Defrag Keynote: Social Computing and the Enterprise-Bridging the Gap

Entire contents © 2008 Saugatuck Technology Inc.All rights reserved.

Social Computing and the Enterprise:Bridging the Gap

Strategic Advisor to Leading IT Vendors

Defrag ConferenceDenver, CONovember 3, 2008

Mark KoenigVice President, Saugatuck Technology


Source: Saugatuck TechnologyPage: 2

Key Takeaways

• Preliminary Conclusions from Saugatuck’s Current Research Program on Enterprise Social Computing

• Social Computing appears to be evolving to become an important element of the enterprise software solution portfolio. Still, it could fail to reach its full potential in the enterprise in the years ahead.

• There are four dimensions of this gap that both users and vendors must address– Social Network Integration– Information Relevance– Integration with Enterprise Applications– The Culture Shift


Source: Saugatuck Technology

Trends Driving Enterprise Social Computing

• Millennials in the Workforce– A digitally literate workforce that demands leading edge technology to

get work done• Multi-Modality

– Shifting between personal and professional mode should be seamless

• Increasingly Transparent Social Graph – Getting information and using it effectively means connecting with

Peers and Peers of Peers

• Consumerization of Enterprise IT– Enterprise technology must be intuitive and easy to use or consumer

technology is will come through the side door. • Self-Publishing and Multi-Author Tools

– Single-author, document-centric solutions are being replaced by multi-author collaboration tools.

• Software-as-a-Service and Cloud Computing– New solutions have low up front costs, are implemented quickly,

easily scaled, and enable powerful analytics

Soci

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chno

logi

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Social Computing Focus – Internal or External

Though most of the rhetoric today is about externally focused social computing, most of the activity is still internal. By year-end 2009, the majority of enterprise social computing will be primarily externally focused, due to a greater emphasis on ROI.

Focus Internal External

Business Objectives

• Capture & archive organizational intelligence

• Improve innovation & productivity through sharing of information

• Improve customer satisfaction & loyalty

• Improve product quality• Develop & deliver new

products and services

Audience • New employees• R&D / Product Design

colleagues • “Knowledge workers”

• Customers• Suppliers• Partners• Recruits

Technologies • Instant Messaging• Web Conferencing• Wikis• Social Bookmarking

• Blogs• Web Conferencing• Social Networking• Microblogs

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Where Are We Going?

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20132004

Low

High

Wave I: 2001-2009Collaborative Point

Solutions

• Project or departmental focus

• Mostly internal, some external

• Fragmented - multiple solutions used for similar functions

• Workgroups

• Web Conferencing• Instant Messaging• Wikis• Blogs

Ado

ptio

n

Internal Focus

External Focus

Wave II: 2006-2012Social Networks &

Communities

• Enterprise focus emerges• Internal and external• Standardization of

solutions• Creation and stewardship

of communities

• Blogs• Wikis• Social Networks• Social Bookmarks• Podcasting• Video• Mobility

GAP

What must users and vendors do to bridge the gap?

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Dimensions of the Gap

Issue Challenge

Social Network Integration Separate networks. Different information. Inconsistently maintained.

Information Relevance Assault of information – some of which has little contextual relevance.

Integration with Enterprise Applications

Lack of links between social networks and the enterprise applications they complement.

The Culture Shift Current business culture impedes realization of business value.

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Bridging the Gap: Social Network Integration

• Users want:– To be able to maintain a

presence in the multiple social networks and services that represent who they are. Effortlessly.

• Vendors must:– Develop ways for a user to

update profile information and status, participate in message threads, and manage connections with others without having to go to every single network site in which they are a member.

By year end 2009, membership retention will overtake acquisition and participation as the primary concern for the majority of social network and community managers.

There is too much out there but nothing tying it all together…. a

single interface into all these networks and services would make

things better. VP, Engineering – Global Technology Company

The user is being driven into one big social mashup. I

shouldn't have to go to four separate communities and be an influencer here, or viewer there

and so on.Director, Social Media – Mid-sized

Technology Company

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Bridging the Gap: Information Relevance

• Users want:– Help in sorting, filtering and analyzing all

the information inflow – RSS feeds, social network status updates, etc. –resulting from their networks.

• Vendors must:– Develop configurable and easy to use

intelligent agents that learn from prior use and present information based on its relevance to the user.

– Examples: • Netflix or Pandora.

Configurable “intelligent agents” to help users organize and manage social information will be the next key differentiator for social software. Saugatuck expects to see the first of these solutions appearing within the next two years.

We need the software to interpret and categorize what people are saying

in the system. City Planner –

Mid-Sized Southern City

We need smarter feeds that track what you are reading and give you more of what

you want to read. Project Manager –

Multi-national Energy Company

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Bridging the Gap: Integration with Enterprise Business Apps

• Users want:– To be able to view social information and

activity in the context of the use of their enterprise business applications.

• Vendors must:– Be ready to integrate to back end

corporate systems. For example:• Customer call center – view recent

postings , frequency, ratings, topics of interest for each caller

• HR / Talent Management – combine user-generated employee profile information with formal performance review information

• Product Design – integrate product specs from internal wikis with CAD systems to allow dynamic updating based on the linkage

By year end 2010, one-quarter of business process improvement initiatives will include the integration of social information into the context of business applications and workflows.

There is nothing in a CRM system that actually helps me win a customer. What I really

need is something that tells me other things. These are

more social in nature. VP – Large Tech Manufacturer

There can be a direct connection [of social

information] with a flow of information in a specific

business processVP Engineering – Social Software

Vendor

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Bridging the Gap: The Culture Shift

• Users must:– Be prepared to change the way they do

business• Transparency• Open-ness• Responsiveness

– Know your culture and define business objectives and metrics to match

• Vendors must:– Counteract the unstated fear of their

customers that sharing information openly will lead to a loss of power

– Map solution use cases to business objectives

– Create template solutions based on best practices

Through 2011, more than fifty percent of Wave II externally-focused social computing initiatives will fail to meet expectations due to misalignment with business goals or corporate culture conflict.

Communities are, by their very nature, cross-functional.

They need a ‘new media team’ with members from

marketing, product development,

communications, even finance. All areas. This may

be too radical for some companies.

VP, Customer Experience – Large Software Company

Page: 10



Where Are We Going?

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20132004

Low

High

Wave I: 2001-2009Collaborative Point Solutions

• Project or departmental focus• Mostly internal, some external• Fragmented - multiple

solutions used for similar functions

• Workgroups

• Web Conferencing• Instant Messaging• Wikis• Blogs

Ado

ptio

n

Wave II: 2006-2012Social Networks & Communities

• Enterprise focus emerges• Internal and external• Standardization of solutions• Creation and stewardship of

communities

• Blogs• Wikis• Social Networks• Social Bookmarks• Podcasting• Video• Mobility

Wave III: 2010-20??Cross Enterprise Networks

• Cross-Enterprise focus • Boundary Free Enterprise• Standardization across

social networks

• Integration with enterprise business applications

• Aggregation and Integration between consumer / business social networks

• Intelligent “agents” make information more relevant

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External Focus

Internal Focus



Wrap Up

• Social computing is on the verge of bridging the gap to become an enterprise-grade solution.

• To bridge the gap…– Users must recognize that a commitment to social computing is a

commitment to changing their approach to business– Vendors must address find ways to prevent social software burnout and

to place information in context through better integration and intelligent agents.

Page: 12

Saugatuck’s Social Computing for the Enterprise Research Program• Telephone Briefings with 20 leading vendors (12 complete, 1 scheduled)• In-depth telephone interviews with 30 enterprise social computing users (14

complete)• Research Report Scheduled for Publication in January 2009



QUESTIONS?

Reach me at: Twitter: http://twitter.com/mark_koenig

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markkoenigemail: [email protected]

URL: www.saugatech.com

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