WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A SOCIAL, MOBILE AND OPEN ENTERPRISE?
What better source to go to for an explanation of the term "social media" than to Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia created in part by the interactions of its online and mobile device users. This social, mobile and open encyclopedia says social media "refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue."
To cut to the chase, what does that mean to businesses today? To deal with that question, it‘s important to understand how the Web has changed since its inception. Its metamorphosis has affected how its users, including businesses, have framed their online activities and the outcomes they received.
Informational: In its beginnings, the Web was a resource, with posted, static information—a digital cornucopia of data.
Transactional: In its next phase, the Web enabled transactions, with business users managing, conducting, and taking care of issues at a distance.
Interaction: After that phase came interrelating, cooperating, and intermingling.
Collaboration: What followed was a more intentional use of social, mobile and open activities, such as businesses joining forces, pooling resources, and cooperating with each other on a more unguarded and intimate level.
Collaboration is the stage we are in now. It is made up of three distinct elements that are critically important for businesses to adopt and exploit.
Creating a Social Enterprise
Being "social" is at the core of collaboration, such as using the Web to for a seamless link to other people‘s view of the world, what they are up to, and what they are focused on. Compared to those businesses and organizations which are taking advantage of being "social," if yours is not "social" too, it is left out, unaware, disadvantaged, and "behind the door," digitally speaking.
The social enterprise is the one that breaks down old communication barriers and allows others to share in what‘s pertinent and important.
Given these realities, here is the major question for businesses and other organizations to consider:
Are we sharing the right information with the right people at the
right time?
Creating a Mobile Enterprise
It is no surprise that mobile devices are the key to mobility, but it is important to point out that using those devices for more than convenience and saving time is essential. Mobile devices are essential business tools. Our society is constantly on the move, and information is not static. Do you have the ability to access the critical information and workflow outside your office? Most likely, your key team members do, and your competition almost certainly does.
Creating an Open Enterprise
The era of "playing your cards close to the vest" is past. Organizational transparency is the new standard of operating. Sharing information and providing access to key team players without having to go through the chain (a negative image for sure) of command is one way companies are accelerating their businesses
That old paradigm is about "controlling" people‘s ability to connect and gain access. It gave us the phrase "in the know," which is a way of enforcing a hierarchy and dividing employees into "us" and "them."
Today the focus is on providing access and controls to the right resource, but those controls are in the hands of the user instead of a manager or business unit.
Creating a social, mobile and open enterprise can be accomplished by implementing an "enterprise platform" that is designed to be Social, mobile and open. Salesforce.com is a powerful tool set that delivers the capability to ignite this type of cultural shift. It enables this shift by providing access to people and resources that can drive new cultures of operating.
With Salesforce.com, Chatter, and other social media, the key players, the ones needed in order to get the right outcome for your business or organization, are always "dialed in" and don‘t have to be "rounded up." In a business or organization that uses Salesforce.com or Chatter, for example, "Team A" and "Team C" keep up with changes and developments by having information pushed to them at the right time. Gone are the days that managers had to initiate a conference call or online meeting just to have everyone engaged. Today they can follow the action and be informed as changes occur.
Key executives and managers can set triggers to alert them when pieces of business and project developments get to a certain point, without having to go through the process of convening the appropriate players. The executives and managers can seamlessly contribute clarity, suggestions, and creative ideas to "move the ball" forward.
Another way to look at it is that platforms such as Salesforce.com and Chatter allow businesses and organizations to "buy time." Instead of having to spend time calling the team that is representing a particular deal together, they have the pertinent information pushed to them in a fluid, un-diluted manner and in real time. This new way of providing access to people and resources can drive new cultures of operating, and taking businesses to a new level.
Walter Rogers is the President and CEO of Baker Communications. Baker Communications is a sales training and development company specializing in helping client companies increase their sales and management effectiveness. He can be reached at 713-627-7700.
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