Facebook for the Enterprise : That's sooo 2009!

A response to Salesforce CEO: Facebook Is Leading The Direction For Where "We're Going As An Industry"

I recently read the recent TechCrunch discussion with Marc Benioff at the Web 2.0 Summit. I had some reactions that I decided to turn into a blog entry.

First I have to confess, I have tremendous respect for Marc. What he did for (no) software and associated business models have been revolutionary. A revolution that has only just started as software finds its way into the cloud. The introduction of force.com and Chatter were logical with impeccable timing. We're big fans. However after reading the article, I walked away thinking this topic needs some more elaboration, lest the reader go away thinking the enterprise revolution begins and ends with Facebook as Marc seems to have suggested.

Some Recent History

Quite a few startups in the Enterprise 2.0 space got their funding based on the "Facebook for the Enterprise" vision a couple of years ago. Since then, most of these companies have "pivoted" towards communicating a deeper view of the social revolution in the enterprise. CRM 2.0 has gotten a lot of attention. Learning 2.0 is on its way. HR 2.0 has started and so on. At Twiki, we've taken the approach that Social is "embedded" in everything (read: all business patterns) that the company engages. With Twiki Markup Language, lightweight apps are built with collaboration in its DNA. Its not just Facebook in the enterprise, it's about Social DNA.

The Agree Part

First, let me agree on the fundamental point that Marc is making. "Facebook effect", "Consumerization of the Enterprise", "Oracle Winter" (made that last one up), which ever way you want to say it, Software in the enterprise is going social. Lets break it down a bit:

• Social Software - For the uninitiated think of social technologies as "WD40 for communication". We're talking beyond IM and Email. Think, ummm, yeah Facebook. Communication involving People-People, People-App, App-People, App-App are front and center. The implications are of course more profound than just a communication lubricant. Marc points out the networks that corporations that create and operate, with employees, shareholders, customers, partners, etc.. Intimacy and engagement are the key aspirations in operating those networks for the company. Social is a great platform for this.
• Drucker's knowledge worker concept at play - Employees are building their own identities, their own networks, and sense of worth that are less coupled with the companies they work for. Employees are increasingly more portable, empowered, and increasingly resourceful. (current economic conditions notwithstanding)
• Breaking silos - like revolutions, start from the bottom. We are at the beginning of a disruption in the concept of corporate organization where employees are outperforming leadership in pushing their companies ahead. Taking matters in their own hands and "Getting Work Done"

Lets Go Down This Rabbit Hole, shall we?

So what did Marc miss? Well for the purpose of the TC article, the sound bite was good enough. But to be better informed, there are a few other points to outline. The effect of social technologies in the enterprise lead to profound changes. Changes that will change how we do business. But what we need more of is a language and concept bridge between 1.0 and 2.0 worlds. Executives need to touch ground with social. "Facebook for the Enterprise" makes for great sensationalism but do little for the manager who spends his/her day getting productivity out of their organization. Here are some thoughts to help put social in context:

• Big Data - The explosion of unstructured data in the enterprise through internal and external social channels are a gold mine for Insights (or BI for the old school'ers). Its the old school notion of data-into-information-into-knowledge, but with new packaging, better technologies and much bigger scope. A deeper sense of employees, customers, partners, assets, etc will lead to better informed decision making as well as deep personalization of experience for employees. Acquisition, Storage, Data Mining, and Visualization are key areas of investment to help take advantage of this data.
• Content collaboration - Its one thing to update FB or Tweet out a thought, its quite another to modify a presentation for an important Monday morning meeting with colleagues around the world over the weekend. Or to update task assignments in a project team, like you can in Twikis bring the world are a great way for people to collaborate over content in real time. Document sharing services such as Google Docs do the same for documents. More edits, less Tweeting.
• ROI 2.0 - Social as applied to particular use cases adds a second (and exciting) dimension to the tedious topic of ROI cases. To hipster software folk, ROI is an archaic term, but IT managers still look at ROI models. Now think about adding to your traditional ROI model, a "collaboration quotient". Its one thing to buy a CRM to improve sales team performance or increase customer satisfaction scores, but when you add the "collaboration quotient", you are not only looking at sales team performance but entire company performance because you would be able to bring your back office folks into the "loop" efficiently. You won't be thinking only customer satisfaction score, but rather how does everyone in your company own the customer. That's just one example. Adding the "2.0", or "collaboration quotient" to any use case (sales, marketing, HR, learning, Tech, Mfg, etc..) allows companies to think in ROI 2.0 terms.
• Decreasing organizational distance through lightweight apps - This is my "1000 points of pain" problem. Corporate cultures, and the IT systems that support them, propagate silo's and stovepipe's. For example, the Sales folks don't talk to the Engineers and vice versa because of traditional organizational cultures, but also because the respective IT systems are not built with the other in mind. As a result, cross functional collaboration, for example on pre-sales activities, are often painful or awkward. The Facebook effect can certainly help (please spray WD40 here), but fundamentally the gaps within systems (IT infrastructure, organization, and data) need to be filled. Think Business Objects in today's terms, lightweight apps solving point specific problems, deployable without IT involvement, often times written by an external developer, discovered through some sort of trusted app store/repository. Social helps here in interesting ways. Twiki founder Peter Thoeny wrote a blog post on Wiki Applications and The Long Tail. Its an eye opener for those that didn't know that Twiki is a app platform as well as a wiki.

Well that last one felt a bit Facebook'ish, The point is that we are undershooting in some ways by fixating on Facebook in the enterprise. We need to look beyond the colloquial view of the Facebook effect.

Twiki has been a pioneer in content collaboration and was the first enterprise wiki back in the late nineties. With over 50,000 installations world-wide, we can say Twiki has brought the world content collaboration for the enterprise. We are busy building out that vision of the next generation OS for the enterprise. One where APIs offer a more organic and native sense of collaboration (both social and content). Two years ago, David Coleman did a good job of outlining how the Twiki Open Source Platform offers 2.0 offers fundamental capabilities around "collaborative apps" and "collaborative data". Its worth mentioning and you can read his blog. This topic needs a conversation in itself.

The next OS for enterprise will have many of the elements that Marc mentions as well as the additional ones above. Many smart people are thinking about this problem. For example, Dion Hinchcliffe, an advisor to Twiki Inc, has a great read on the future of software for the enterprise The five big IT trends of the next half decade. For now, lets not sell ourselves short, think less Facebook, think more Social DNA!

To get started on Twiki, try out Twiki Workspaces a practical collaboration tool for content and document sharing, project management and collaborative intranets. Tell us what you think.

Jitendra

Jitendra Kavathekar
President and CEO, Twiki

2011-10-19 | Jitendra Kavathekar | Category Best Practices