Download - Economicsof socialcomputing richblankv2_2008
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 1
Rich BlankRich Blank
Web, Portals & Collaborative Technologies Conference
IT & Business Alignment Forum, Las Vegas, NV
November 10, 2008
The Economics of Social ComputingThe Economics of Social ComputingMaximizing ROI through Effective User AdoptionMaximizing ROI through Effective User Adoption
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 2
Today’s GoalToday’s Goal
For you to go back to your organizations and:
1. take a hard look at social computing initiatives: how information and content are created, and what technology platforms manage it all, and look at how much you are spending on those technology platforms
2. think more economically about how knowledge workers create and manage information, share their knowledge with others, how it’s secured, and how it’s retained.
3. focus on maximizing your Return on Investment on your social computing, collaboration & content management technologies through effective user adoption.
Information is your biggest competitive advantage!Information is your biggest competitive advantage!
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 3
AgendaAgenda
• Defining Social Computing
• Business and Technology Challenges
• Thinking Economically
• Maximizing Your ROI
• Case Study
• Q&A Discussion
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 4
Social Computing Intersected with How We Share Information and Knowledge
Social Computing DefinedSocial Computing Defined
Intersection of information, technology, and social behaviors.
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 5
Information WorkplaceInformation Workplace
Diagram: Forrester Research
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 6
Structured to Unstructured ContentStructured to Unstructured Content
Reports
Forms
Records Management
Business Processes
Document Management
Collaborative Spaces
Wikis
Rich Media
Project Plans
Calendars
Surveys
Instant Messaging
Blogs
Communities
Discussions
Social Networks
RSS Feeds
Less StructuredMore Structured
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 7
Social Interaction is Dynamic!Social Interaction is Dynamic!
Diagram: EMC
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 8
How do we make sense of it all?How do we make sense of it all?
Diagram: EMC
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 9
AgendaAgenda
• Defining Social Computing
• Business and Technology ChallengesBusiness and Technology Challenges
• Thinking Economically
• Maximizing Your ROI
• Case Study
• Q&A Discussion
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 10
Business & Technology ChallengesBusiness & Technology Challenges
• How do we better connect people to people and people to the right information at the right time when we generally rely on email as a collaboration tool?
• How do we work in this “flat world” with organizational and geographical boundaries both inside & outside the enterprise
• How do we efficiently manage interactions between distributed teams of knowledge workers and strategic partners?
• How can executives gain more visibility and transparency of project portfolios?
• How can we more effectively foster innovation, new product discovery & development, & reduce time to market?
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 11
Business & Technology ChallengesBusiness & Technology Challenges
• How do you effectively manage all of this technology and information to make people more productive? Time & cost savings – doing more with less!
• With multiple silos of information and competing technology platforms, how can we find what we are looking for?
• Is the right information secure in the right places with access controlled to the right people?
• How can we ensure the right governance is in place to manage all of this technology and information?
• How can we be sure we are being compliant with regulations and are able to respond to eDiscovery requests in a cost-effective manner?
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 12
Business & Technology ChallengesBusiness & Technology Challenges
• Cultural barriers: changing people’s behavior is hardest of all
• Adoption of Tools: Usability not been simple or user friendly
• Perceived Benefits: Link between technology and (perceived) business value has been seen as soft.
• Justification: Approval for any initiative/project is difficult given budget-constraints
• Timeframe: How long will it take for benefits to be realized?
• ROI: Calculating return on investment (ROI) is hard
• Metrics: How do we measure success?
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 13
Business & Technology ChallengesBusiness & Technology Challenges
A Day in the Life of a Knowledge Worker:
• managing people, projects, clients, partners, deliverables, timelines, and escalations
• making decisions, joining conference calls, meeting after meeting after meeting
• documents, documents, documents with dozens of versions of the sales presentations and contracts
• and of course email…..
• and now introduce social computing, blogs and wikis and communities, etc…
Is this efficient? Is this productive?
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 14
AgendaAgenda
• Defining Social Computing
• Business and Technology Challenges
• Thinking EconomicallyThinking Economically
• Maximizing Your ROI
• Case Study
• Q&A Discussion
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 15
Thinking Economically…Thinking Economically…
ConvenienceConvenience
ContextContext
ClosenessCloseness
ConvergenceConvergence
CostCost$$$$$$
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 16
ContextContext
• What’s the business purpose?
• What’s the focus?
• Can you filter what’s important and provide visibility?
• Is it a secure context?
• Who are trying to connect?
• Is it an organizational issue you are trying to solve?
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 17
ContextContext
• Is it a business process issue?
• Is it a project focus?
• Is it a technology focused context?
• Is it a compliance context?
• Process Improvement?
• Product Development or Innovation focus?
It’s about applying knowledge within a context.
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 18
ContextContext
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 19
ClosenessCloseness
• Relationship of IT and Business
• Relationship of the technology and the users
• Who owns the technology and content?
• You can’t solve all the problems. Focus on providing a platform and let end users determine how to best use it.
• And provide consulting, guidance, and training where needed.
• Market the value of the technology solution and showcase success stories to end users.
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 20
ClosenessCloseness
• Leader
• Knowledge is shared across the network
• Fearless
• Explorer
• Expertise promoted
• Creator
• Storyteller
• Works horizontally
• Change Agents
• Resisters
• Knowledge is power
• Scared
• Disinterested
• Hoards information
• Expertise hidden
• Command and control
Sociology and Psychology of End Users
• Follower
• Knowledge is shared locally
• Cautious
• Curious
• Expertise identified
• Contributor
• Adapts
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 21
ConvenienceConvenience
• How does the technology fit into the daily lives of knowledge workers?
• Is this technology easy to use and adopt?
• How easy is the technology to access or add members or create new team workspaces, wikis, or communities?
• What content can people see, who can see it, how can they access or search it??
• Is there real-time moderation of content and intellectual property? Will “big brother” be monitoring and auditing content?
• Governance is an underlying theme.
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 22
ConvenienceConvenienceC
on
ven
ien
ceC
on
ven
ien
ce
Degree of OpennessDegree of Openness
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 23
ConvergenceConvergence
“…..Convergence in lots of people’s language is still about the technology. The reality of convergence is that people no longer accept that they have to have different realities at home, in the office and while they are travelling – all requiring different equipment and having different capabilities. People want to work wherever they can work, get access to the information they need and deal with it…..”
- Ben Verwaayen, former CEO of BT
Technology Conference of Tomorrow, April, 2008
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 24
ConvergenceConvergence
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 25
Convergence: MS SharePoint Convergence: MS SharePoint
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 26
AgendaAgenda
• Defining Social Computing
• Business and Technology Challenges
• Thinking Economically
• Maximizing Your ROIMaximizing Your ROI
• Case Study
• Q&A Discussion
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 27
Maximizing ROIMaximizing ROI
Focused Context +
Acceptable Level of Convenience +
High Degree of Closeness +
Right Amount of Convergence =
Maximize ROI
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 28
Maximizing ROI: Developing Your StrategyMaximizing ROI: Developing Your Strategy
DesignDesignDesign a plan.
Further analysis? Identify
measurement (both quantitative
& qualitative).Is there some
high-level ROI to be identified?
Define success.Collect any
baseline data that is available.
PilotPilotEngage in the
opportunity and work closely with business users and sponsors.Introduce new
tools and training.Collect feedback,
data for measurement.
ReflectReflectLessons learned.
Was this successful?Was it the right
context?Is this initiative one
that can be expanded to a
broader context?If so, how will it be
managed?
RolloutRolloutMarket, Manage,
and Measure, Train.Promote successes.Focus on operations
and technology, support if applicable.Ongoing sustainable
ownership?Other opportunities?
ClarifyClarifyWhat is the context?
How close is IT to your end users?
How convenient will the technology solution be to
ensure it’s adopted? What type of
convergence is necessary? Do initiatives exist
already?Build business case.
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 29
Maximizing ROI: Sustaining InitiativeMaximizing ROI: Sustaining Initiative
Design
Rollout
Clarify
Reflect
Pilot
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 30
AgendaAgenda
• Defining Social Computing
• Business and Technology Challenges
• Thinking Economically
• Maximizing Your ROI
• Case StudyCase Study
• Q&A Discussion
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 31
Case Study: Global Chemicals CompanyCase Study: Global Chemicals Company
Background and Challenges:
• ~$1 billion in revenue, Offices in Europe, US, and South America, 15,000 employees worldwide at 70+ sites
• Spending millions of dollars in licensing & support to multiple technology vendors with multiple silos of information in Portals, SharePoint, eRoom, Documentum, Notes, Fileshares, and eMail, Instant Messaging
• Concerns about connecting people, overwhelming amount of information, increasing storage, security, compliance and records management
• Different service delivery processes on projects – each team acting like a different organization with not enough visibility into service quality or customer satisfaction
• And they’re investigating Web 2.0 technology like Jive
Entire contents Richard Blank © 2008 All rights reserved. 32
Case StudyCase Study
Recommendations:
• Develop an Information Management Strategy following a more economic mindset focused on maximizing ROI of the technology investments.
• Create an IT Service around information workplace services: (email, web 2.0, collaboration, content, BPM, & RM).
• Centralize silos of information to leverage economies of scale and technical IT technical talent.
• Provide consulting to the business providing custom point solutions where needed and following a Six Sigma approach to streamline business processes.
• Consolidate technology platforms where possible, reduce TCO, better leverage IT skills, and use proven technology that scales to your organizational needs.