by Bill Ives
January 18, 2010 at 10:21 am · Filed under
Mobile, Social Media
The 2010 report on intranets by Jakob Nielsen was recently released and I was pleased to receive a review copy. Jacob said that, “many winners offered sophisticated social networking features and several created separate mobile designs optimized for smart phones.” The report said that employees increasingly expect “anytime, anyplace” access, and companies are starting to evaluate what that means specifically for their employees. Two of the winners created special mobile-specific sites with reduced content and applications; another built a dedicated intranet application optimized for its preferred platform, the iPhone, its preferred mobile platform. The report recommends that companies follow this approach and created specific sites optimized for mobile users.
Given the rise of social computing within the enterprise it is nice to see this reflected in the winners. The social computing features in this year’s winning intranets focused on two levels of interaction: “providing the opportunity for employees to get to know one another as individuals and offering workgroup support that encourages work-related connections. Users on winning sites could create profiles, share content and even share bookmarks to their favorite sites.” There were many opportunities for employee-generated content and many examples of increased transparency. Sounds like enterprise 2.0 to me.
There was also a lot of emphasis on change management, user involvement in design, and the internal marketing of the new social features on the intranets. Several winners engaged a wider range of stakeholders in early communication that continued throughout the design process. As designs became more defined, some teams fielded special early-access programs that let smaller groups of people use the new design before it was rolled out to everybody. These are all best practices that have been discussed on this blog so it is good to see them in practice in successful efforts.
This is an interesting contrast to their 2007 report that stated that year’s winners “took a pragmatic approach to many hyped “Web 2.0″ techniques.” This careful approach appears to pay off as enterprise 2.0 features are now much more widespread and have keep up with times. However, it is interesting that there are few repeat winners.
The complete 449-page report provides numerous illustrations of current trends. It is co-authored by Amy Schade, Jakob Nielsen and researcher Patty Caya. The report remains very useful for anyone wanting to keep up with what is happening at big firm intranets.
by Rob Paterson
January 15, 2010 at 3:48 pm · Filed under
Event Announcements
In the wake of the disaster in Haiti, Facebook’s launched a portal for people who want to help: The Global Relief page. Twitter’s playing its part too. Superficially frivolous social networks driving social responsibility–who’d've thought it?
Facebook’s own non-profits manager Randi Zuckerberg announced the initiative on Facebook’s blog, noting that the “Internet’s critical role in connecting the world’s population in times of tragedy” is undeniable, and could be a valuable tool for good. To exactly this end, Facebook’s new Global Relief page is a fan-style Facebook page that is designed to be a central information portal about disasters.
But the service is actually intended to be much more than that: It’s supposed to be a “collaborative resource for individuals, non-profits, governments and industry to raise awareness for those in need around the world.” In effect, Facebook is setting itself up as a central point for debate, plans, personal donations, and relief effort coordination at all levels from members of the public to governments. Its status update, chat and micropayment systems would seem ideally suited to support all of these aims, and Facebook notes that the charitable efforts of some organizations have already raised “hundreds of thousands” of dollars for Haiti disaster relief efforts.
And though Twitter doesn’t have the level of sophisticated user tools that Facebook does, it benefits from its easy one-to-many transmission system and the simplicity of its short Tweets–creating a perfect venue for pithy and emotive pleas for help, and news and personal opinions about disasters. The lifecasting service practically filled up with Tweets about Haiti over the last day or so–everything from requests for assistance, links to charity organizations and moving personal stories from the island itself. Twitter as an organization needs to do almost nothing to assist in this–though it’s worth noting that the company is aware of its vital role, and even delayed a planned server upgrade during the Iran protests so as not to disrupt the efforts of Twittering protestors. Biz Stone has, nevertheless, gathered together some links in a blog post that illustrate some ways the public can help.
And since Monday is Martin Luther King day, Twitter’sactually taking some direct action to promote the efforts of the Corporation For National Community service–its promoting the same sort of charitable assistance that Facebook is, but directed at finding volunteer assistance in local communities. Twitter’s blog post acknowledges that its users are making the most of Twitter, and that “on an international level this week, people are joining forces to heal Haiti. Together, we’re proving that we’re wired to help.”
Both of these efforts are symbols of two things: That a community can mobilize itself very quickly to help others in trouble, even if they are remote from the scene–the Internet is a fabulous medium to assist in this. And it also shows that the social network crazes that sometimes appear frivolous and even time-wasting actually can be used as a force for good. All that’s required is a decision to act among its userbase.
I am sure that you too wondered how all the aid effort might get coordinated. After all – all the organizations have their own protocols for communication, many languages, different kit etc.
Bu ironically Facebook and Twitter might be the way for them all to connect and to see what the other are doing. A new kind of coordination – where each of react to what the other is doing versus trying to organize it all from the centre!
Here is the USS Carl Vinson Facebook Page
I suspect that just as the Tsunami put social media on the scene – that Haiti will add a new dimension – we will see how we can all get connected.
Posted via web from Rob’s posterous
by Rob Paterson
January 15, 2010 at 9:03 am · Filed under
Connected Enterprise
Follow up on Joe’s post before this
McDonalds will offer unlimited free Wifi at most of its outlets starting today.
This move is tied into their coffee strategy – and directly attacks Starbucks. Earlier Starbucks saw that making a coffee shop into a Social and Work place was a move that fitted into the more mobile social and work world. But in their rapid expansion, they seemed to have lost their way and ended up selling a commodity transaction. It is even more ironic that the shift to the public social and work space has accelerated as Starbucks withdrew. They could have owned this.
It’s ironic that MCD is shifting from the commodity platform to the social platform. I think a lesson for us all.
So what do you sell? How do you sell? If your answer is a transactional commodity, then order your tombstone.
PORTLAND, Ore. — McDonald’s Corp. said Monday that it will soon offer free wireless Internet access at most of its U.S. fast-food restaurants as it tries to broaden its appeal still further.
“We’re not just about hamburgers,” said Dave Grooms, chief information officer for McDonald’s USA. “We are about convenience and all kinds of value.”
The company, the world’s largest fast-food chain, has offered Internet access for about five years.
In mid-January, it will lift the $2.95 fee it has charged for two hours of Internet access at 11,000 of its 14,000 U.S. locations. There will be no time limit after the fee is lifted.
“McDonald’s is about value – value in our food, value in our services,” Grooms said. “It’s a natural fit.”
It’s also a good fit with the company’s growing coffee business, which has upped the chain’s competition with Starbucks Corp., which also offers free wireless access. Coffee and the McCafe line of drinks at McDonald’s have helped drive its sales and increase its market share in the U.S.
by Joe McKendrick
January 14, 2010 at 5:25 pm · Filed under
2.0 Design Thinking, Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Software, Event Announcements, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0
Increasingly, large companies are turning to social media strategies to get closer to their customers, and thus get new ideas out to market faster. I had the opportunity to observe a panel at this week’s National Retail Federation show in New York, in which the CIOs of Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, and Best Buy revealed how social networking was changing the way innovation was being driven through their organizations.
David Grooms, CIO of McDonald’s, said his company’s challenge is to focus on and engage customers at all levels. Most recently, the restaurant chain put in free WiFi networks across all its 11,500 locations — as a result of engaging customers through social media channels. “We were listening to customers, blogging and tweeting,” Grooms explained. “It fits where we’re going.”
Neville Roberts, enterprise CIO of Best Buy, said there’s a lot of pressure to stay ahead of the competition in the fast-moving electronics retailing businesses. “A lot of our revenues come from innovation, but it gets copied quickly,” he said. “We have to get innovation out there quickly. We have to bring things to fruition quicker than everyone else.”
Part of Best Buy’s strategy to maintain this speed to market is through social networking. “We engage in listening to customers, and that’s done through social networking,” Roberts explains. “Social networking and the views coming through there is a very important channel for us.”
The keyword coming out of this CIO summit was “innovation.” The challenge was knowing where the obstacles to innovation are, and working more closely with the business to unleash the creative forces of the business, the CIOs agreed.
Not such an easy task, of course. First of all, there aren’t many technologies particularly unique that give one company an edge over another. With information widely available across the Web, and IT offerings fairly standardized, a company’s secret sauce — be it processes or technology — cannot stay that way for long. “There are very few secrets out there anymore,” said Rollin Ford, CIO of Wal-Mart. “The only competitive advantage becomes the speed aspect. Organizations need to keep embracing innovation and new technology models. At the end of the day, it’s about getting from point A to point B quicker than everybody else.”
Rollin illustrated how Wal-Mart recently was able to cut a lot of costs through social networking strategies. “We conducted a blogging exercise on energy conservation,” he related. “We had more than 6,000 posts with ideas from employees, and saved millions in energy costs as a result.” For example, he said, one employee posted advice to take the light bulbs out of the drink machines in store stockrooms. The additional light in the machines wasn’t even necessary, he added. “As a result, our savings by taking that one light bulb out of the machines was $1 million aggregated across all our locations.”
Corporate IT departments need to recast their roles, from strictly technologists to enablers of innovation, the three CIOs agreed. Social networking has become a critical part of this shift. “Our role is to foster a culture of innovation,” Roberts said. “when good ideas come forward, we need to spend time pushing these ideas to the next level.”
“You have to wake up every day and say, ‘What are we missing?’ Rollin added. “Every day you have to get up and run faster than the next guy.” This “healthy paranoia” wouldn’t necessarily be a hardship on staff members either, he added. “People don’t want to do the same thing everyday. They want different challenges.”
