Social Business Part 2: Enterprise Self-Appraisal (feat. @LaurieShook)

It is my great pleasure to present my colleague,  Laurie Shook, as a guest blogger. Laurie brings her vast social media expertise and passion for enterprise 2.0 to introduce a new series on: How to Measure Enterprise Social Success. In Part two of three below, she takes a look at Enterprise self-appraisal as measured by the Blogtronix survey “The State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration” with some highlights from the study.

Part 2: How do we THINK we are doing?

Chess Media Group issued an interesting survey recently on the State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration. What I found most intriguing about the survey was what it had to say about the forces that combine to torpedo enterprise social business. The big surprise for me? It’s the LACK of opposition that’s most noteworthy.

For example, when asked to identify the biggest source of enterprise social resistance, the predominant answer (30%) stated “there isn’t any resistance.”  This perspective held true across employees, managers, and even IT departments.

If there is limited opposition to Enterprise 2.0 collaboration, then why haven’t we achieved that nirvana state of frictionless collaboration? In some cases, we’re getting there. According to the survey, the degree of adoption is a bit uneven


From State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration, Chess Media Group, 2Q2011

Which departments are most engaged in emergent collaboration? This differs based on the size of the organization. For those with 1000 or fewer employees, it’s the business development/sales function that is most active. However in organizations of 100k plus, it’s the innovation/product development function, while in medium to large-sized businesses, it’s the IT/Operations groups. Chess Media says this indicates that smaller companies are focused on revenue generation, while medium businesses are focused on supporting and sustaining organizational infrastructure, and large-sized organizations focus on staying ahead of the competition.

Which tools are most popular? There’s no surprise here. Blogs remain the business favorite, employed within 70% of the organization. Full-featured collaboration platforms, micro blogs, and videos and forums are all used by more than half the companies. Social tools less used include prediction markets, mashups, and ideation/innovation.


From State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration, Chess Media Group, 2Q2011

So given the lack of resistance to Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration, what is delaying broader adoption?

I think the answer can be teased out of survey, which indicates that respondents predominantly described the strategic approach to the collaboration initiative as this: “My enterprise played around and tested things out then it grew from there.” Furthermore, 60% of companies were reported NOT to have developed key performance indicators prior to the start of the collaboration initiative.

Even among those enterprises that established KPIs, 48% didn’t know how they were tracking against the KPIs, and not surprisingly, 42% “don’t know” if there has been a financial benefit.

So, even without significant opposition, it will still take strategizing, setting goals, and measuring against those goals to get enterprise 2.0 collaboration to become a reality. It’s hardly rocket science. You might say that failure to adhere to Business 101 is what’s preventing Enterprise 2.0.

Read the entire report here: The State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration Report

Other posts in the “How to Measure Enterprise Success” series:

  • Part 1: How Do We KNOW how We are Doing? A look at some of the metrics that companies bandy about, and an evaluation of which metrics are misleading and which ones are meaningful.
  • Part 2: How Do We THINK We are Doing? Enterprise self-appraisal as measured by the Blogtronix survey “The State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration”. Highlights from the study.
  • Part 3: How are We Doing EXTERNALLY? An analysis of the Social Business Index released last week by Dachis Group, which attempts to measure social engagement related to companies, their markets, partners, and their employees.

 


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