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Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at Booz Allen: Part Six – Plans for Enhancements

by Bill Ives

January 4, 2010 at 3:21 am · Filed under Adoption, Enterprise 2.0

This is the last in a six part series on Booz Allen’s award winning implementation of Enterprise 2.0, termed the Hello system. In June 2009, Booz Allen was honored with the Open Enterprise 2009 Innovation Award so it is a good example to explore in depth. In this final post we will look at the plans for enhancements. Walton Smith, has agreed to be interviewed for this series and his time is appreciated.

Walton feels that they have done a good job with the unstructured content generated by the firm and I would agree. Now he sees that the next task is to integrate the more explicit structured content found in the existing document repositories. There are several issues here. First, the more formal content tends to be organized to align with existing formal organization structure. However, this structure is always evolving so the organization of data gets out of date easily.

In contrast, the Hello system is organized around communities that reflect the capabilities of the firm. They tend to evolve in a more organic manner to keep up with market needs. This structure is more flexible, and, at the same time, existing communities tend to grow and not simply change and get out of date. Walton said they needed to change the organization of more formal content to reflect this more flexible approach. The key is making sure that all relevant content and people can be found.

At times more formal content might be restricted in access because of client concerns and/or “scrubbed” of some of its content. However, it is often the people who created the content that others need to access rather than the details which might get out of date quickly. Partners looking to staff efforts need the right expertise that can create new content specific to the needs of their client. The content needs to be structured so access to the content creators is facilitated even when the content itself is restricted. The Hello team also wants to encourage content contribution through the communities so it becomes a normal part of the work process.

Additional upcoming planned functionality includes a rating system to permit users to rate the perceived value of content. Walton said that a rating system can be dangerous when there are small numbers. He did not want someone to get a bad rating right at the start and not contribute again. So they delayed the implementation of the rating system until Hello was mature and had significant participation.

They are also creating a user dashboard to enable users to aggregate and track information important to them. It will work like an iGoogle interface as you can customize what appears on your own dashboard. Walton feels that this will drive greater usage as people can better fit Hello to their needs. This is especially important for people on restricted sites where they cannot use their own laptops and cannot download anything on the government computers. Having the dashboard combined with a cloud system will provide easier access to what individuals need.

Hello also plans to provide video integration. Walton said there are many good tools available and video will provide a richer format for collaboration. He also wants to have a video production capability that works like an internal YouTube. This will allow staff to create a short video on lessons learned and other issues when they do not have time to make written contributions. In addition, Booz Allen has an existing rich library of video content that Walton wants to be made more widely available. All of this makes sense. I wish I had these features when I worked for a large consulting firm a few years back.

This is the final installment in our look at Booz Allen’s enterprise 2.0 implementation. I hope you find it useful in your efforts. Please let us know what you are doing. If you use Twitter to comment on this series please use the hashtag #bahe20 so it will be easier to find what others are saying.

Here the prior five posts in the series with links.

Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at Booz Allen: Part One Overview of Business Drivers and Components

Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at Booz Allen: Part Two – Change Management Efforts and Results

Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at Booz Allen: Part Three – Operational Impact

Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at Booz Allen: Part Four – Financial Impact

Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at Booz Allen: Part Five – Lessons Learned

I hope to return after a bit to see how they are doing and report back to this blog.

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Rick LaddJanuary 4th, 2010 at 10:59 am

Arrrrgh! (No, it’s not talk like a pirate day). All the comments so far are tweets and nobody’s mentioned the links to parts three, four, and five aren’t!! So I am.

Bill IvesJanuary 4th, 2010 at 3:50 pm

Rick

Thanks for catching the missing links and taking the time to alert me. . My internet access has been down all day until now and I fixed these. Bill

ffblogJanuary 4th, 2010 at 3:21 am

New Post “Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at Booz Allen: Part Six – Plans for Enhancements” http://bit.ly/4q82BE