The Social Network Discussion Space

Hills to Climb and Mountains to Move...

It shouldn't come as any strong surprise that most nascent technologies find their way into the enterprise through the halls of IT.

Long  before TakeTwo, Electronic Arts and Apple had hit their stride back in the dotcom mania days (yes, this was the late 90's!) with their market-making plays -- I can recall the engineering halls of my dotcom startup buzzing with Ultima Online, Everquest and Napster (and, I mean, Shawn Fanning's original version).

And so has this also been true for the deployment of most Enterprise 2.0 technologies, including Social Software, as Chris Fletcher (AMR) recently noted in his research brief "Enterprise 2.0: Findings for the CTO".

Historically, there are three challenges that most firms must get past in achieving greater deployments and adoption of their enterprise software initiatives:

• a failure to justify the investment spend required to achieve the intended benefits for the line-of-business department
• a lack of overall "fit" for a solution's functionality to be relevant and truly make the lives easier for it's intended users
• an inordinate amount of time required to physically install the software, test it for stability and train the department on how to use it

Chris affirms these hallmark hills that all organizations must climb in this same brief.

As does Forrester's Erica Driver in her report "Information Workplace Trends 2007".

Social software initiatives that fall in the realm of Enterprise 2.0, on the other hand, require a fraction of the deployment cost of their older, enterprise application siblings -- and are often achieved in record time.

A case in point is Dow Chemical's 2007 implementation of a social software solution, as covered by Gartner analyst Thomas Otter and fellow bloggeryte Dennis McDonald.

The business challenge Dow faces is significant, to say the least, with 40% of its global workforce coming up for retirement over the next 5 years.  (Read that again and let it sink in...that's a huge # for "any" organization!)  And, Dow intends to use social software to build bridges in its "no-holds barred" offensive to recruit and retain talent.  The fact-sheet to the success Dow has achieved is equally impressive:

• one year for the entire project from conception thru deployment to end-user adoption (i.e., birth of the idea on the client side, before any vendor presentations thru QA and go-live)
• 90-days for physical implementation of the software solution
• over 4,500 users of the system 90-days after launch...!
• 95% repeat usage of the system by all end-users
• achievement of all adoption KPIs within 60 days vs. Dow's target of one-year

With performance proof-points like these -- and others documented by the white-label firms -- the mountain social software must move to gain a foothold in the enterprise landscape may not be so large afterall.

As Forrester's Erica Driver notes -- the market timing is "now" for firms and vendors alike to get into the social software game and experiment with individual pilots.

So, what guideposts should firms use to stay on a smart path of social software exploration?

• Don't "implement" a social software solution for the sake of having a social software pilot in your enterprise because it's "de riguer"...instead, make sure you have a specific business purpose behind it.  In other words, as William Jonathan Drayton use to say..."Don't Believe The Hype".

• Where and whenever possible -- try to force yourself to get past the "Facebook" mentality of so many social-networking solutions today and directly embed your social software solution within existing workspaces already used and trafficked by your employees.  The axim "it's all about me" must guide your implementations of enteprise social software.

"Communal collaboration hubs" ala Facebook will certainly offer a measure of value -- especially if they have a theme.  But social-networking solutions that are embedded directly within an individual application or a specific content section of corporate portal -- which are also designed to purposefully (and only) support that experience -- will have far greater value and more significant adoption.

You should have hundreds of these types of implementations "everywhere"...versus a single version of "Facebook for company XYZ".  If you want an example of social-networking capabilities embedded directly into an application and "done right"...take a look at Xobni.

• And, finally, take real advantage of what you have once you've finally launched your solution and perform some measure of social network analysis -- manually or automated...just do it!  Like any well-managed stock portfolio, your "social enterprise network" will truly become an asset only if it's assessed, tweaked, managed and understood.

There is real "secret sauce" brewing behind all of the connections and activity in your network that form the profundity of most organizational problems (e.g., why do teams fail to gel?  why do employees fail to perform?  why do employees leave?) waiting to be captured.

It's rare that we have such a convergence of organizational need, market hype, vendor investment and user-willingness (if not outright demand) for a specific software solution.

So, let's get it started...

Significant Spend on the Horizon

Earlier this week, G. Oliver Young and Sarah Perez covered a recent Forrester report predicting continued spend on social software through 2009 resulting in a global market of $4.6 billion by 2013.  Much of the investment, surprisingly, will be driven by big business.

According to Sarah, "...firms with 1000 employees or more will spend $764 million on Web 2.0 tools and technologies. Over the next five years, that expenditure will grow at a compound annual rate of 43%.  The top spending category will be social networking tools."

In "Enterprise Web 2.0 will see surging demand and excitement", G. Oliver Young notes that in 2008:

"IT departments...(will) take their heads out of the sand and embrace Web 2.0 technologies...(and we can expect to see) at least half of the 42% of enterprises that say Web 2.0 is not on their priority list...add it by year’s end."

Many firms began their experimentation with social software (i.e., blogs, wikis, RSS, mashups, etc.) last year as isolated departmental projects.  And most of these organic projects, fueled by the growth of consumer social media (e.g., Facebook, Linked-In) within the office, have spread rapidly inside the office so much so that they can no longer be ignored within the enterprise landscape.  As Oliver writes...

"CIOs...concede that they cannot quell passionate employees’ use of consumer-oriented or SaaS Web 2.0 tools and will (choose to) mitigate risk by deploying enterprise-class tools in their stead.

...nearly any vendor that uses the term “social networking” will get...some consideration...(while)...suite offerings...(from)...Awareness, Jive Software, and IBM’s Lotus Connections offering stand to benefit greatly from the attention."

Vendors who thrive will be those offering a complete package of tools (e.g., white-label firms such as HiveLive, SelectMinds and Jive Software) for the businesses they seek to serve.  Among the larger enterprise players, Microsoft (SharePoint), IBM (Lotus Connections) and SAP (SAP Business Suite) will all likely position there offerings with Web 2.0/3.0 capabilities directly embedded around specific business problems.  And, the market is already showing proof-points of adoption for the market spend Forrester forecasts.

According to Bob Picciano, IBM's Lotus GM, the Lotus Connections enterprise-class, social-networking suite is "...the fastest-growing new commercial software product in IBM history."

Sarah summarizes social software's future state in enterprise offerings:

"What this means is that much of the Web 2.0 tool kit will simply 'fade into the fabric of enterprise collaboration suite'...by 2013, few buyers will seek out and purchase Web 2.0 tools specifically. Web 2.0 will become a feature, not a product."

The Secret Sauce of Social Network Analysis

One of the more difficult things to accomplish within a "social enterprise network" is understanding which connections are truly important.

The relationships fostered by the connections employees cultivate with one another, over the course of their day-to-day, are truly key determinents in the success they find inside the office.  When consciously studied, relationships reveal a great deal about an organization, its culture and management efficacy.  They provide insight to the speed with which joint projects may (or may not) be completed, as well as the likely relevancy they'll deliver to those who receive their output.  Unfortunately, the fabric of an organization's connections, specifically the depth and degree of their tensile strength, is oft-misrepresented...if it is understood at all.

In prior posts, I've illustrated how relationship connections play a part in standard scenarios supported by business application software.  Two common scenarios receiving a lot of airplay and attention in the corporate social software arena include:  "preparation for sales meetings within an opportunity pipeline" and "disparate teams working together to manage a 'content supply chain' in a global firm". [The first scenario is supported by most "sales force automation" capabilities in available customer relationship management (CRM) systems, while the latter is found within most enterprise content management (ECM) solutions.]

Oracle's latest release of its CRM On-Demand application, for example, comes close to embedding "social CRM" capabilities with its "sticky notes" feature.  When a CRM's pipeline & opportunity management applications cross-reference employee profiles for prior experience at a competitor or prospect, groups them in terms of relevance to an individual deal and then automatically notify sales reps for deal-support...we'll have moved one step closer.

Similarly, both OpenText and Vignette have recently embraced Web 2.0 and introduced social networking capabilities within their current releases -- i.e., ratings, reviews, polls, tagging, tag clouds, comments, usage analysis, blogs, wikis and forums.  But, as with Oracle in CRM, neither OpenText nor Vignette have crossed the social software bridge to deliver on its true promise within enterprise content management.  When a content management system enables auto-notifications to both product development and marketing teams both creating similar product information so they can collaborate in real-time...we'll get closer to the communal effort required for effective content management.

The essential ingredient required in any social-computing initiative aiming to be more than a "facebook-for-the-enterprise-portal" is "social network analysis".  There are many sources that explain the concept of social-network-analysis but suffice to say it is "the understanding of who is connected to whom and why" within an organization.

The announcements of Oracle, OpenText and Vignette all broach the potential of embedded social ethnography within their applications but none quite deliver.  But watch-out when they finally do!

The closest example, save our friends at Visible Path (now part of Hoovers), of a social-network analysis software solution I've seen comes from London-based Trampoline Systems.  Trampoline's software promises to "...displays the crucial social factors at play within organisations including key opinion formers, poorly-integrated business units, emerging communities of interest, single points of failure and third-party relationships."  Quite a mouthful but beyond intriguing.

As "communal, facebook-like portals" and "social-capabilities contextually embedded within a software solution" are both two sides to the social enterprise coin each becomes meaningful when their relevance is firmly rooted in an organization's ethnography.

Although, Hoover's beat the enterprise players to Visible Path -- perhaps, they'll move more quickly and pounce on Trampoline.

A Short Round-Up of Interesting Events

Monday saw two interesting announcements that may very well accelerate enterprise vendor attention and interest in speeding their own social software software development initiatives.

In yesterday's Washington Post article, Joe Weisenthal covers Google's investment in white-label, social network firm "Comrenz" to the tune of $1.0MM USD -- as well as a $5.0MM ante in P2P video technology provider "Xunlei".  Why is this important?  In one year, Google advanced its local share from 17% to 26% of the total market.  Media-rich, social networking offerings will appeal to a user-base already accustomed to similarly dynamic offerings via their mobile devices and virtually all major software vendors have significant stakes in securing a slice of China's market potential.  Google's investments demonstrate a belief that social networking capability will offer an advantage.

Another herald, involving Google, also created a riptide in the world of enterprise software.  As Erik Schonfeld reported in Seeking Alpha yesterday, Google and Salesforce.com announced the integration of GoogleApps within Salesforce.com's CRM On-Demand application.

The key highlights to the deal are that Salesforce.com's 1-million-plus users will now have direct access to Google's "office productivity sweet" and GoogleApp's 10-million-plus will now have a SaaS CRM alternative with native integration across their GoogleApp document, presentation and spreadsheet tools.  The economics of the deal are impressive and, as Erik states, "...Google is in effect becoming Salesforce’s productivity suite."

Some key capabilities the deal delivers to Salesforce.com's subscribers are a native instant messaging application (GTalk) with direct interoperability to their CRM application.  "With one click, sales people who use Gmail can send any email correspondence with potential or existing customers to Salesforce, where it becomes recorded as part of the sales cycle. Sales events and marketing campaigns can be overlayed onto a Google Calendar (see screen shot below), as well as colleague’s schedules for figuring out convenient meeting times."

The Salesforce.com-Google collaboration delivers another substantial business application with social networking capability embedded "directly within" the business process it manages -- in this case, the "sales force automation (SFA)" process.

Google has long held the watchful eye of the mainstay guard in the enterprise space (i.e., IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle).  With headlines this interesting two days into the week, we can be certain the "pinewood derby" for enterprise social software has begun.

Postscript:  Six Apart added a nice feature today...