Archive for August, 2011

« Older Entries

Executive Profiles: Disruptive Tech Leaders In Social Business – Parker Harris, Salesforce.com

Published on August 29, 2011 by R "Ray" Wang

Welcome to an on-going series of interviews with the people behind the technologies in Social Business.  The interviews  provide insightful points of view from a customer, industry, and vendor perspective.  A full list of interviewees can be found here.

Parker Harris, Co-Founder and Executive VP of Technology


Biography

Parker Harris founded salesforce.com along with Marc Benioff, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez in the spring of 1999. As executive vice president, Harris oversees the development of all software for salesforce.com.

Prior to founding salesforce.com, Harris developed Web application and salesforce automation expertise at Left Coast Software, a private consulting company he co-founded, as well as at Metropolis software, an early pioneer in field sales force automation subsequently acquired by Clarify.

He graduated from Middlebury College with a bachelor’s degree in English literature.

The Interview

1. Tell me in 2 minutes or less why Social Computing is changing the world for your customers

Parker Harris (PH): If you think back to classic customer relationship management (CRM) and sales force automation (SFA) way back when, the software was designed for top down and nearer to the organizations you were selling to.  They’d have SFA and management software.  Executives would buy SFA to drive down process and gain some visibility.

Social computing is doing what agile methodology is doing to our process – it’s breaking down our visibility.  By flattening time and space,  social computing and business is unlocking credible potential within business.  For example, individuals and organizations that weren’t connected before are now connected together.   This changes how people work, makes people more productive, and changes the relationship of the org with the customer.

2. What makes social computing disruptive?

(PH): The technology ignores the hierarchy of the corporation.  Social ignores the classic relationship of the customer with corporation.  Customer is now buying directly from the corporation and going to them for help and support or being marketed to.  Instead it’s happening from a number of different angles.  People are being marketed to for games in their interactions with friends from FaceBook.  Those trying to get support for their iPhones don’t’ necessary trust their carriers so they ask their friends for help.

As a company, we see the consumerization of the world happen.  These disruptive technologies start in the consumer space.  Amazon was disruptive to eCommerce.  We looked at that model and said how can that happen to business.  Facebook has changed how people interact with each other.  In the busienss world, they are changing how they are working with each other and the customer.  This is quite disruptive.  Social challenges classical work structures and the hierarchies of management.  Social challenges the decision making structure and challenges the classic customer relationship chains and how they work.  We are in the middle of that revolution.  We are building technology to keep up with what’s happening in the world.  It’s transforming the way people are working.  We’re bringing the enterprise to the world.

3. What is the next big thing in Social Business?

(PH): The next big thing is starting with how a company connects its employees to each other.  The goal – make them more effective at their work.  There is both a portal approach and a community solution.  On the community level, you are connecting external people to your company.  Just as I see the firewalls in a company go away, the idea that there is some wall between your company and the rest of the world is slowly disappearing.  This will happen with the pervasiveness of social.

As you put it, individuals are becoming more important. Individuals will be working with colleagues both inside and outside of their company.  We bring different social bonds with each context of our engagement.  All of the hand offs today are coarse but in the future, this will feel like a fluid relationship.  It won’t feel like you are shifting gears between companies and shifting into the consumer place from where social is going. Talking to a friend about dinner, you already shift between these worlds.

What’s big?  Facebook is doing some of this already.  I talked to David Sacks on what Yammer is doing. They are supporting OpenGraph.  You’ll start to see this giant web and all the different players playing in it.  Eventually this will become an open world or open system.  As a result,  not any one company or system or technology will win.

Keep in mind, the Internet was born as an open standard and started from the military.  How do we get new things like this that are open where everyone adopts.  The big thing for me is openness and the connective tissue being created as walls are going down.  Walls to your house, company, school, and new groups are forming.  Why can’t I create a social group and bring you into that when I’m selling. If I had a lawyer involved and we were acquiring a company, why can’t we get them all involved and share things.  This fluid nature of groups is what excites me.

4. What are you doing that’s disruptive for Social Business?

More…

RSS feed for comments on this post. — TrackBack URL

Executive Profiles: Disruptive Tech Leaders In Social Business – Alan F. Nugent, Mzinga, Inc

Published on by R "Ray" Wang

Welcome to an on-going series of interviews with the people behind the technologies in Social Business.  The interviews  provide insightful points of view from a customer, industry, and vendor perspective.  A full list of interviewees can be found here.

Alan F. Nugent, CEO Mzinga, Inc


Biography

Alan (Al) Nugent is the Chief Executive Officer of Mzinga. He joined the company in early 2010 as CTO-in-residence to facilitate the production release of Mzinga’s flagship product, OmniSocial, and serves on the company’s board of directors.   A highly accomplished software industry veteran, he brings more than 30 years of experience in strategic management and technology innovation to his role as CEO.  Prior to Mzinga, he was executive vice president and Chief Technology Officer at CA, Inc., where he was responsible for setting the strategic technology direction for the company.  Other executive roles include senior vice president and CTO of Novell, executive vice president, CTO, and CIO of Vectant, Inc., senior vice president, CTO, and CIO at American Re-Insurance Company, and SVP and CTO at Xerox Corporation.  Al also participated in the formation of three successful startup companies in the 1980s and began his 30-year career at Hewlett-Packard Company.

Al is an instrument-rated private pilot and has played professional poker for the past three decades. In his sparse spare time, he enjoys rebuilding older American muscle cars and motorcycles, collecting antiquarian books, epicurean cooking, and has passion for cellaring American and Italian wines.  Al is the independent member of the Board of Directors of Adaptive Computing in Provo, UT and a member of several technology advisory boards. He is a frequent writer on business and technology topics and has shared his thoughts and expertise at many industry events throughout the years.

The Interview

1. Tell me in 2 minutes or less why Social Computing is changing the world for your customers?

Al Nugent (AN): It’s not just changing the world for our customers, but all customers, whether they know it or not.  Organizations recognize that their customers now have a voice that they never had before.  The customer voice carries an incredible echo and resonates in ways a single voice never could before.  Companies have to take a proactive approach in dealing with their customers or they will be forced to react.  This is the difference. If the  customer want to be proactive, the company has got to get out ahead of these customers and every interaction they are aware of.  The alternative -  have a customer bash me on twitter and I have to clean up.  This realization has caused our customers both existing, prospective and others to wake up to this new voice and respond to it.

2. What makes social computing disruptive? (Why is this disruptive in general for the enterprise)

(AN): This breaks the model for what typical enterprise solutions have all been about. Legacy apps  have been carefully controlled from  a cultural perspective.  Let me pick on one category – CRM solutions.  If you remember, CRM was about dealing with the customer better.  But in the end, all the users wanted to do was control the relationship with the customer and put an inside out approach.

Social computing turns everything around and forces you to deal with what’s going on outside the enterprise. It doesn’t quite scale or integrate as easily as it should.  The integration can cause conflicts.  This is an example of a good news versus bad news scenario.  Bottom line – we have to shift to proactiveness.

3. What is the next big thing in Social Business software?

(AN): The next big thing is not the technologies.  It’s about the analytics.  BI is the euphemism that crosses all over interesting activities, processes, and practices. This is the lens that makes businesses happen.  We will see an adoption of different social technologies and the analytics will be the glue that brings it together.  I would also say mobility plays a big role in the next wave.  Mobility will serve more than just a platform technology.  Another area will include delivering a horizontal set of core services that tie back to role based applications.  Overtime, the industry will create an integrated set of services that manifests as a platform.

4. What are you doing that’s disruptive for Social Computing?

More…

RSS feed for comments on this post. — TrackBack URL

Press Release: Constellation Research Adds Emerging Technology Policy Advocate Nigel Cameron To The Board Of Advisors

Published on by R "Ray" Wang

Esteemed Center for Policy On Emerging Technology President Joins Constellation Board of Advisors

Washington, DC, United States of America – August 29, 2011
08:31 AM (GMT -5:00) Eastern Time

Constellation Research Inc, a next generation research analyst and advisory firm helping clients navigate emerging and disruptive technologies, announced today the addition of Nigel Cameron to the Board of Advisors.  Cameron currently serves as the President of The Center For Policy On Emerging Technologies (C-PET). C-PET is a Washington, D.C. based think tank that explores the impact of transformative emerging technologies and anticipates their implications for public policy.

Constellation Research’s Board of Advisors play a key role in shaping the research agenda and providing advice and guidance to its members. Board members bring significant industry experience, represent the leaders in their field, and serve in 6 to 12 month terms. These esteemed individuals:

  • Guide research direction
  • Advise on business strategy
  • Maintain an outside-in perspective
  • Deliver mentorship from seasoned professionals
  • Garner input from clients and prospects
  • Grow the constellation of experts
  • Identify new talent
  • Maintain and exude the Constellation values in public

Advisory Board members do not have a commercial relationship with Constellation nor are they represented by Constellation. Board members do not have fiduciary responsibility.

Nigel M. de S. Cameron is an inter-disciplinary scholar, facilitator and communicator who has worked on both sides of the Atlantic and initiated projects at the interface of science, technology, values, business, and policy. A graduate of Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities and the Edinburgh Business School, he is currently President and CEO of the Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies (C-PET), Washington’s first nonpartisan think tank focused on the long-term policy impacts of emerging technologies. Before founding C-PET, he served as a Research Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Law of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), where he also directed an institute on biotechnology policy and established the first U.S. university-based center on nanotechnology and its social implications, chairing its annual conferences for policymakers in Washington, DC, and initiating the Chicago Nano Forum for city business, law and technology leaders. He also led a study of the multi-sectoral implications of diabetes for IIT’s Center for Diabetes Research and Policy, and convened a national conference on diabetes policy with participation from such actors as PAHO, HHS, and the State of Illinois.

He has written widely on the policy and ethics implications of emerging technologies, both at an academic level and in popular media. He has appeared on such network television programs as ABC Nightline and PBS Frontline, and been published in many contexts including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, the London Guardian – as well as law reviews, Nature Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology Law and Business. In 1983 he founded the journal Ethics and Medicine, and his books include The New Medicine: Life and Death after Hippocrates and Nanoscale: Issues and Perspectives for the Nano Century. In addition to essays on innovation and technology policy, he currently writes a regular column for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on the corporate social responsibility impacts of new technologies.

Among recent commitments, he has been a featured speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival and was invited to moderate a panel on radical life extension at the Aspen Global Health Forum. At a recent World Healthcare Innovation and Technology Congress, he led an interactive plenary session on the likely business impacts of developments in nanotechnology, and has also addressed developments in personalized medicine and co-presented with a member of Congress on the politics of enhanced human intelligence. He has several times been invited to be executive-in-residence at the UBS executive development center at Wolfsberg, and been a featured presenter at the STARS emerging business leaders symposium (Switzerland). He chaired the track on governance at a recent Beijing conference on nanotechnology; presented on life extension and how to think about the future at finance leader AMP’s innovation festival Amplify in where he was also a panelist on the future of mobile technology (Sydney, Australia); and has chaired recent conferences in London on personalized medicine (at the Biochemical Society) and emerging technology policy (House of Lords). Upcoming commitments include moderating a high-level panel on innovative technology responses at the global Planet under Pressure conference (2012).

Dr. Cameron has also been significantly engaged in both domestic and global policy issues. He was an invited non-federal participant in the U.S. Government inter-agency strategic planning process Project Horizon. He was an invited participant in Sandia National Laboratory’s consultation on the implications of artificially enhanced human intelligence. He co-chaired a workshop hosted by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to scope the policy and broader societal implications of nanotechnology. He has given invited testimony before committees of both U.S. House and Senate (Commerce, Appropriations, Foreign Affairs); the UK House of Commons; the European Parliament; and the European Commission’s advisory Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies. He was an invited U.S. participant in the U.S./European Commission dialogue on Perspectives on the Future of Science and Technology. In 2007, he was the United States’ nominee to the UN Human Rights Council to be Special Rapporteur for the Right to Health. He has also represented the United States on delegations to the United Nations, and is currently a Commissioner and Chair of the Social and Human Sciences Committee of the United States National Commission for UNESCO. A native of the United Kingdom, he is a naturalized United States citizen.

“I’m deeply impressed by Constellation’s cutting-edge research agenda. Constellation’s focus on disruptive technology offers a perfect complement to the work we’re doing at C-PET. It’s a privilege to be invited, and there’s tremendous opportunity to provide input into the research agenda and share insights as – together – we “ask Tomorrow’s Questions,” stated Nigel Cameron

“Nigel’s a pioneer in bringing a non-partisan view on technology policy.  I’m counting on his insights to help us shape our research agenda.  If we can bring the right alignment between our research and future technology policy, we can truly harness the impact of disruptive technologies in a systemic manner”, said R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst and CEO.

COORDINATES

Twitter: @nigelcameron
C-PET 
Website: http://c-pet.org/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nigel-cameron/4/1b1/501
Geo: Washington, D.C.; Chicago, Illinois, USA

About CPET

C-PET is a Knowledge Network Asking Tomorrow’s Questions

The United States has long dominated the global technology agenda and served as the spearhead to innovation of all kinds. Yet on almost all indicators, this is no longer the most competitive or innovation-friendly economy. And perhaps the single most troubling feature of Washington, DC is the absence of serious engagement with long-term technology issues from the top of the federal policy agenda – and, alike, from the efforts of think tanks and other groups to shape that agenda. Nowhere is the short-term nature of political vision and decision-making both inside and outside government more evident than here.

C-PET is being developed to address this complex situation. Most think tanks take clear positions on issues of controversy, or have a clear ideological/partisan orientation, or some combination of the two. We put as much effort into how we think as what we think. We are a knowledge network, drawing together thinkers with wide interests and deep expertise from across the silos within which so much thinking still takes place. And while most “think tanks” focus on answers, we ask questions; indeed, our chief focus is on clarifying what the big questions are – “tomorrow’s questions.” It is as we identify, clarify and prioritize the “big questions” raised in future perspective (our rule-of-thumb is a 10-year time horizon) that we cultivate a context within which solutions can be developed. By determining to be nonpartisan and non-ideological we are not stating that we have no view. We are rather affirming our commitment to the long term, to the framing of questions as the context for answers, and to the participation of thinkers of diverse views and expertise in shaping the conversation.

Our Board of Directors includes lead biotech investor Steve Burrill (Burrill Life Sciences); Marty Apple, president of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents; internet guru Mike Nelson (Georgetown and Leading Edge Forum), and John Palafoutas, Executive Director of the Intel-led Task Force on American Innovation.

About Constellation Research, Inc

.
Constellation Research is a leading research analyst and advisory firm guiding organizations and their leaders through the hype and buzz of the latest disruptive technologies. Constellation takes a holistic approach touching board members, and marketing, technology, operations, human resource, and finance executives.

The firm’s analysts deliver pragmatic, creative, and disruptive research focused on business value, profitability, and market differentiation. Research analysts bring real world experience, independence, and objectivity to our clients. Most analysts bring over 2 decades of hands-on experience in working with senior leaders in enterprise organizations.

Constellation serves the needs of buyers and end users who seek insight, guidance, and advice in dealing with a dizzying array of disruptive business models and technologies. The firm provides the bridge between legacy optimization and future innovation. Constellation also advises sellers from both the buyer’s point of view and how to deliver value to their customers.

Constellation builds partnerships with its clients. The client and their organization’s success is Constellation’s only mission.

Press Contacts:

Contact the Media and Influencers relations team at press@ConstellationRG.com for interviews with analysts.

Sales Contacts:

For more information on how to engage with Constellation Research, Inc. contact:

David Stanley, Vice President of Business Development and Sales
• Email: David@ConstellationRG.com
• Office: 719.357.7826
• Twitter: @kiwigate

Kieran Barr, Senior Director of Business Development and Sales
• Email: Kieran@ConstellationRG.com
• Office: 206.409.5009
• Twitter: @kierobar

RSS feed for comments on this post. — TrackBack URL

Research Summary: Introducing The 43 Use Cases For Social Business (Social Enterprise)

Published on August 28, 2011 by R "Ray" Wang

The Social Business (Social Enterprise) Moves Beyond The 18 Use Cases Of Social CRM

As social media adoption continues to move from mainstream to pervasive ubiquity, enterprises will begin to benefit from these advancements in the consumerization of IT (CoIT).  Just 18 months ago, early adopters identified 18 Use Cases for Social CRM (SCRM).  These ground breaking use cases showed enterprises how to bring social into existing CRM processes.

Consequently, the market has moved on beyond just marketing, service, and support use cases.  In the latest Software Insider “State of Social Business” survey, 103 respondents identified 25 additional use cases that spanned across key enterprise business processes that impact eight key functional areas, from external facing to internal facing (see Figure 1):

  1. Public relations/ marketing (PR/MA).  Key impacted business process: Campaign to lead
  2. Sales (SFA).  Key impacted business process: Lead to deal
  3. Service and support (CSS).  Key impacted business process: Incident to resolution
  4. Projects (PBS).  Key impacted business process: Kickoff to delivery
  5. Innovation/ product life cycle management (PLM). Key impacted business process: Concept to production
  6. Supply chain (SCM). Key impacted business process: Sourcing to acceptance
  7. Human capital management (HCM). Key impacted business process: Hire to retire
  8. Finance. Key impacted business process: Invoice to payment

Figure 1. Constellation Defines 43 Social Business/ Social Enterprise Use Cases and 24 Key Analytics

(Hint: right click to expand and view the full image)

Early Adopters Identify HCM And Projects As The Next Growth Area For Social Business

Survey respondents chose their top 3 internal collaboration and external engagement social business use cases (see Figure 2).  Not surprisingly, service/support use cases led the pack with Reactive support-External (68.9%) and Support escalation and resolution – External (64.1%).  Lead generation – External in the PR Marketing category rounded out the top 3 at (63.1%).  Meanwhile, Projects and HCM gain traction among the top 5 use cases. Respondents report an increase in adoption of Projects Workspaces- Internal (36.9%) such as wiki’s and similar internal collaboration tools.  Meanwhile, HCM Recruiting – External (34.0%) emerged as the fifth most utilized use case.

More…

RSS feed for comments on this post. — TrackBack URL

News Analysis: Bunchball Gamifies Salesforce.com And Delivers Simplified Applets

Published on August 24, 2011 by R "Ray" Wang

Two New Products Improve Entry Points for Gamification Adoption

Bunchball, a leading gamification vendor in the Silicon Valley, is best known for its Nitro gamification platform which organizations use to implement game mechanics across social networks, mobile applications, and websites.  Today the solution reaches more than 70 million unique users and creates 2.3 billion actions per month.  Companies such as Comcast, Hasbro, LiveOps, USA Network, and Warner Brothers use the Nitro solution to engage with customers, employees, and partners.

On August 24th, the company announced two new solutions:

  • Nitro for salesforce. Bunchball delivers a solution that works natively in Salesforce.com’s user interface (see Figure 1).  Users will see a new menu item labeled Nitro that provides key elements in gamification: points, badges, levels, leader boards, and real-time feedback mechanisms.  The solution ships at the end of Q3, 2011 and will be made available via AppExchange.

    Point of View (POV):     Motivation of the sales force represents a key area of opportunity to demonstrate the impact of gamification in the enterprise.  Using techniques that reinforce both monetary and non-monetary incentives, Bunchball can create systems that provide recognition, access, and impact in driving sales team performance.  Users can expect a direct impact to opportunity development, win rates, knowledge transfer, and internal collaboration.

Figure 1.  Nitro For salesforce.com Delivers Key Gamification Elements Such As Leader Boards

RSS feed for comments on this post. — TrackBack URL

Executive Profiles: Disruptive Tech Leaders In Social Business – David Sacks, Yammer

Published on August 23, 2011 by R "Ray" Wang

Welcome to an on-going series of interviews with the people behind the technologies in Social Business.  The interviews  provide insightful points of view from a customer, industry, and vendor perspective.  A full list of interviewees can be found here.

David Sacks, Founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board Yammer Inc.

Biography

David is the Founder and CEO of Yammer, Inc. He has been involved in the internet space for ten years as an entrepreneur, executive and investor, starting with PayPal in 1999. David was PayPal’s Chief Operating Officer and product leader, taking the company from startup to IPO and eventual sale to eBay for $1.5 billion. Subsequently, he founded Geni.com, which is creating a family tree of the whole world, enabling millions of family members to connect, share, and preserve their lives. He also produced and financed the movie “Thank You For Smoking.” He has a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.

The Interview

1. Tell me in 2 minutes or less why Social Computing is changing the world for your customers

David Sacks (DS): Social networking has had a profound impact on the way people connect, communicate and get information in their personal lives. Yammer provides an analogous approach in the enterprise, but as a private, secure business tool. Enterprise social networking is changing the way businesses collaborate, leverage knowledge and share information, both internally and with important customers and partners. It is already having a transformational impact within many leading companies, and we are just scratching the surface.

2. What makes social computing disruptive?

(DS): The flow of knowledge, ideas and information is severely broken within many mid to large organizations. We hear from companies all the time that traditional enterprise systems are not addressing many of the fundamental communication and collaboration challenges they are facing, such as connecting and aligning employees and teams across locations, enabling mobile workers, and improving responsiveness and support for customers regardless of location.

Enterprise social networking helps businesses become more collaborative, nimble, and responsive to customer needs. It can break down silos and enable information to flow into and within a company more freely. It can also flatten organizations allowing ideas and expertise to come from anywhere.

There’s an old saying that knowledge is power. That implies you achieve power by hoarding knowledge and information. We’ve flipped the paradigm on its head and now the power comes from the value of sharing and being collaborative. This concept in itself can be quite disruptive, but is what many leading companies are trying to achieve.

3. What is the next big thing in Social Business software?

(DS): One area is greater integration. Today, there are generally two approaches. Some vendors are building social networks into specific line of business applications, which results in multiple social networks within a company. We believe this approach causes fragmentation and dilutes overall business value. Yammer’s strategy is to deliver a best-of-breed social layer across enterprise systems of record, such as – content management, CRM, finance, etc. Yammer’s approach puts people at the center and gives them easy access to knowledge and expertise of co-workers and to relevant information from systems of record. This is a powerful combination that drives greater individual and organizational productivity.

Another area is use of external private social networks for B2B collaboration. We are seeing a lot of interest and virtually limitless use cases in this area. For example, Razorfish uses external Yammer networks to collaborate more closely with clients. Molson Coors uses external networks to foster an active alumni network of brand ambassadors. With Yammer, it is simple to set up these separate, secure external networks and easily toggle between them. One customer called this capability the “20-second extranet,” because of the speed in which he was able to set it up. B2B collaboration is the next great frontier for enterprise social networking.

4. What are you doing that’s disruptive for Social Computing?

More…

RSS feed for comments on this post. — TrackBack URL

Executive Profiles: Disruptive Tech Leaders In Social Business – David Bankston, INgage Networks

Published on by R "Ray" Wang

Welcome to an on-going series of interviews with the people behind the technologies in Social Business.  The interviews  provide insightful points of view from a customer, industry, and vendor perspective.  A full list of interviewees can be found here.

David Bankston, Executive Vice-President and CTO, INgage Networks


Biography

David Bankston is the co-founder and chief technology officer for INgage Networks. He’s a pioneer in the software industry, leading the design, development, and supporting the execution of one of the first Software as a Service (SaaS) products on the market. Specializing in software integration and technical innovation, David has devoted much of his career to creating advanced technologies specifically designed to solve real world business problems. In 2008, U.S. Black Engineer and Information Technology Magazine honored him as a Modern-Day Technology Leader.

Prior to INgage Networks, David’s technology career included 15 years at LexisNexis where he was responsible for many innovations that are still in use today. He builds upon his real world experience as an international speaker and an adjunct professor at Ohio’s Antioch University McGregor.

The Interview

1. Tell me in 2 minutes or less why Social Computing is changing the world for your customers

David Bankston (DB): I’m going to use a customer reference to answer this question.  Think of American Express. They are a 150 year old blue-chip company.  In 2008, AMEX launched Open Forum on our INgage platform. Openforum.com provides a place for AMEX small business card holders to network, connect and learn. It’s a new “social marketplace.” You can see businesses engaging in conversation with each other. This is a social marketplace of the future. It’s very cool, very slick, and there’s nothing like it and it’s very disruptive.

2. What makes social computing disruptive?

DB: If you look at the world today, every good business has to now stop and listen to what their customers are saying. How does your business become a part of the social dialogue that’s happening around the brand?  How do you tap into that 24/7 discussion to stay relevant?  What worked in the past is no longer a solid indication of what’s going to make your business thrive in the future. A business must disrupt its current thinking. Social computing means more interaction and more openness than ever before. And what’s really different – is that it’s generally out there for everyone to see.

3. What is the next big thing in Social Business software?

DB: What’s really needed now is cloud-based social collaboration software optimized for tablets. It’s becoming clear that tablets are making its way into the enterprise. People are moving to simple intuitive interfaces. Existing solutions like SharePoint are often overkill. Remember upgrading from Office 2007 to Office 2010?  Sometimes all you want to do is write a Word document, but now the buttons are moved around and some are even missing or buried in other menus – and unneeded buttons clutter up the interface. Productivity actually dropped for a good period of time before you got the hang of the new layout. Contrast that with a tablet interface and the learning curve. Most people know what they are doing after about 10 minutes on a tablet. Productivity goes up – not down. Many actions are a finger tap away. Menus only have buttons you need in context of the current actions you are performing. For simple everyday tasks, It’s a better and faster way to work.

INgage is working hard to spearhead the merger between the traditional desktop collaboration suites and the simple but limited tablet-based document sharing applications. We think it’s what the market is missing – and we look forward to sharing more about this development in the fall.

4. What are you doing that’s disruptive for Social Computing?

More…

RSS feed for comments on this post. — TrackBack URL

Older Posts »