In today's consumer world, social networks are the hottest trend: everyone is registered on Facebook, uses Wikipedia, and browses forums to get answers to questions. Some are also on Twitter and manage blogs, and who knows what else the future holds? Organizations saw this and wanted to replicate the success. The first to do so were technological entities - usually young people who participate outside the office and are familiar with the technology and latest innovations in the field.
However, unlike the consumer world, implementing Web 2.0 applications in the business world, known as Enterprise 2.0 in professional language, is not simple. Even when the tools exist, users may not come, or they may go and find few partners along the way.
NewsGator Technologies, an American company specializing in managing and implementing social networks and Enterprise 2.0 applications, presents a 6-step action plan for successful business implementation of these tools in an organization. An implementation that will lead to improved business performance and knowledge management processes in the organization:
1. Identify Business Problems and Define Goals
Defining the general benefits of implementing sharing tools in the organization is insufficient. For successful implementation, these tools need to address concrete business problems. Therefore, the first step in the project is to map the issues and define the goals - what change do we expect to create? Then, quantitative metrics should be defined to measure performance. For example, instead of aiming for general service improvement through a "CRM" system, define measurable problems and goals: for a problem like "handling customer inquiries takes too long," a concrete goal can be defined such as "reduce customer waiting time for a solution by 7%."
2. Define Use Cases
The events and actions that make up business processes—using use cases allow for breaking down processes into components and identifying the problem focus. An example of a Use Case could be: The customer asks a challenging question about the product. The customer relations manager presents the question to internal product experts. Some experts respond, critique, rate, and tag their responses. The customer relations manager filters the responses, answers the customers, reports on the problem solution, and updates the customer information database.
3. Choose Appropriate Technological Tools
After identifying problems and defining goals, choose the appropriate tools to deal with them. Blogs? Wiki? Expert map? Favorite links list? Knowledge communities? Discussion forum? Tags? Microblogs? Activity chart? Surveys? Status updates? Rating? As the customer relations manager in the previous section presents the customer's question to colleagues, he will be able to use a forum, search for people who tagged themselves as experts, search for tagged content, or a combination of all three. During the pilot phase, he can experiment with tools and choose the one that suits him best.
4. Publish Guidelines and Insights for Using the Tools
While some believe that implementing sharing tools should be without guidelines, we believe that publishing usage guidelines can improve results. Here are some examples of such guidelines and insights:
"Before creating a community, define its purpose and basic guidelines for its activity."
"Tag articles with terms meaningful to the group, not just those reflecting content. For example, use 'financial services sales opportunities' instead of 'banking.'"
"Encourage discussion participants to stay on topic."
5. Identify Objections to Participation
Users may object to implementing sharing tools in the organization for various reasons: they are already on Facebook and have no interest in "duplicating" the activity within the organization; they fear publishing their name or ideas publicly, and reactions from their managers and colleagues; management is stuck in an outdated hierarchical worldview that recognizes only one way to ask questions and distribute information. Early identification and preparation for possible objections will make it easier to deal with them.
6. Define Desired Cultural Changes
After overcoming objections and engaging employees in participation, preparing the organization for the anticipated cultural change is essential. Enterprise 2.0 applications can dramatically change organizational culture by improving transparency and information dissemination, democratization, and new knowledge creation processes. These changes require genuine willingness and desire for change, and support from strategic factors in the organization is critical for success. It's recommended that a multi-disciplinary, cross-organizational work team be appointed to define goals for change and identify activities reflecting the shift in progress. It's also recommended to identify key organizational figures who might resist the change, understand why, and work to dismantle these objections.
In the business world, Enterprise 2.0 realizes a central principle in knowledge management: information comes from bottom to top (bottom up) from employees at all levels of the organization. Management has limited involvement in building and feeding content and is mainly responsible for providing the technological platform and allowing a wide field for employee activity on the ground.
However, as mentioned, implementing and adopting sharing tools and other Enterprise 2.0 applications presents quite a few challenges.
This model can help an organization implement these tools better and faster. Even if the commitment may seem daunting at first glance, it all comes down to proper planning. Organizations that follow this model have a high chance of reaping the fruits of the process quickly.
The article is based on an article published on the Tmcnet website. Link to the full article: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2009/06/17/4230535.htm
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