online collaboration tools 8.10.2013

Online Collaboration Tools

@Aalto university 08.10.2013

Tero Peltola

Center for Innovation and Technology Research

Tampere University of Technology / Industrial Management

Tero Peltolao 2003

o M.Sc. (EE) with honors / TUT

o 2003-2010 o Project Manager R&Do Asperation, Perlos, LOM

o 2011 –o Ph.D. Candinate, Researcher / Industrial Management / TUTo Center for Innovation and Technology Research –group

o 2013o 3 months internship / Atos

Tero Peltola / CITER 11.04.2023


Main discussion threads

Motivation & BackgroundCollaboration & Co-operation toolsMy Research

Motivation & Background


Online collaboration?

• 5th generation of innovation process emphasizes collaboration & utilisation of communication technology innovations (Rothwell 1994)

11.04.2023Tero Peltola / CITER


Thierry Breton, CEO februari 2011

“Our ambition is to be a Zero email company within 3 years”

What we already have…• Polls & Surveys• Wikis• Media and file sharing• Crowdsourcing• Online mindmaps• Forums• Social Networks• Micro-blocking• Instant Messaging• Social bookmarking• Blogs


Internal use of Web 2.0 applications has produced measurable gains% of respondents using Web 2.0 for internal purposes and reporting the following benefits (avarage data from 2009, 2010, 2011)1


• There are lots of studies and reports that use very positive rhetoric

• It is not just for certain industry, but for all of them


Management Fashion (Abrahamson 1996)

Positive feedback from users to suppliers of management innovation


?

End of motivation


Some example applications…


But first…

• Variety of tools that can be grouped in many ways.

• For example, by the frequency of use (Migdadi et al. 2008)– Discussion forums– Repositories– Shared databases– Workflow

• I prefer to group them by the ”original” target


Two main paths…


Starting point

Innovation process

Cross-functional communication

Updated version of succestionboxes

Communication not limited to new product development

The other way round…


Online collaboration

Innovation process

Cross-functional communication

Updated version of succestionboxes

Communication not limited to new product development

And now example application…


How I can find an online collaboration tool?• blueKiwi• Streamwork• Jive• Yammer• 3DSWYM• Sharepoint• …


And many more

BlueKiwi –Atos Way of Working

Source: Atos

Source: Atos

ROI calculator

• http://www.bluekiwi-software.com/en/resources/roi-calculator/

http://www.bluekiwi-software.com/en/resources/roi-calculator/



BlueKiwi homepage1

2

3

5

4

Your name

Source: Atos

6

From Data Overflow to Information

Create YOUR smartlists

Follow only the PERSONS of whom you want to see ALL

activity

Follow only the SPACES of which you want to see ALL

activity

Setup News to who / what you follow only

Source: Atos

Bluekiwi wrap up

• Rather facebook-styled

• Spaces

• Can invite persons also from other parties


…IF I WANT TO DO THAT APPLICATION BY MYSELF

But…


DIY Enterprise Social Network -application

• Pros• Fully tailored solution, only the features that are required• UI can be made familiar to employers• Initial costs might be lower

• Cons• Fully tailored solution, only the features that are required• Providing organization might not be specialist to ESN• Maintanance also DIY

• Some cases DIY is preferred, but as there are available so many good applications why bother…


Initial costs might (seem to) be lower

About the price

• Not cheap applications• 15…20k€ annually

• Depends on many things: modularity?, amount of users?, market penetration?, etc

• Is it worth it?


Wrap up

• There are lots of alternatives available

• Applications are pretty similar

• But one should recognize the main motivation for social media technology adoption


COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION IS JUST NOT ENOUGH

However…



Source: Bondar&Peltola 2013

Enhancing absorptive capacity through internal collaboration with social media tools


• Acquire, • Assimilation, • Transformation, • Exploitation.(Cohen & Levinthal 1989,1990; Zahra & George 2002)

Absorptive Capacity?

Tero Peltola / www.tut.fi/citer 19.3.2012

Tero Peltola / www.tut.fi/citer 19.3.2012

• Enterprise level online collaboration tools• Organizational members have the access

Social media tools?

NPD Performance

Selection

Activity of the social media technology

Usage

Absorptive Capacity

AcquiredAssimilated

NPD Environment

Level of centralizationProcess rigorousness

Senior management commitment and involvement

Innovative climate and culture

Communication

In-teamCross-functionalExternal party

.

Task requirements

Time pressureInformation complexity

The research in the nutshell


Cases / change

• Case 1: Enterprise Social Network wider scale

• Case 2: Intranet + social media tool integration

• Case 3: ESN roll-out wider scale• Case 4: Launcing business network &

Linkedin group


About the data…

• ”Pre-post data collection” -setup• Quantitative (252) / qualitative (38) data• General usage statistics

• Different organizational levels were interviewed• management directors, senior managers, project managers,

team leaders, employees


Results

• Quantitative & qualitative results• Empirical results

Interviews, regressio analysis, variable level analysis


Quantitative

• Mann-Whitney U test• Principal Component analysis• Regression analysis


NPD Performance

Selection

Activity of the social media technology

Usage

Absorptive Capacity

AcquiredAssimilated

NPD Environment

Level of centralizationProcess rigorousness

Senior management commitment and involvement

Innovative climate and culture

Communication

In-teamCross-functionalExternal party

.

Task requirements

Time pressureInformation complexity


Quantitative results

Qualitative

• Atlas.TI software for coding & analysing


Qualitative


Some findings…

• Active users have noticed the benefits in internal communication and collaboration (R2=0,564, Adj. R2 = 0,457; F=88,8)

• Those organizational members that have found ESN beneficially in their tasks have also changed their way of working (R2=0,381, Adj. R2 = 0,372; F=41,2)


Theoretical results - summary

• Communication is positively related to ACAP• For absorptive capacity theory

– Activity usage will increase ACAP

• Better NPD performance – Due to better idea selection


Practical findings

• Senior manager commitment• Key users of OCT

• Organizations become more similar



The most important aspect for OCT

Expectations

• Individual level• Task Requirements seems to be irrelevant• Depends on familiarity towards social media

(not age)

• Organizational level• The glory and glitter seems to be increased

step by step in upward direction


Challenges

• Individual level• Group identity• Mutual trust

• Organization level• Information transparency – confidental

material• How to motivate sufficient amount of

usersTero Peltola / CITER 11.04.2023

Best practices

• Pilot group, eg. Project– Sharing eg. ’best practices’– Utilization of increased transparency– Communal way of working

• Virtual organization is different• Need for mutual trust• Organizational members will not use OCT

only according to guidance



Thank you

Further questions?

http://fi.linkedin.com/in/teropeltola

online collaboration tools 8.10.2013

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