Social Software’s Corporate Value

Regarding social software in the enterprise, the numbers are impressive, demonstrating the value of social networking to some 21st century organizations:

Over 3,000 individual employees blog at Microsoft.
IBM has 15,000 bloggers.
70,000 IBM workers contribute to wikis.

So, is it all set for social software tools in the enterprise? Eric Lundquist at eWeek says hopefully so, and encourages tech managers to experiment with social software.

He’s also citing from Don Tapscotts fortcoming Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, arguing that mass collaboration is changing the landscape:

Smart companies are encouraging, rather than fighting, the heaving growth of massive online communities—many of which emerged from the fringes of the Web to attract tens of millions of participants overnight. Even ardent competitors are collaborating on path-breaking science initiatives that accelerate discovery in their industries. Indeed, as a growing number of firms see the benefits of mass collaboration, this new way of organizing will eventually displace the traditional corporate structures as the economy’s primary engine of wealth creation.

Yes, insight into organizational structures is needed, moreover one needs a thorough understanding of a companies business model, to be able to describe how these social applications can be applied for the company’s benefit:

Implementation efforts need their groundwork done to succeed.

frogpond is well suited in this space, check out my weblog on business model innovation.

Consulting Approaches for Enterprise 2.0

Susan Scrupski on consulting in the changing landscapes of Enterprise 2.0, i.e. Consulting and SI 2.0, when more and more companies are embracing “as a Service”-models.

This nicely sums it up for me and my consulting approach:

Consulting 2.0 is Business Process-based not technology-centric

Well, I would add another twist on organizational settings, analysis and design … but the core remains valid: I don’t peddle wikis (or social software by any means) as the one and only, and predominantly, technological solution.

Being confident, but also knowing when and where to employ wikis (or other social software) and when not to is key. It is – at least in my book – a basic ingredient for sustainable consulting work that really helps clients.

Consultants who can dig deep within the business processes of an enterprise are going to be invaluable in helping large and small enterprises take advantage of new SaaS and Enterprise 2.0 applications.