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Enterprise Social Networks

 

Behind the Firewall

 

Web 2.0 has finally met the Enterprise and KitRx by Everymethod, Inc. is ready to tackle your social net. So what are Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) and why do you want one? We have put together some faq's that can help clarify the meaning of an ESN.

"Most of the useful information that gets shared between employees cannot be captured effectively"

 

What is an ESN?

Enterprise Social Networks are The term 'enterprise social software' is a general term for describing this class of tools. As of 2008, Enterprise 2.0 is a catchier term sometimes used to describe social and networked changes to enterprise, which often includes social software (but is not limited to it, nor to either social collaboration or software); and Enterprise Web 2.0 sometimes describes the introduction and implementation of Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise including those rich internet applications, providing software as a service, and using the web as a general platform.

What tools are used to build ESN's?

Specific social software tools that have been adapted for enterprise use include hypertext and unstructured search tools, wikis, weblogs for storytelling, social bookmarking for tagging and building organizational folksonomies, RSS for signaling, collaborative planning software for peer-based project planning and management, ideas banks for ideation (idea generation), social networking tools, mashups for visualization, and even prediction markets for forecasting and identifying risks.

Social networking capabilities can help organizations capture unstructured tacit knowledge. The challenge then becomes how to distill meaningful, re-usable knowledge from other content also captured in tools such as blogs, online communities, and wikis. In 2008, companies that provide Enterprise Social Software, started introducing profile pages to their products, to integrate the functionality of public online communities, within the enterprise. This enables knowledge workers to find others with the knowledge they may need. This is especially useful in large organizations.

We had 20 tablet PC's in stock and after one customer blogged about it we sold them all: "So he wrote, this has a great screen, it has this and that feature. And this is where I bought it. Next thing you know we had sold all of them after having them in stock for 4 months. I think social networking is absolutely crucial."

 

How do companies use Enterprise Social Networks?

Blogs and wikis are collaboration tools, and as such, they are useful mainly for sharing unstructured information associated with ad hoc or ongoing projects and processes, but not for structured informational retrieval. However, Shell is converting its official documentation to wiki's, because this enables the company to make documentation updates available in real time. And enable non-editors to contribute to the documentation. In this process they restructure the paper documents to a set of on line wiki pages.

Business processes often rely on access to structured data. This may be spread across many applications, databases, and directories. Social technologies work to address such complexities.

The unstructured information provided by social technologies is particularly useful in business processes that are not rigidly pre-defined, but where people work together in an adaptive way to innovate solutions. The theory of such processes is human interaction management, and there is an associated type of software known as a Human Interaction vatnageManagement System (HIMS). A HIMS can be used to provide management control over the use of social software.

A Service Network is another application of enterprise social software within the context of service innovation initiatives that span academia, business, and government.

Ironically Law, which many view as a field where professionals are highly un-collaborative, may prove to be among the first places to  embrace Web 2.0 in the enterprise, because lawyers manage intensive document collaboration, and sit in both large legal departments in corporations and outside law firms.

What are ESN usage trends going forward?

  • Codified vs. Conteptual knowledge: Collaborating using codified documents in Word and other formats benefits members of an organization but never improved quality of work or signal competency in the eyes of a client.
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 The boundaries between Enterprise and Consumer Services are narrowing: We are companies both inside and out of them. The boundaries that seperate the two are more an annoyance than anything else - EveryMethod has a unique perepctive to bridge those gaps. Outside is coming inside whether you like it or not!

  • "No company will build a sustainable advantage unless it capatalizes on individual workers and social dynamics

How Can EveryMethod help develop our ESN?

Our CEO, Johnny Kessel, has been an advisor Enterprise software companies, Fortune 500 companies and small businesses on Portals, Web Services, Software Integration and Social Networks for 10 years. As one of the early developers of  Tradebeam, the first social network for global trade entities, he has aunique perspective about how companies - from small to enterprise - can benefit from these tools. EveryMethod uses best of breed applications, platform agnostic solutions that are affordable and extensible, and is willing and able to take control of the full lifecycle of the application development and marketing. We integrate Wikis, Forum communities, Chat, Blogs into one platform then develop and/or integrate all add-ons such as SEO Modules, Social bookmarking, Reputation systems, Video, Support communities and Portals. EveryMethod Enterprise Communities are affordable starting at less than $1,500/month.


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