Microsoft Sharepoint Conference - Day 2

The business case for social business computing – a growing phenomenon which many CEO’s are embracing. Today’s emphasis (of my breakouts) is looking at how social computing, collaborative technologies and new ways of working are becoming the demand solutions.

Facebook for business now is no longer a luxury or to be feared. I loved the adage ‘If you don’t build it, they will go somewhere else’. The emphasis is on finding, surfacing and connecting people, skills, experience and knowledge. The viral effect is now making this happen quicker faster and safer. Accenture’s ‘A Street’ was a cool way of making this less corporate and more about connecting and sharing.

A fundamental shift has taken place in business communication and communicating knowledge, insight and useful information. It is already part of our business environment but we do not utilise tools to allow the collection of greater creativity, ideas and innovations. Businesses must move from point to point email or phone to involve everyone. This new way of connecting and collaborating is not about building strategy but quick learning, sharing and applying greater knowledge to achieve global objectives.

With the new generation of Facebook employees companies are finding these tools are leading to higher rates of adoption. Once it goes viral then it goes mad – even with the older generation. Once people see the value of finding experts, experience and documents/information they can unconsciously drive their own improved productivity.

Dow Jones: Creating their Intranet service was not a technology initiative but a business improvement initiative. Their intent was ‘Driving more from less’. 3 key questions were the core of their people improvement:
1 – What is expected of me at work
2 – I have the tools
3 – I understand my objectives

The business project then created useful ways to get things moving:
Employee communications statement was produced ahead of the project development. They created a Marketing Activity Tracker to ensure the project was known to all and FUTURE projects were always notified to everyone.
A Facilities Management function was one surprise demand request to help resolve those little facility problems which never seemed to be resolved. What this gave was an Internal complaints manager, removing paper-heavy processes and the untraceable or disappearing emails which never got to the right person.

But why a portal for Dow Jones: Communication, Collaboration and to support cultural change. In the last 5 years the company workforce has grown 5 fold so process and procedure and ease of on-boarding were must-haves.

Lessons: Get the business to hold ownership, budget and drive requirements; get an executive sponsor; align with strategy; devolve publishing/content management.

The day ended with the obligatory event party. On the beach at the Mandalay Hotel over 7000 guests were entertained by Huey Lewis and the News. What a great way to make new friends and have great fun – free drink, free food, free music and some great dancing.

David Gardiner