Archive for Enterprise Software
by Joe McKendrick
April 17, 2009 at 4:11 pm · Filed under
2.0 Design Thinking, Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Software, Social Media
A couple of weeks back, my colleague and Enterprise 2.0 guru-in-residence over at ZDNet, Dion Hinchliffe, published an interesting analysis of the return on investment on Enterprise 2.0.
Lately, my own pet subject, service oriented architecture, has been getting raked over the coals over the matter of ROI, but Enterprise 2.0 — because it’s so new and fresh and there is little cost for the tools and services — has been getting a pass.
However, caution still reigns, and Dion observes that “there is still mostly a wait-and-see attitude amongst IT managers and business leaders at the moment.” Dion says many E2.0 solutions overlap with already existing solutions, hierarchical corporate culture gets in the way, and then there’s the nagging question of ROI.
As an emergent set of technologies and methodologies, a solid, predictable ROI cannot be quickly pinned down for E2.0. However, Dion is confident that the collaboration it enables is clearly of great business value:
“I would like to make it clear that there is little doubt that Enterprise 2.0 delivers ROI today, at least on the collaborative side (the jury still seems to be out on the social networking side). Recently, researchers have even been able to put a real numerical value on social connections. My point is just that it’s difficult to determine where the returns (often the most important ones) will appear when the tools have so many downstream effects. That’s not to say either that Enterprise 2.0 ecosystems can’t be directed to some degree to achieve business objectives. In fact, I believe the the next generation of workers will be experts at achieving their goals by eliciting and then harvesting the knowledge and capabilities they need over the network.”
Not so confident about E2.0’s ability to deliver business results is my other ZDNet colleague, Dennis Howlett, guru-in-residence of all things enterprise.
Dennis published a rebuttal to Dion’s post, arguing that there aren’t enough examples out there yet of E2.0 delivering results. And, he adds, the bean-counters and the corner-office folks are in no mood these days for funky new theories and applications:
“… the most serious problem with the analysis is its reliance on
‘jam tomorrow’ as an inducement to feed the trend. It is all very well saying that something is emergent but that cuts little ice in the C-suite where the current focus is on cost reduction – usually of the order of 20%.”
Plus, enterprise collaboration is a dream that’s been chased for decades now, Dennis adds. “Getting a department on board, let alone an enterprise, can be mind numbing, thankless task. I spend most of my life in the ‘knowledge’ industries but even there it can be like pulling hen’s teeth.”
And how do you measure the ROI? “Where’s the ROI in email? Unlike others, I believe that IS measurable,” Dennis adds. “You can’t quite say the same for blogs except in retrospect.”
As I noted in a previous post here at the FastForward blogsite, Gartner’s Mark McDonald said E2.0/Web 2.0 tools may have a lower bar for ROI because they’re so inexpensive to adopt and use. Is this bar low enough to escape the scrutiny and expectations for other technology solutions to deliver more than their initial costs in measurable results?
And — this is a matter that needs to be explored in more depth.
A couple of years ago, I talked about the difference between the E2.0 style of management versus the traditional style. That is, productivity in an E2.0 culture comes in “bursts,” versus the show-your-face-between-9-and-5 mentality. Bursty productivity calls for a different set of measurements of value to the business, versus the time clock.
So the question lingers — how do you appropriately measure E2.0 ROI? In the SOA world, it’s been established that baseline metrics need to be established at the start of a project, tied into key performance indicators (KPIs) for the business. IBM even talks about “Key Agility Indicators” as a way to track the impact of projects on business progress. Is it time to get serious about Enterprise 2.0 metrics?
by Joe McKendrick
April 5, 2009 at 3:20 pm · Filed under
2.0 Design Thinking, Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Software, Messy World, SOA, Social Computing, Social Media, User Revolution
As social media has grown within and outside of enterprises, the question of legal and regulatory liabilities for content has remained in the background. However, we may start seeing more policing by regulators and intrusion by legal departments.
According to a new report in the Financial Times, “revised guidelines on endorsements and testimonials by the Federal Trade Commission, now under review and expected to be adopted, would hold companies liable for untruthful statements made by bloggers and users of social networking sites who receive samples of their products. The guidelines would also hold bloggers liable for the statements they make about products.”
A counter-argument by Richard O’Brien, vice-president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said it was premature to regulate blogs or other forms of new media. According to FT, O’Brien rote to the FTC that “regulating these developing media too soon may have a chilling effect on blogs and other forms of viral marketing, as bloggers and other viral marketers will be discouraged from publishing content for fear of being held liable for any potentially misleading claim.”
Over the past decade or so, the legal system caught up to email, which must now be managed and is treated as any other corporate record or statement. That is, companies are liable for the statements made by company representatives within email communications. Even more recently, instant messaging has fallen under the same scrutiny. Both email and IM, in fact, are construed as electronic communication. In fact, the United Nations Commission on International Trade (UNICTRAL) Model Law on Electronic Commerce — which serves as the basis for many national laws — defines a “data message” as “information generated, sent, received, or stored by electronic, optical, or similar means including, but not limited to, electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic mail, telegram, telex, or telecopy.”
The UNICTRAL definition was drafted earlier in the decade, but certainly can be extended to social media. How liable will organizations be for any and all statements made by employees or representatives in blogs or social media sites? That is a question that inevitably will be hashed out — and hopefully, we can keep the lawyers from quashing the potential of the social media sphere.
In fact, a survey out of the University of Southern California last year found almost of half of organizations may be holding back on social media inittaives due to liability and legal concerns.
by Rob Paterson
January 21, 2009 at 8:36 am · Filed under
Enterprise Software, Obama, TV, Twitter, Web 2.0, Web Services, Whitehouse.Gov
First of all – WOW!!!!!
Here in point form are some thoughts about what I think has also happened in the social media context:
- Twitter was huge and held together – was this not Twitter’s Performance Waterloo? – I found it a wonderful adjunct to my TV and my web watching. I limited my stream to those people that I knew and cared for and it was as if I was there side by side with them. This amplified the whole experience. Some were on the ground in Washington – their collective Tweets were like a composite eye – in aggregate they gave me a sense of being there.
So – if you wish to add more “experience” to your event and hence make it more “sticky” having a Twitter stream will do that.
If you claim to be a new organization and you do not use Twitter thoughtfully – then you are no longer in the game
- Streaming – I was joined by millions who wanted to make their computer the centre of their experience. I wanted this because I could add more layers to what was going on. I cannot do this with TV where all I can do is shift channels. I could use Twitter – I could have several streams open at the same time – I could chat – the list goes on. I think that this also was the Tipping Point for TV delivery – this is what the Tsunami was for blogging. This was the event that shifted the web as a delivery platform from being nice to being the most important. Of course it did not work as well as it was hoped. But the flaws in execution and in load management does not change the new reality. The Web is where TV will be seen. CNN’s excellent partnership with Facebook was a ramp up of this idea. I found it such fun to have the feed AND my peeps online on the same page. I started to think of BSG and a Twitter/Facebook combo. Not just news but more importantly to be able to watch whatever I wanted with my friends – a concert, a theatrical show, a documentary, a lecture content shared with friends is better than content watched alone. TV Web Stream PLUS my friends looks like a killer combination
So if you produce content for TV and you have not made up your mind that the web will be your primary arena you are no longer in the game.
Adding conversation with friends and enabling filtering of this group is the icing on the web TV cake
- Making this easy is very important. On the one hand we have the CBC who use a very tricky stream delivery and who clearly want to pull you back to the TV offering – on the other hand we have CNN and Facebook – their set up was exceptionally well done. Now the stream overloaded but that is solvable. CNN also offered multiple views – there was not only one stream but 3. I was struck by that. I can see down the road the value of offering many many views – I then become the editor of my own view of the event. Now I have control. What a shift in power! One of the views that is worth having is the C – Span view by that I mean one without any commentary – with my peeps we can do that too.
So – It is clear to me that CNN have crossed the Rubicon – they have senior folks who no longer see the web as good or interesting but as the primary way forward
- There is a new Media company out there. The White House is going to become a media powerhouse of its own. The Obama administration is going to do for social media what Teddy Roosevelt did for the Press and FDR did for radio but more so. The Roosevelts gave the new media worlds of their time a boost. But the press/media organizations were still always outside the Whitehouse. As the President showed us in the campaign, he is a master of being the media organization of the future – the White House will have massive conversations directly with the people – an not just the people of the US but with the people of the world. The 44th President is a master of the Cluetrain. Politics are all about Biological Markets.
So, just as he will show up all other elected leaders by his agenda so I think he will show up all others in mastery of how to use social media to do the great work of our time – how to engage people so that they no longer sit passively waiting to be saved but that they are brought into the conversation that encourages them to take responsibility for their own lives and their own communities.
This for me is my biggest aha – that our own conversation will soon move away from “cool” from the “Tech” to what this is all about. It is surely all about an awakening from the deep sleep, the passivity, the numbness, the dumbness – of the traditional mass media.
This where where responsibility replaces passivity. This is the great change and revolution of our time. The social use of media will wake us up and connect us to our real work.
by Jevon MacDonald
October 10, 2008 at 5:05 pm · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Software
For many people the positioning of Enterprise 2.0 as a cost reduction engine is not new. Complexity reduction, efficiency increases and fast response times have been the cornerstone of many Enterprise Social Software pitches in the last 5 years.
Enterprise software spending has recently crashed. Companies such as SAP, headquartered in Waldorf Germany, have recently issued earnings warnings, which illustrate how dramatically enterprise application spending has dipped in just a few weeks. These organizations can no doubt weather this storm, but with this shift, opportunity is found.
As traditional enterprise vendors suffer, a panacea for investors and customers is emerging with the nascent enterprise social software industry. Until now, Enterprise 2.0 has sat on the sidelines of the enterprise software industry, seen perhaps as less focused and more predisposed to conversation than action.
Enterprise 2.0 consultant and speaker Thomas Vander Wal may be a typical example of the ethos that has emerged from this industry within an industry. “My clients always see my value as providing strong benefit of getting the most value out of social tools,” of his work implementing and designing Enterprise 2.0 tools, “The interconnections and interactions between people spark great value, but the more costly traditional tools have missed out on this great reservoir of of value, but the newer lower cost solutions offer these gems up wonderfully with a little coaxing.”
The concept that more traditional enterprise applications miss out on these network effects, the value added by having many people using a single tool or platform, is not new. The emergence of Saas, software which is not installed on a computer but is instead delivered via the Internet, has recently generated more interest in leveraging these effects as an advantage to businesses.
“The promise of bringing social tools into organizations has never been about complicating worker productivity. It centers on allowing individuals to act more independently and to make smarter decisions more easily.” said Susan Scrupski, an ‘Enterprise 2.0 Evangelist’ with nGenera, an Austin-based Enterprise 2.0 developer and consulting company, “The end result really is in reducing the costs of creating and delivering products and services.”
Social Software is software which “allows users to interact and share data.” according to Wikipedia. These principals, applied to everything from mundane business processes to change management have been slowly making inroads in recent years.
In many cases, enthusiasm for this technology has outpaced reliable case studies and visible progress, but that progress has become more remarkable in 2008, with several large infusions of capital in to budding Enterprise 2.0 startups such as $15million that Sequoia Capital recently invested in Portland based Jive Software, and $20million from Intel Capital which was invested in Telligent, a Dallas, Texas, company.
So too have new stories emerged, like that of National Public Radio, a network of over 800 stations in the United States. “It’s no secret that employee anxiety within organizations will increase as markets fall, giving organizations embracing Enterprise 2.0 tools opportunities to build trust and transparency across all levels of a company.“, says Tim Eby, a board member of National Public Radio and the manager of NPR station WOSU in Columbus, Ohio. “The effective use of wikis, internal blogging that invite comments, Twitter, and social bookmarking tools like del.icio.us bring a flow of needed ideas and innovation at a time when all organizations are seeking to improve efficiencies, customer relations, and loyalty. There’s no better time than an economic downturn to consider embracing these tools within an organization.”
Enterprise 2.0 may not yet have fulfilled its biggest promise, the democratization of the enterprise, but as successes mount, those who may have ignored its rise will begin to take notice. In a time of uncertainty such as we have seen in the past several months, new and promising technologies may prove to be the safest harbour for those who must continue to deliver growth.
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