Programs like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have become a very widespread exchange information and organize life for families and groups of friends or strangers. Now, companies want to explore those resources to improve productivity, collaboration and communication among its employees work. Several software makers are also hoping to become the bridge that makes real integration of social networking with business.
But is it worth the effort? Will it work? Research firm IDC expects the global market for social platforms will increase from U.S. $ 630 million in 2011 to U.S. $ 18,600 million in 2014. But while the architects of the idea greet the movement of business toward a more "social" and consider it the beginning of a new era that will change the way that companies have to deal with their employees, skeptics say that everything can become a simple trick to help software companies to sell more products.
"It is clear that social media has revolutionized the interaction between human beings," says Kendall Whitehouse, director of new media at Wharton. "It is natural to ask how they can transform business processes internally." What you think also Shawndra Hill, professor of operations management and information management at Wharton. She, however, added that lack a concrete measurement of the impact of social networks in the returns of companies. "The use of social networking in enterprises is relatively recent. The use of more sophisticated tools will allow people to communicate with the entire organization. However, above all, there must be evidence that such tools are really useful. "
currently building effective social networking applications for business is a process still under development. In February, Salesforce.com launched a social tool for businesses, Chatter.com, which is an extension of management software customer relationship that Salesforce maintains in the "cloud." In many ways, promoted by Salesforce Chatter.com-through ads that came out air during the Super Bowl-mimics Facebook and Twitter by allowing workers to share profiles, to comment on projects and "follow" what their peers and business processes such as invoices and sales proposals. In December, the company's CEO, Marc Benioff, the most enthusiastic advocate of corporate social networks, said that Chatter is "your company by sending a tweet."
Nancy Rothbard, Wharton management professor, says that the introduction of social networks in the office culture can have a significant impact on how businesses are structured. "The advantage of social networks is that they create communities, but a different kind of community of non-virtual," says Rothbard, currently studying how people handle their personal and professional profiles online. "A really interesting aspect of it, and that may indeed be extraordinary, is that there comes a community action, awareness and knowledge of issues and events that may be important, creating a sense of intimacy and can lead to confidence and a greater closeness. "
is not known yet whether it will achieve this idealized scenario in the real workplace, "says Rothbard. Social networking in the wider public sphere have allowed people to become "friends" virtual politicians, actors and musicians, as well as to create the feeling that the public can interact with these figures known at a level of camaraderie. However, what will happen, from the point of view of the hierarchy, when a CEO again "friend" of its workers in a corporate network, Rothbard asks. Breaking down barriers
Many of these social networks and management of these experiments are being made by technology companies specializing in the traditional corporate segment. In January, for example, during the Lotusphere, IBM executives attending the meeting discussed what the company was doing to integrate their social tools to their employees through software of collaboration that allows visiting documents, through forums, to carry out an exchange of ideas and mobile applications. IBM has been developing social tools for business networking and collaboration suite LotusLive, located in the cloud, for use in a number of areas such as marketing, customer service, sales, product development and human resources.
In October, John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, said the company has been using social media internally to "crush the organization." In this model, networks are used to form the product management teams and projects. Gather knowledge quickly and Employees are evaluated on their collaboration skills. Murali Sitaram, general manager of enterprise collaboration platform Cisco, observed in October in a blog post that businesses will be transformed as "a larger number of people from Generations X and Y begin to come into force job. "
As young depend increasingly on Facebook and Twitter to communicate in their personal lives, employers must offer similar tools to those workers, experts say. Cisco became the network's internal software in a product called the Quad, which integrates business management systems and Internet content and updates available status Facebook-style instant messaging, and a task manager. However, there are risks. Chambers said in October that Cisco's decision to use a hierarchical network to manage the business was one of the most serious challenges to the company. "What will change in the structure of companies is that executives will participate in social networking groups [...] according to function," said Chambers. In this model, managers become regarded more as general managers and can be called to perform multiple functions depending on their background. Benioff
frequently cited Dell, a major partner of Salesforce.com, as an example of as a social network specifically Chatter "is changing the interaction with the company. Chatter Dell made it accessible to 13,000 workers. Company employees said they found the effective implementation of communication between the sales team and manufacturing, which helped the company improve its delivery to customers and make more robust the general expectations. Chatter Salesforce.com also used internally.
"These networks allow for extensive democratization and just [...] with the hierarchy in the company [...] empowerment and provide training to workers who actually make a difference, and are not necessarily people, for example, who work for me, "Benioff said in December to the audience at the congress of GigaOM," Net: Work: The Future of Work ", in December." I began to realize that they were not my personal reports and top managers of the company that you were adding value. They were also the senior vice presidents and vice presidents. It was that strong network of individual contributors who contributed their ideas to the business of the company. "
Meanwhile, Salesforce.com made a series of acquisitions to enhance the resources of Chatter. The last few months, she bought Manymoon, a company social productivity, DimDim, a maker of tools for meetings Internet, and Activa Live, specializing in corporate chat software. According
Whitehouse, such products can help dismantle the structure independent of the company badly weakening the barriers between departments and creating a place where employees can share knowledge and provide feedback. When companies grow, information and knowledge come to light with more difficulty because "people are too busy and concerned above all with the results in your area. Revolutionary platforms like Facebook and Twitter emerged as consumer products that gave priority to individual "he said. "That kind of change would be extremely valuable information for businesses. How is it possible to carry part of the change of energy and the personal information the company? "
Although the goal of many of these social networking programs are breaking down barriers, there are also disadvantages in total transparency in the work environment says Rothbard. First, employees could easily feel suffocated by too much information. Secondly, it varies greatly how people hang messages on social networking sites, that is, when they put a post.
"In the case of Facebook, the implications are very different. If my page is reduced to essentials only, who cares? " Rothbard says. In the work environment, however, that the posts and updates are used to evaluate service performance, "the impact could be negative. There may be also people who get too. There is TMI (too much information or too much information ) personal level, but may also be TMI professional level, to the point where someone says 'enough is enough'. There are questions concerning, in general, the processing of information but also to the rank and status of persons that comment, with whom they interact and to what extent they feel wanting to disclose information. "
The value of the corporate network can not appear immediately, Hill says, so companies need to assess the results they expect. "What are the needs of the company?" Asks Hill. "Some might use the network to have a better understanding of the meaning of a more improved communications for the company. Others will use transparency to see how companies and their employees interact, and then link the communication to business performance ". Ending
exaggeration Matwyshyn
Andrea, a professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton, draws attention to the fact that social tools Business may be overstating their promises. "Social networks can be used as a tool for collaborative team work," she says. "But the outright use of networks all the time may distract the worker."
In other words, social tools must be balanced with other priorities, and may not have imagined the impact on the workplace. "Conceptually, there should be much added value", evaluates Matwyshyn. "However, the benefits will be different for each worker."
Hill agrees with this point of view. If employees use corporate tools for microblogging, blogging, and for profiling purposes non-intended, may end applications becoming more an excuse to postpone the task. After all, many workers would spend at least part of the day checking and updating their profiles on Facebook and Twitter.
would be equally problematic if employees did not use corporate social tools, notes Hill. After all, the collaborative software and knowledge management systems have existed for years with different levels of success. "Nobody knows if corporate social networks are different from those that have been offered before," says Hill. "The worker is asked: 'Why should I trust my team information I have? " The tools are better, but still separate information silos. "
According to Kartik Hosanagar, professor of operations management and information management at Wharton, corporate social tools have users, but its positive effects are perhaps being overly touted . 'I look with some skepticism the issue of use, but with more skepticism even see the benefits for companies, "notes Hosanagar." Businesses can use them, but I think that result in productivity benefits that manufacturers say bring. For me, I think it is good software for work done in collaboration system, such as Microsoft SharePoint, not a software that will revolutionize business. In other words, Chatter is not exactly the great wonder that was the original software for managing customer relationships in Salesforce.com.
All this agitation about social networks may be only the end of the cycle repeated publicity surrounding the technology, says Hosanagar. "There is much fanfare about social networks and the transformation of the joint space consumption space [...] manufacturers are capitalizing on that by offering products of" fashion ", and companies are falling into that trap" . Factors unique
Instead of companies buy a completely new program, the current generation of enterprise software will evolve to the point that social network resources become standard resources for it, provides Whitehouse, as companies continue to desire the identity management, security and support corporate level of existing systems. "Today, we think of social networks as something separate," says Whitehouse. "Eventually, it will disappear, becoming part of how we interact."
Hill agrees, and points to gain scale is fundamental to the success of social networking. If only a few employees use the network, the benefits diminish. Chatter has a good chance to resist because it was built over an existing platform of Salesforce.com, said Hill. "To be successful, social networks will have to have a standard software interface with the company."
Therefore, technology providers currently involved in existing business processes may be more able to make that social networks are successful in their corporate clients, says Whitehouse.
Although Salesforce.com Facebook whosoever will be the corporate sector, it is possible that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn launch an enterprise version. The chances are slim, says Matwyshyn, but it remains an interesting option. "To enter in the business sector, the resources of Facebook would be improved by giving greater security, "she says." But the user already exists ".
0 comments:
Post a Comment