employees

Production Changes to business processes or workflows can be communicated and immediately initiated

Capture and share best practices

Sales & Marketing Allowing external customers access to the system builds user communities that support: branding initiatives, customer insights, trend identification, focus group research, and generation of customer referrals

Open communications across the enterprise supports internal branding at all levels

300 State Street, Suite 400, New London, CT 06320

Phone: (860) 444-6989 | Fax: (215) 243-7454 | www.epathlearning.com © ePath Learning 2013

Share sales and marketing tools in a centralized area

Immediate access to SMEs during the sales cycle

Customer Service Locate SMEs quickly for rapid response to customer inquiries

Share information in a centralized location for problem research and resolution

General Informal learning opportunities are maximized

Removes geographic limitations

Less time spent emailing or searching for information increases employee productivity time

Opens collaboration and reduces the “silo effect”

Success stories can be shared to support employee engagement

Immediate cost savings can be realized through virtual engagements rather than live meetings

In a publication titled Capturing Business Value with Social Technologies, McKinsey Global

Institute performed an in-depth study of four industry sectors and suggested that “social

platforms can unlock $900 billion to $1.3 trillion in economic surplus value within the four

industries and two-thirds of this value creation lies in improving communication and

collaboration within and across enterprises.”

Implementing and adopting an enterprise social network can provide organizations with a

unique approach, as part of a corporate strategy, to gain and sustain competitive advantage.

Companies willing to embrace this technology can maximize their business value by

empowering their employees through communication and collaboration.

For additional information regarding enterprise social networks and learning management

systems please contact ePath Learning, Inc.