Enterprise social networking

Background

Enterprise social networking encompasses the merging of business and social network aspects. Currently, social network consist of a representation of each user which is usually a profile, his/her social links, and often provide a means for users to interact over the internet, such as instant messaging. (Social Network Service) Enterprise networking allows businesses to communicate and exchange information in different medium other than email. Companies find that Enterprise Social Networking can potentially have benefits in collaboration, recruiting, and quality assurance.

According to Clara Shih's book, The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff, enterprise social networking creates and openness and transparency within a company. Within these companies, employees are predicted to have closer ties and know one another outside of work thus yielding more productive work relationships (Shih 207). This benefits not only employees within the same location, but geographically dispersed teams. Through the use of ESN sales teams can coordinate and log interactions with potential stakeholders which can be extremely valuable (Shih 72).

Recruiting both internally and externally can benefit from ESN through the use of the exponential contact network. Through online networks the company can not only reach individuals who work directly with the company, but business contacts or personal friends For example, a company could use a recently hired employee to find potential recruits with similar skills and talent. They could use a social network like Facebook to search through this person's contacts within the same school, major, or particular interests. This network would allow recruiting teams to find new talent in a whole new way.

Recruiting internally can also provide for an invaluable asset to the company. Connectbeam, an expertise management tool, "builds expertise profiles on every employees based on projects they have worked on, articles they have bookmarked, and information they have posted to enterprise wikis, blogs, and other systems...It also proactively recommends colleagues with whom to network based on similar expertise, projects and interests (Shih 114)." This type of technology has the potential to bring the most amount of experts onto one team.

By building profiles based on skill levels in certain areas or research knowledge, companies can find the people they want on their team without wasting resources. If your company is extremely large and divided into many departments, asking managers to recommend employees takes away time from their duties and also leaves room for overlooked candidates. By aggregating an employee's project history and research interests, the company can use the network tools instead of employees to search for Subject Matter Experts.

Enterprise collaborative productivity tools like Mzinga, HeadMix, and Webex allow employees to work on the same document whether they are in the next office or are 1,000 miles away. This tool can allow several users to discuss upcoming events, plan schedules, edit documents, complete Powerpoints, etc. The possibilities are limitless. These technologies allow employees to give feedback to enhance a product or idea. Backboard is tool that allows users to provide feedback for documents, images, and presentations. This technology is used to enhance prototypes before they go for final revision or hit the market. By gaining this insight, those who use this tool have the ability to see if their new ad is readable, whether the message is clear, or whether the graphics are appealing. By asking for feedback first, employees can utilize critiques and suggestions to better the final product (Shih 116).

As history has shown, companies have been hesitant to adapt new technologies. The advent of the internet, web pages, and email were first utilized by the public before enterprises took the risk in investing resources and money. The biggest reason companies are traditionally apprehensive to adopt new technologies, is because of the lack of quantifiable data recorded on the projected Return on Investment(ROI). Another cause for concern is that "some companies have taken a reactive stance against these tools due to privacy or transparency concerns, and the number of companies selling tools specifically for enterprise continues to increase (Thompson)." Although these concerns are valid, they hinder the potential benefits companies can achieve and ultimately cap the company's growth.

In the example of instant messaging, many companies were apt to reject it because they did not see the value in employees chatting. However, many businesses use Instant Messaging to get business done between employees such as reminding fellow team mates of a due date or asking a pertinent and time pressing question. It is imperative for enterprises to adapt social networking because it encourages self-organization and development to foster new ideas and collaborate effectively (Farber).

The technology surrounding social networks has progressed in time from web communities, to content aggregation systems, to searchable content, to behavior targeting. Web communities can be described as a simple make-your-own website page. In 1995 Geocities, Tripod, and Angelfire allowed users to make their own sites easily and for free. In 1999 RSS ( Really Simple Syndication) Feeds became popular. This aggregation technology checks website for updates so users don't have to(Shih 27). In 2003 searchable engine marketing became apparent causing a $20 billion dollar a year industry . The technology allows advertisers to market to people more effectively by wading through massive amounts of data. Most recently in 2008, behavior targeting has improved search technology by mining through content as well as context. This technology can build profiles of users by using their web activity(28).

Technology

Evaluation of existing OTS/OSS alternative packages

As with any kind of ESN website these days, you can find some great solutions that are totally free: free plug-ins, themes, and great community support. This is always a viable solution for any small start-up. If you are looking to set the foundation for a large social networking site in the future, a premium solution may be considered for future expansion and better piece of mind - nothing would be more devastating to hear that your free software platform has been abandoned, and updates will no longer be available. Enterprise solutions are for those with huge budgets: mid to large size companies who can afford to budget a more expensive site for their purposes.

Free social networking platforms include but are not limited to Boonex Dolphin, Buddypress, Elgg, JomSocial, Joomunity, and PHPizabi. For example Elgg offers blogging, networking, community, collecting of news using feeds aggregation and file sharing features. Everything can be shared among users with access controls and everything can be cataloged by tags as well. Elgg has been used a lot in the educational sphere, where it has been used to power social networks for these various institutions and organizations. It is also being used in the academic research sphere to support collaborating researchers (Wikipedia, March 22, 2010).

Premium social networking platforms include but are not limited to DZOIC Handshakes, SocialEngine, Joovili, PHOfox, and Rayzz. For example Rayzz is an all in one social networking site with streaming music, video sharing, forum, blog, social networking and photos that you can share with friends and family as well as utilize these features for a business purpose (Rayzz, March 22, 2010).

Enterprise social networking platforms are designed for companies with a big budget. For example Pringo provides the first hybrid enterprise social portal that contains portal tools along with native social web features. Pringo differentiates itself from its competitors based on the following: Robust Application Development Tool - allows for quick build and deployment of integrated enterprise portals and corporate communities, Built-in Content Management Tool - allows for delivery management of content directly from the administration panel, Open-Source Extensions - streamline integration with internal and external application and data sources, Powerful Admin Panel - allows for complete management of the community from one screen, Single Sign-on Capability - allows for integration with internal corporate security apparatus, Multi-lingual Capability - simplifies the rollout of website in over 24 languages, Multi-Site Management Capability - allows for sharing and management of content across several sister sites, and Site Moderation Tool - provides the ability to moderate user generated content pre and post submission (Pringo, March 22, 2010).

Enterprise Social Networking software applications include communication tools and interactive tools. Communication tools typically handle the capturing, storing and presentation of communication, usually written but increasingly including audio and video as well. Interactive tools handle mediated interactions between a pair or group of users. They focus on establishing and maintaining a connection among users, facilitating the mechanics of conversation and talk. Communication and interactive tools include but are not limited to instant messaging, text chat, internet forums, wikis, blogs, collaborative real-time editors, prediction markets, social network services, social network search engines, deliberative social networks, social guides, social bookmarking, virtual words, and other specialized social applications (Wikipedia, March 22, 2010).

Social networking tools in a greater detail:

• Instant messaging - allows one to communicate with another person over a network in real time, in relative privacy.
• Text chat - allows users to join chat rooms and communicate with many people at once, publicly. Users may join a pre-existing chat room or create a new one about any topic. Once inside, you may type messages that everyone else in the room can read, as well as respond to messages from others.
• Internet forums - allows users to post a "topic" for others to review. Other users can view the topic and post their own comments in a linear fashion, one after the other.
• Wikis - is a web page whose content can be edited by its visitors.
• Blogs - short for web logs are like online journals for a particular person. The owner will post a message periodically, allowing others to comment. Topics often include the owner's daily life, views on politics or a particular subject important to them.
• Collaborative real-time editors - allows simultaneous editing of a text or media file by different participants on a network.
• Prediction markets -tools that make it easy to predict and bet on future events. This is a more formal version of social interaction, although it qualifies as a robust type of social software.
• Social network services - allows people to come together online around shared interests, hobbies or causes.
• Social network search engines - a class of search engines that use social networks to organize, prioritize or filter search results.
• Deliberative social networks - are webs of discussion and debate for decision-making purposes. They are built for the purpose of establishing sustained relationships between individuals and their government.
• Social guide - a tool that recommends places to visit or contains information about places in the real world such as coffee shops, restaurants and wifi hotspots, etc.
• Social bookmarking - allows users to post their list of bookmarks or favorites websites for others to search and view them.
• Virtual worlds - services where it is possible to meet and interact with other people in a virtual environment reminiscent of the real world.

Looking forward

In terms of SN technologies

Forrester Research expected companies to spend over $258 million on enterprise social networking in 2008 and that in the following years it would become the largest expenditure by companies on Web 2.0 technologies (Kolakowski, Mar 12 2009). Forrester Research further predicts "Enterprise 2.0 will become a $4.6billion industry by 2013 and social networking tools will garner the bulk of the money" (Maamar 16, Dec 2009). The future of ESN appears to be specially designed or highly customizable solutions with relevant business applications (Kolakowski, Mar 10 2009)."The success [of enterprise social networking] is going to depend on the vendors being able to define two things: The increased efficiencies that a company could potentially get from it, and second, the ability to quantify the financial benefits," Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT Research, said in an interview (Kolakowski, Mar 10 2009).

"The conventional wisdom is that - and this was expressed by IBM with Lotus Connections - as younger people who are engaged in social networking come into the work force, they're going to expect to see these solutions [in a work context]. If they don't see them, they're going to be feeling held back" King also adds (Kolakowski, Mar 10 2009). The following areas of technology are going to be utilized, integrated and evolved within Enterprise Social Networks.

User-friendly UI will be one of the most important aspects of new enterprise social network solutions. A readily acceptable and familiar platform, such as how the new Lotus looks familiar to Facebook, will be essential to quick user buy-in and a lessened learning curve (Kolakowski, Mar 12 2009).

Enterprise social networks are now being developed to serve specific business applications. If it can allow members to not just communicate about projects but collaborate on them as well then it provides real business value. As the field progresses and becomes more defined, its capabilities within the business will increase (Kolakowski, Mar 12 2009).

The multiple communication systems that can be incorporated into an enterprise social network can be leveraged to increase communication speed and decrease costs related to traditional mediums of exchanging information (i.e. newsletters, bulletin boards, physical meetings) (Kolakowski, Mar 12 2009).

According to Lee Bryant, an analyst at the social-computing consultancy Headshift, harnessing the power of micro-messaging like Twitter, instant messaging and blogging will embed information in the working groups of the network and lower costs of information sharing (Kolakowski, Mar 12 2009). One such technology that was recently demonstrated in class, Unity by Lockheed Martin, has some of these features.

While security is not often in the forefront of thought when talking about enterprise social networking, it is an important aspect to consider. General social networking sites like facebook and even those geared towards enterprises (LinkedIn) have been known to possess potential security risks, making their user data vulnerable to attacks (Kolakowski, Mar 12 2009). This can explain the emerging trend of organizations to develop their own ESNs in-house or have one developed from an outside vendor. It is very important to ensure that all aspects of the ESN are secure, especially those containing confidential or sensitive business data. As ESNs become more prevalent and more outside facing components, making sure all vulnerabilities are accounted for and protected against when integrating with 3rd party applications will be vital (Kolakowski, Mar 12 2009).

Each year, more and more small businesses are utilizing social networking solutions, with over 600,000 expected to be using one by 2009 (Kolakowski, Mar 12 2009). As the number of small businesses using social networking solutions continues to grow, the market for providing solutions customized for smaller businesses will grow as well. These solutions will need to be scalable to account for growth of the company and the added capabilities, storage, and organization they will need and expect from their ESN solutions (Kolakowski, Mar 12 2009). Enterprise social networks also need to be scalable so that different size organizations can collaborate on work can employ a single solution for their networking needs.

In order for ESNs to continue to flourish and the field to grow, seamless integration with legacy applications and processes will be needed (Kolakowski, Mar 12 2009). These older systems are hard to displace and not as flexible as Web 2.0, yet still are integral to the success of the business. Integration with a company's email client, content management suites, and other applications will need to be addressed as ESNs are employed (Kolakowski, Mar 12 2009). In some cases, these legacy applications will be worked into the network, but in others, as the technology continues to improve, they will be replaced by more robust enterprise social networks that will have those capabilities.

Of course, the social aspects of ESNs will not go ignored as the evolution of the field continues. Already many enterprise social networks include features such as profiles, blogs, wikis and multimedia sharing. Some of the newer enterprise social networks are incorporating features such as podcasting, collaborative workspaces, and video modules (Kolakowski, Mar 12 2009). The video module allows executives to post videos that they wish the whole corporation or business units to see, such as quarterly announcements or a feature on someone in the company (Kowlakowski, Mar 12 2009).

Enterprise Mash-ups technologies will also become prevalent in enterprise social networks. An enterprise mash-up is much like familiar consumer mash-ups, such as the many applications the utilize Google maps, except that it focuses on gathering data from internal and external sources to produce relevant business information of functionality (Mohan 241, Aug 2008). The mash-up engine would pull from multiple Web 2.0 sources within the enterprise social network and from networks it can touch externally, integrate and aggregate the data, and the push it through to a user-interface (Mohan 241, Aug 2008). The user-interface itself would be built on a Web 2.0 technology as well, and would act and feel much like a portal, except that analysis on the data can be performed before reaching the user interface or once there (Mohan 241, Aug 2008).

There are also new technologies being developed to integrate enterprise social networks with other technologies, like CRM, that a business employs. Some examples of the newer ones that have been developed and are still evolving are Sales Prospector, Sales Campaign, and Sales Library (Mohan 242, Aug 2008). Sales Prospector is a solution that allows a sales user to develop predictions based on customer's financial status, buying patterns, conversations the customer has had and some other factors (Mohan 242, Aug 2008). Sales Campaign has to do with monitoring communications, tracking leads, extending offers and capturing responses among a number of additional features (Mohan 242, Aug 2008). It also can be accessed by a variety of users with different permissions to make use of its data and features (Mohan 242, Aug 2008). Sales Library is literally a library of all sales information for the business that they can utilize internally and share details of with their clients (Mohan 242, 2008).

Enterprise social networks are opening up new possibilities for firms to improve in several key business areas. These areas include Knowledge Transfer (KT), Business Intelligence (BI), specifically in knowing and understanding competitors and with which ones to partner, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supplier Relationship Management (SRM). The purpose that the enterprise social network will play in each of these areas is basically to same. It will increase and organize communication, increase knowledge of markets, partners, customers, and competitors, build stronger and deeper relationships, and allow for more efficient and effective collaborations on projects both within and external to the organization.

Businesses are just starting to realize the immense and diverse amount of knowledge that gets shared over a social network and that it can be utilized to their advantage. Firms that are better able to share knowledge across organizational units are more productive than those that lack or do not fully utilize this capability (Yang 379, Dec 1 2009). It has been found that networks that allow knowledge transfer tend to become the primary medium of knowledge acquisition and flow among its members (Yang 379, Dec 1 2009). Thus, the natural tendency of employees to adopt and use enterprise network technology when introduced in the work place.

Research suggests that new knowledge outside of the firm is an important stimulus for organizational improvement (Yang 379, Dec 1 2009). Therefore, enterprise networks are and will be used by traditional competitors in a market who have agreed to cooperate to achieve a common objective (Yang 379, Dec 1 2009). This cooperation allows firms to create and access new knowledge and then internalize it and learn to use it within the organization (Yang 379, Dec 1 2009). Social capital theorist, Burt Walker, states "a social network provides a valuable resource for the conduct of social affairs, coordination within and between organizations and managing relations" (Yang 379, Dec 1 2009).

There are three dimensions to social capital; structural (network structure), relational (such as trust), and cognitive (such as a shared vision between units).(Yang 380, 2009).

"Social interaction in the network ties of relationships, shared values and understanding among actors that constitute the network, and trust engendered in the network are all valuable resources through which network actors gain information, power and control, and solidarity benefits." (Yang 380. Dec 1, 2009). The findings of Tsai and Ghoshal's research suggest that the three dimensions of social capital have positive impacts, directly or indirectly, on resource exchange and combination, improve knowledge transfer and the value creation process (Yang 380, Dec 1 2009).

Knowledge faces many barriers in transfer from originator to user since it is tacit and complex, increasingly so as cultural and geographical distance increases, but embeddedness in a social network can reduce or eliminate this barrier (Yang 380-381, Dec 1 2009). An enterprise social network creates and increases the number of opportunities for social interactions to occur, and thus the number of relationships a member of the network can develop and maintain (Yang 381, Dec 1 2009). It increases the contact of members with special and valuable knowledge and the high number of these occurrences will increase knowledge value and transfer between members and member organizations (Yang 381, Dec 1 2009). An enterprise social network also places constraints upon it members and member organizations. An example would be that if one organization were to adopt immoral behavior, knowledge of this would spread quickly throughout the network, and damage its chances for continued interaction and corporations from the other members of the network (Yang 381, Dec 1 2009).

In the ever increasing competition of this global economy, any means of gaining a competitive edge will be pursued, including cooperation among competitors within a market. Those collaborators employing an enterprise social network motivated by gain and guided by trust and fairness will achieve more intensive, more open, and less adulterated exchange of knowledge than would otherwise be likely. (Yang 381 Dec 1, 2009). Trust between organizations comes from reliability, integrity, reputation and the knowledge it possesses (Yang 381, Dec 1 2009). An enterprise social network provides a medium through which its members and member organizations can build trust through constant interaction and socialization. Yang states "Inter-unit trust further facilitates Knowledge Transfer through improved mutual awareness, mutual gain, reciprocity, and a long-term perspective (Yang 381, Dec 1 2009).

It will also be important to businesses to understand how to use enterprise social networks to get members to share common goals and visions. The better that different units share long-term visions and goals the better the firm's coordination and integration (Yang 382, Dec 1 2009). A shared vision also enhances members' relative capacity to value, utilize and assimilate knowledge. "It increases the level of mutual understanding and the anticipation of value to be achieved through knowledge sharing" (Yang 382, Dec 1 2009).The more that members of the enterprise social network understand each other, share vision and goals, and normalize in the culture, the more effective the network will become in enhancing knowledge transfer (Yang 382, Dec 1 2009).

Social networking is playing a crucial role in the new paradigm shift in thinking of Web 2.0 not just as a service, but as a platform for data integration as well (Mohan 237, Aug 2008). It provides organizations with the critical data to build strong relationships with their customers and partners (Mohan 237, Aug 2008). Many enterprises will be moving to integrating social networking into their CRM systems, which provides critical data needed to build and maintain relationships with donors, members, prospects, participants and volunteers in one system (Mohan 237, Aug 2008).Social networking as part of a CRM would provide organizations with the ability to capture online interactions as well as document offline activity in a single view (Mohan 237, Aug 2008). Organizations and their constituents can whole view of their relationship, including history, preferred method of contact and progress on projects (Mohan 237, Aug 2008).It can also be utilized as a tool by each party to better understand their counterpart and manage the relationship. The CRM aspect of a social network allows for oversight of the financial aspects of the relations as well, and when coupled with OSS customizable web services, can allow either organization to capture a variety of reports about the status of the relationship, project, etc (Mohan 238, Aug 2008).

Merging enterprise social networks with CRM and Web 2.0 technologies will increase exposure to clients, deepen the client relationship and lengthen the client lifecycle for organizations (Mohan 238, Aug 2008). It will lead to improvement in the three functionalities of CRM, marketing, sales, and service. For example, social networks integrated with CRM technology will allow organizations to better identify profitable customers, understand them intimately, and structure and manage the relationship accordingly (Mohan 238, Aug 2008).

By combining enterprise social networks with CRM technology, organizations will collaborate with customers in the designing, assembling and implementing phases of production of goods or services, thus improving value-creation (Mohan 241, Aug 2008). Where as in the past, customers tended to be passive buyers in those situation. They will also join in those same phases to produce Web 2.0 technologies that can be integrated, plugged-in, or extend the current capabilities of the social CRM to enhance and add value to the relationship (Mohan 241, Aug 2008). Conducting business like this will save organizations a lot of time and money since they will deal with and gain new customers in one controlled medium/portal (Mohan 242, Aug 2008).

Many of these same types of technologies will be employed in similar enterprise systems and solutions, such as Supplier Relationship Management suites (Maamar 1, Dec 2009). A social SRM technology integrated with an enterprise social network have many similar features, except with the main goals of finding and retaining the best suppliers of services or goods (Maamar 2, Dec 2009). These technologies will also focus on identifying threats and competitors to the organizations suppliers and supply chain and collaborating on preventing this and working on solutions (Maamar 2, Dec 2009).

One of the most important things regarding enterprise social networks is to track the value that they will add to their company, in the internal social aspect and the technologies it will combine with the are external facing. In regards to the internal value, evaluations will need to be made on how much knowledge is being shared and gained through collaborations and how this is increasing performance and efficiency. It would also be wise to analyze user buy-in and participation, and how well this has aligned the vision and goals of each department. To judge the value of the external facing parts of the social network, questioned should be explored regarding each are the network touches. For example, seeing how many leads and customers were gained and retained through the use of the ESN and its technologies (Mamaar 3, Dec 2009). Looking at increased market share, partners gained, and solutions solved through collaboration will also be important metrics to measure the success of ESN (Mamaar 3, Dec 2009). In social SRM, asking questions such as: Were we able to identify competitors to our suppliers and use that knowledge to gain an advantage? Were we able to improve supply chain efficiency by connecting all suppliers and buys in the chain?(Mamaar 3, Dec 2009). Another way to track the value of ESNs will be see how the market for ESN technologies grows and how much revenue can be generated by offering ESNs suites as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) (Mamaar 4, Dec 2009).

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