Why Enterprises Are Keen On Social Business Software
Social business is the biggest innovation that has happened to enterprises. It’s not whether businesses should use it or not; it is how best businesses can leverage it to drive business and reduce cost. With internet changing the face of communication, the new ‘Web2.0’ includes access to inexpensive tools (blogs, wikis etc) and people are interested in using these.
Tom Coates, a Yahoo employee and blogger has come up with one of the most concise definitions, i.e. “Social software can be loosely defined as software which supports, extends, or derives added value from human social behavior—message boards, music taste-sharing, photo-sharing, instant messaging, mailing lists, social networking.” It is a combination of interactive and communication tools.
Organizations are taking keen interest in social business software for multiple reasons. Enterprises have today become more global and distributed. Working teams always do not sit together for meetings or see each other frequently. Yet enterprises use traditional software built on an old model. . To make things better, service providers of social software have designed social applications for a dynamic enterprise platform. Its unique people profiles make it easy to connect and discover people. Simultaneously, the group based format helps people to get connected with their interest groups, and expert communities.
In a competitive business environment, an employee’s success is highly driven by the strength of his/her network within a company. Therefore advanced tools are required to monitor and measure an employee’s network. With jobs becoming more diverse, an employee’s performance in knowledge–intensive work environment is directly proportional to their network strength. Importance is given to the variety and quality of these contacts, than the quantity.
Companies offering social software allow enterprises to understand the activity hubs, local leaders and natural coalitions in their organizations. Managers learn more about their team members, i.e. where they spend their time, the people they connect with and areas they are likely to influence. With this insight they have a better idea about team competencies as well as an employee’s career aspirations. Furthermore, they are able to recognize individuals for specialized job profiles. This process can be termed as an enterprise social network that uses standard external social networking services to generate employee visibility.
Our new age workforce is expert in obtaining value from social software tools in their personal world. For them, business social software is a natural extension to their business needs. Service providers of social business software tools help the enterprises to interact with the workforce in a way that would interest them. With the help of microblogs, news, and discussions an enterprise sets up bilateral communication with their workforce.
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