In most organizations, a major challenge is getting all employees the right information they need to make good decisions. The problem is their current tools can't process information quickly enough.
Enterprises are becoming larger, faster paced, organic organizations, and company information is flowing more freely both inside and outside the enterprise. Companies must monitor and react to this information flow.
When organizations can't process information quickly and easily, they can't respond to threats like shifts in product or service needs, customer tastes, technology and socioeconomic factors; opportunities available from internal competencies; or potential opportunities with partners or mergers/acquisitions.
Systems like CRM and ERP don't capture the "conversations" that don't fit anywhere; the conversations that take place on the phone, over email, or even in person. Companies don't have an easy way to make these conversations available to a wider audience or even have a record of them for the future.
But it isn't just the systems. It's the processes as well. It is the way we manage our organizations. It's the rhythms of the way we process information, communicate our decisions, and review our performance. The models still being used today have been in place for centuries. Annual planning, semiannual reviews, quarterly all hands--all speak to a pace and cadence of times past.
The good news is that nervous systems that languished during the Industrial Age--specifically, direct connectivity between people and entities--is back. And that means the infrastructure for social networks is now in place.
Yet, firms have many apparent reasons to resist implementing a social business platform: there's no compelling event to push you into taking this step; you want to wait until the technology matures; the time and expense costs are too high.
However, the technology platforms that support social business applications have matured:
Many of social business platforms in the space are in their fifth or sixth year of development.
Application-programming interfaces (APIs) have been flushed out, integrations are in place, and analytics are now widespread, helping to measure the activity on the system that enterprises care about and bring meaningful insights.
Most significantly, social business platforms no longer require extensive customization.
Bottom Line: The foundation has been laid; the risk of future costly upgrades due to a substantial re-architecture has passed. Ultimately, all companies will move forward, but some will be ahead and some far behind in the race. Why not be in the vanguard?
Source: Christopher Morace: Transform: How Leading Companies are Winning with Disruptive Social Technology