ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 UPDATE

Transcription

1 ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 UPDATE White Paper EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2014 has been a year of change for enterprise social networks. The divisions between enterprise social networks and other collaboration software have become thin as features migrate between each type of product. Overall, enterprise social networks are as feature rich as ever, creating better user experiences. Vendors have begun to add analytics capabilities in order to help surface the types of content these features create. In addition, new tools help end-users to create custom workspaces tailored to their teams needs. Deployment strategies have also changed. Finally, companies deploying enterprise social networks have woken up to the fact that rollouts to everyone, regardless of need, won t work. Instead, there are more intentional and targeted deployments designed to meet specific collaboration and communication problems within teams. The upshot is that end-users are engaged more with daily usage increasing as much as ten basis points. This, in turn, is driving real value in enterprise social networks for companies that use them. Tom Petrocelli 2/27/ Template rev. 02/15

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION... 4 CATEGORY DIVISIONS ARE DIMINISHING... 5 THE FEATURES ARE THE SAME. HOW THEY ARE EXPRESSED HAS CHANGED... 6 THE EXPANDING ECOSYSTEM... 7 BUILDING, CUSTOMIZING, AND USING WORKSPACES... 8 ANALYTICS AND OTHER TOOLS FOR SURFACING INFORMATION... 8 DEPLOYMENT STRATEGIES HAVE FINALLY CHANGED... 9 FINALLY, END-USERS ARE REALLY ADOPTING ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS CULTURE STILL MATTERS BUYERS GUIDE VENDORS CONCLUSION ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 Update 2

3 AUTHOR ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 Update 3

4 INTRODUCTION 2014 was a year full of change for enterprise social networks. Over the course of the year the market saw some vendors exit the market but they were mostly smaller ones. Tomfoolery was acqui-hired 1 by Yahoo and shut down. Others, such as Mindlink, have pivoted away from the enterprise social network market toward newer and potentially more lucrative ones. In Mindlink s case they have transformed into an enterprise chat company. Unlike in previous years, there haven t been any notable new companies in the collaboration market that identify themselves as enterprise social networks. Facebook s 2015 announcement of Facebook at Work represents the latest potential entrance into the market. The key word is potential since it is not clear what, if any, impact this product will have on the enterprise market. The largest vendors in the enterprise social network space - IBM, Jive, Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, and SAP have continued to evolve their products. Major features have generally stayed the same, arguably for the past three years, but the tools for configuring and managing enterprise social network workspaces have changed dramatically. There have also been welcome additions in document handling and rich media support. That s not to say that smaller vendors are not keeping pace. They have been busy adding features specific to the markets they serve. Mumba Cloud, for example is continuing to increase their workflow and automation to their product in order to serve their projectoriented customers. Bloomfire and Jostle continue to add better ways to surface and share content, in line with their customers needs to better communicate and share information. The big news for 2014 was the uptick in end-user adoption. Finally, after nearly ten years, end-users are slowly beginning to see the point of enterprise social networks and the impact on their daily work lives. 1 An acqui-hire is an acquisition of a company for the company s personnel instead of the product or technology. ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 Update 4

5 CATEGORY DIVISIONS ARE DIMINISHING As social capabilities become part of the normal feature set for enterprise software, the idea of an enterprise social network may become outmoded. At the heart of it, social collaboration has always been about more effective communication and sharing of information. In the past, the feature sets were more distinct between categories such as online file sharing and enterprise social networks. That is no longer the case. Microsoft SharePoint, for example, has so many of the same features as Yammer that the distinct purpose of Yammer is no longer clear. Box has had, for a while, commenting functions similar to enterprise social networks and Evernote now comes with a chat feature. A microblog in an enterprise social network is a way to share ideas, comments, or thoughts in small bursts of text and online file sharing services are a method for sharing ideas, comments, and thoughts in files. The divisions between enterprise social networks, online file sharing systems enterprise content management, and other forms of social collaboration software are becoming much less clear. Enterprise social networks now have extensive file and content sharing components that are on-par with the online file sharing services, enterprise content management (ECM) systems have microblogs and chat built into them, and online file sharing systems feature document management features such as versioning and document previews that are typically found in ECM software. As social capabilities become part of the normal feature set for enterprise software, the idea of an enterprise social network may become outmoded. Today, the major distinction between enterprise social networks and other social collaboration products is more philosophical but still important. Enterprise social networks still focus on the social graph that interconnected web of people that underlies most business relationships. The enterprise social network still represents the best way to connect with the people you most need to work with on a given day. That difference is still an important one, especially in large organizations. ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 Update 5

6 THE FEATURES ARE THE SAME. HOW THEY ARE EXPRESSED HAS CHANGED While product categories are quickly blurring because they rely on a similar set of features, how those features are expressed are not the same. Enterprise social networks generally come in one of two arrangements an application that acts as a central portal or hub for daily work and a platform that can bring social network features to other software. Many vendors supply both. The hub or portal approach is what is traditionally thought of as an enterprise social network application. It is an application, almost always a cloud application, which is meant to be the central space for collaboration and most team work. Organized around workspaces or projects, these applications become the manner in which people in an organization communicate, share content, and work together. Many have task management and lightweight workflows such as Mumba Cloud and SAP Jam. The hub or portal approach focuses on tools to facilitate group work through the use of widgets for polling, commenting, and sharing content. The hub approach is most effective among knowledge workers whose work is less dependent on linear processes and revolves around document or content creation or decision making. The platform approach aims to bring social communication and collaboration features to other enterprise applications, especially systems of record. With enterprise social networking functionality embedded in other applications, end-users can more effectively share content and business objects 2 between disparate systems of record or with those who do not typically have access to a specific system of record. For example, a salesperson using Salesforce.com s Sales Cloud or Oracle Fusion CRM can share the details of an Opportunity with their manager or a product manager and ask for help closing their deal. The manager can, using embedded Chatter or Oracle Social Network capabilities, comment with advice on closing the deal. The product manager, who does not use the CRM 3 system, can respond through the Chatter or Oracle Social Network applications and share a document with new pricing 2 A business object is a representation of a transaction or similar record in software. They encapsulate data stored in a database along with actions that can be taken on that data. Examples include a sales opportunity or customer order. 3 Customer relationship management, a typical sales management system. ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 Update 6

7 that will help the salesperson. By embedding social networking into the system of record, communication across silos is more effective and details of business objects shared more easily. The large software vendors that also have enterprise applications, especially the traditional systems of record, all have both a hub/portal application and platform services with their own products and other vendor s products. Smaller vendors will have targeted integrations with other vendors products. In this way, the benefits of enterprise social networks are delivered to end-users in the way that is most appropriate to their job functions and style of working. By accommodating individual circumstances and delivering social collaboration features in the applications where knowledge workers are most likely to use them, vendors have finally created the type of environment that makes it easier to leverage their products benefits. THE EXPANDING ECOSYSTEM The expanding ecosystem signals a shift away from insular offerings geared mainly toward a vendor s own user base. It also suggests a movement down market, at least into mid-sized companies The ecosystems of enterprise social network vendors have been rapidly expanding, especially integrations with other software systems. This has always been the strategy of the independent vendors who, unable to build all of the features their customers want on their own, relied on partners for complete solutions. Larger vendors have typically built their ecosystem through app stores and channel partner programs. Now, even the large, multi-product enterprise software vendors have focused on integrating their enterprise social networks with a network of partners including rivals. For example, SAP Jam, from software giant SAP, is now integrated with Microsoft collaboration products (SharePoint, Lync, and Outlook), and ECM 4 vendor OpenText. Even more interesting is the how the ecosystem has expanded outside of enterprise communication or systems of record software. Both SAP JAM and Jive now work with Google Docs and Office 365, as well as Box. Oracle Social Network also supports cloud-based content sources including Google Docs. While not surprising for the smaller vendors with mid-sized and SMB company ambitions or online file sharing vendors such as Box and Dropbox, this is not the usual mode of operation for giant software companies that sell large enterprise software. 4 Enterprise content management refers to a software system that organizes and secures documents and other important content related to an organization s processes. ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 Update 7

8 This expanding ecosystem signals a shift away from insular offerings geared mainly toward a vendor s own user base. It also suggests a movement down market, at least into mid-sized companies. Clearly, this represents a competitive threat to their smaller rivals. BUILDING, CUSTOMIZING, AND USING WORKSPACES Custom workspaces have always been a part of the enterprise social network experience. In the past, a user with appropriate permissions, could create a workspace and designate those allowed to access it. This is a common practice for project teams, departments, and other natural groupings. Typically, a workspace or group is created and a set of features enabled in addition to the standard microblog and activity feed. Some vendors allowed a small degree of customization such as the ability to upload a picture to act as the workspace logo. In the past year, a number of vendors have evolved these creation features until they now resemble consumer web content management. SAP Jam now includes a drag and drop page designer that allows for highly customized and attractive workspaces. Mumba Cloud, Jive, Bloomfire, and the next generation of IBM Connections all have tools for designing workspaces that are usable by average users rather than programmers. It is expected that in the future, most vendors will support user-friendly tools to create attractive, custom workspaces that resemble consumer social websites. A number of enterprise social network vendors provide convenient templates for creating custom workspaces. Many of these templates are process or task specific although some are also industry specific. Salesforce.com has announced they will support templates in the next release. Bloomfire and Jive already support templates that jumpstart workspaces. SAP Jam has had, for some time, Work Patterns which encompass a set of tools and data specific to a process or task such as onboarding or sales enablement. Analytics has begun to emerge as a tool for the enduser and not just the administrator. ANALYTICS AND OTHER TOOLS FOR SURFACING INFORMATION Analytics has begun to emerge as a tool for the end-user and not just the administrator. The first use of analytics for most enterprise ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 Update 8

9 social networks was to analyze the system itself. Targeted at social community managers or system administrators, analytics was used to look for patterns in end-user interactions. Analytics was able to provide insights on how to make better use of the software. The role of analytics is now expanding beyond this initial function. Vendors have begun to add analytics that help end-users to surface content or identify people that might be helpful in accomplishing a task. Oracle Social Network, Saleforce.com Chatter, and Jostle have recommendation engines to suggest helpful information and people to an end-user. For example, Oracle Social Network has the ability to suggest someone that should be added to a conversation that may have been inadvertently left out of the group. Jostle, on the other hand, can find news that is relevant to specific groups of people or individuals within a company. The relationship between analytics and enterprise social networks goes both way. Companies that offer analytics systems such as SAP, IBM, and Oracle have integrated their enterprise social networks into the tools that data scientists use to create their analysis. This allows data scientists to share data, code, and results as live objects instead of static images. DEPLOYMENT STRATEGIES HAVE FINALLY CHANGED There are few categories of enterprise software that have seen so many changes in deployment strategies than enterprise social networks. Originally, vendors advocated that the software be rolled out to as many people as possible in a company to facilitate freeform collaboration. When that didn t work, a top-down approach was encouraged which saw top management forcing the use of enterprise social networks by banning internal and similar measures. Finally, abandoning the idea that enterprise social networks could change corporate culture, experts suggested that a company change its culture first in order to reap the benefits of enterprise social networks. The last approach felt very much like blaming the victim but was closer to the mark than the build it and they will come or force feeding methodologies. Now, it appears, that the deployment strategy of choice is one recommended by Neuralytix last year and the year before: to start small, with targeted projects that solve specific organizational or process problems that affect a small number of teams, and then ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 Update 9

10 expand to additional teams over time. The start-small approach has been credited by many vendors as resulting in customer deployments with higher than normal end-user participation. Even more important than starting with a small and manageable problem, is intent. Deploying an enterprise social network should be a purposeful act designed to address a specific set of use cases. Horizontal communication is important but must be directed toward solving a problem that causes the organizational pain. The most successful deployments all have this in common. FINALLY, END-USERS ARE REALLY ADOPTING ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS After ten years of trying to drive adoption amongst end-users, it appears that knowledge workers are finally starting to find value in enterprise social networks. End-user daily usage 5 has consistently been stuck at the 12% to 15% 6 for years. Now, the number has started to move up in a meaningful way. Drawing from data that cloud enterprise social network vendors collect in their own systems, Neuralytix projects that there has been as much as a 10% increase in overall daily usage into the 22% to 25% range. Some vendors, notably smaller ones such as Bloomfire and Jostle, report even higher rates of daily usage. The daily usage rate is an important indicator of engagement in the enterprise social network. If end-users can t be bothered to check in at least once a day and do something, then it s pretty clear that they don t see much value in interacting via an enterprise social network. Also, enterprise social networks rely, naturally, on network effects. The more people engaged in activity, the more likely others will want to engage similarly. Collaboration is built on the principle that coworkers need to work together and not by themselves. The enterprise social network s most basic value proposition is that it facilitates collaborative interactions. That can only happen when knowledge workers bother to use the software. The rising number of daily users is, thus, an encouraging sign that knowledge workers are seeing the value in enterprise social 5 Daily usage is defined as at least one log-in and action per day. 6 Enterprise Social Networks 2013 Update, December 2013 ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 Update 10

11 networks and that their companies will recognize a return on investment in the software. CULTURE STILL MATTERS A clear picture of the type of organization that benefits from enterprise social networks has emerged. It was popular for vendors and consultants to claim that an enterprise social network could build a collaborative culture but that has not been the case in practice. While it is true that most organizations can see some benefit from an enterprise social network, certain types of organizations will encounter more resistance and see less value. Top down, authoritarian cultures are less likely to be able to leverage enterprise social networks to the benefit of the organization. This is not too surprising. Authoritarian organizations rarely allow the freedom to collaborate and prefer to have workers communicate up and down through the hierarchy rather than horizontally. Very small organizations rarely need enterprise social networks either. Simply put, communication and collaboration across silos is easy when the silos are small and members are in physical proximity to each other regularly. Large organizations, by contrast, suffer inefficiencies in communication because of size and geographic separation. These organizations find value in enterprise social networks. BUYERS GUIDE When deciding on a new enterprise social network, whether for the first time or as a replacement for a previously deployed one, there are several factors that should be considered ahead of purchase. 1. The Why. What is the intended purpose of this software? If it s only to provide a non- communication option than perhaps enterprise chat would be a better option. When trying to determine if there is a purpose for the enterprise social network, a use case approach works best. Determine which process or communication problems can be solved with the enterprise social network first. If that is unclear, stop and do nothing else until there is an answer to The Why. If there is no Why then don t bother with an enterprise social network. ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 Update 11

12 2. Richer features are good but only when used purposefully. Enterprise social networks provide an organization a rich set of features to help with communication and collaboration. This, unfortunately, makes it easy to throw them all at end-users, undermining the use case approach to deployment. There s no need to settle for fewer choices in the software. It is important that there be tools that allow those features to be assembled into meaningful workspaces for different use cases. Enduser accessible tools that help teams build their own custom workspaces from a series of features will help jumpstart engagement among knowledge workers. 3. Hub/Portal, Platform, or Both. The way that the people in an organization go about their daily work dictates the best way for them to realize value from an enterprise social network. Many knowledge workers spend their time making decisions and creating content in the form of documents, graphics, audio, and video. They rarely initiate or directly manage transactions. The hub or portal approach is the best way for them to collaborate over content and participate in decision making. For workers who spend the majority of their time working in systems of record such as CRM or ERP 7 systems, then a platform approach will suit them best. They will need to collaborate around business objects rather than content and those objects originate within their common transactional applications. By sharing these objects with others through the enterprise social network, these types workers will get the assistance they need in completing transactions for which they are responsible. In truth, a large company will need both expressions of an enterprise social network, especially if deployed across heterogeneous teams. Homogenous, siloed teams can choose whichever approach works best for them but teams that cut across functional areas of a company will need to support different ways of working. 4. Document management. Enterprise social networks are not meant to be cloud file sharing systems or enterprise content management systems. Some, such as Salesforce.com Chatter, Microsoft Yammer, Oracle Social Network, and IBM Connections have companion products that facilitate advanced document handling. Most others are integrated into other common ECM or cloud file sharing 7 Enterprise resource management is an extensive system to manage a wide range of corporate processes including finances, inventory, manufacturing, and human resources to name a few. ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 Update 12

13 products such as Microsoft SharePoint or Box. That doesn t mean that advanced document handling shouldn t be a feature of the enterprise social network itself. Given that content sharing is a major part of the value of an enterprise social network, the ability to track versions of, search for, display, and edit major file types such as Microsoft Office files collaboratively should be factor in deciding on which enterprise social network makes sense for an organization. VENDORS In preparing this report, Neuralytix interviewed a number of vendors to ascertain the state of the art in enterprise social networks. All names and logos represented here are trademarks of their respective owners. Company Product Web Site Salesforce.com Chatter Mumba Cloud Mumba Cloud SAP SAP Jam Bloomfire Bloomfire Jostle Jostle Oracle Jive Oracle Social Network Jive-n, Jive-x, Jive-w IBM IBM Connections CONCLUSION This was the year that end-users finally got the value of enterprise social networks. Daily usage jumped as more users engaged in sharing of ideas, content, tasks, business objects, and other work product. Some of this adoption by end-users can be explained by ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 Update 13

14 the shift in deployment strategies. Instead of trying to get all users on-board at once, companies are deploying enterprise social networks purposefully. They are focusing on discrete problems where enterprise social networks provide solutions. While enterprise social networks are not for every company or every team, their value is better realized when they are used to intentionally try and solve specific process or communication problems that create pain for teams. Another reason that end-user engagement is increasing is that the tools at their disposal are now tailored to their needs rather than the needs of IT or upper management. Page creation tools make it easy for end-users to create custom workspaces and analytics helps surface the mass of content, business objects, and ideas at their disposal. Ease of use was fine but these new features make it easier to be useful. It s hard to see startling new features in the future. More likely there will be refinements and more integration with other useful tools. Analytics also promises to create an even better experience moving forward. Still, wholesale overhauls of the user experience, such as is expected with IBM Connections in the coming months, may still occur as new design ideas impact enterprise software in general. AUTHOR Tom Petrocelli is the Research Director for Enterprise Social, Mobile, and Cloud Applications. CONTACT US To learn more about Neuralytix and our other solutions, contact your local representative or visit Neuralytix.com. Copyright 2015 Tom Petrocelli, and licensed to Neuralytix, Inc. All Rights Reserved The information in this publication is provided as is. Neuralytix, Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Neuralytix believes the information contained herein is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. Neuralytix, the Neuralytix logo, the Hex logo, Neuralytix iq are registered trademarks or trademarks of Neuralytix, Inc. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS 2014 Update 14