Kevin conroy-sic-2011

Editor's Notes

• #2: Beyond the Hype: The Reality of Social BusinessWhat are Fortune 500 brands and enterprises like FedEx, Eli Lilly, and Proctor & Gamble doing to leverage the exploding 'social business' trend?  Isn't it really just all about building a Facebook-like experience for your employees?  Hear how a little bit of technology and social networking can drive technology adoption, communication, and improved collaboration within corporate workforces, regardless of employee location; Get candid front-line perspectives on mistakes others have made, as well as tips and strategies that can drive social business success within all organizations.Social Business/Social Enterprise is a fast-growing trend across the US and beyond: At the most basic level, it's the notion of bringing a social media experience to employees within large corporations or enterprises.  These entities are clamoring for ways to improve company and employee productivity and collaboration.At the same time, the companies are trying to figure out how to get information to people faster and more efficiently.Some corporations have seen the immense popularity of sites like Facebook and LinkedIn and have simply said that they want to create a 'Facebook-like' experience for their employees.Software companies of all sizes are springing up to address this trend, ranging from small-to mid-sized startups to giants like Microsoft.In fact, Microsoft's SharePoint has quietly become a very key part of Microsoft's overall business by helping to enable many enterprises which are building internal-facing social business applications.Now I'd like to introduce you to a couple of people who are on the front lines of social business: Kevin Conroy, who is the founder and president of Seattle-based Blue RoosterMalinda Cesnik, visiting from Indiana and who has had a direct role in building social business sites for Eli Lilly and others.Todd Ray, visiting from California and is a Business Strategist for Microsoft There's a lot of hype out there, so we're going to take a look at a half-dozen or so common myths, and go from thereKevin Conroy, President & Founder, Blue RoosterWorking with many fortune 500 companies and seeing perspectives from a national and global perspectiveWho/what is excelling and who/what is failingMalinda Cesnik, TBD, TBDSpecific learning at Eli LillySocial Learning (and change management)Social collaborationCommunity building (communities of practice)Todd Ray, Business Strategy, MicrosoftMicrosoft’s perspectiveSharePoint as a platform for collaborationStrategy consultingCorporate demographics and generational user expectations
• #3: FALSESo you've decided to build a social business site to improve employee collaboration, communication, and productivity - your employees will come flocking to the site. Right? Facebook employs people to keep people involved, what should corporations do?  Also, need to have a coherent strategy around what the priorities are around having an actual social business site - Malinda to discuss Lilly here as example, with Kevin adding commentary as someone who's seen multiple companies getting into itThis can work however as Todd Ray can shed some light onIf the community is created with a specific goal and is built to address a specific goal (Signpost Manager)If the technology is so simple that users are able to adapt it into their workflow without effort (Yammer infestation)
• #4: FALSEKevin to talk about corp exec. Getting 94 emails about responses to a posting on a social business site; It is true that having a FB-like experience might be a hook, but it's ultimately about collaboration and improving productivity at its core goal; Malinda to cite the 'Cat Women/ladies' story; Kevin to talk about it not being all about the user, but being about getting things done...e.g. documents, etc.Social Networksvs Online CommunitiesSocial Network is centered around the userYammer, chatter and simple micro-blogging are centered around the user and typically located in a separate area of the coproate intranetOnline Communities are focused on the common good of the communityJive, Newsgator and Blue Roosters Sepulveda are online community building platforms where the activity feed is within the community or project site and directly related to the collaboration within that communityAlthough Facebook drives a social style of communication it is not always productive.The Eli Lilly Learning center is a community focused on learning and change management and was extremely successful
• #5: TRUEMust be intuitive and truly easy-to-use or it WILL fail -- NOTE: Kevin tells the Facebook Adoption story here - kids essentially adopting an ERP solution in minutes!!Todd B.“If Craigslist were to launch today it would fail simply due to usability concerns.”<note from byron on the above>The classifieds section of the paper had always been a mess of information crammed into the paper and part of the allure of it was to hunt through those postings to find the diamonds. The online version of that is Craigslist and although many would regard it as un-intuitive and not “pretty” or designed, it does fill a need for users and has an almost cult’ish following.Kevin’s P&G Quotethe CIO of P&G was watching his kids at Christmas time use ipads for the first time and facebook – his observation was that his 9 and 11 year old just adopted a major ERP system on a new platform in a matter of less than an hour… all without mom or dad putting them through instructor led training…”
• #6: TRUE & FALSEMalinda: With offerings like an online learning center, social business sites CAN lead to great productivity and knowledge sharing....allude to Lilly and others;   also, discuss training and subject matter experts (Kevin)Notes from prep call:Easily share information with colleaguesCan generate too much information (aka “noise”)
• #7: TRUEThere is such a thing as too much information thoughActivity Feed:  A lot of people tout activity feeds, but they can totally CLUTTER employee productivity if not managed property (cite 'cat women' and 'cycling group' interest areas within company - and ALL the notifications that can come with it/them)  Kevin - I'm actually publishing an article entitled 'Activity Feed - Train Wreck in the Enterprise,' examining some of the perils here.Notes from prep call:Enable business processAdding context to contentCommunities need to provide purpose (learning center)
• #8: The Cloud is exciting, but it's not for everyone - sexy as the cloud might be, it's not the right environment for every companyOn premises servers vs remote hosting (cloud)Security and information issues for many fortune 500Open shared cloud vs secure corporate cloud
• #9: Remaining time Q&A with Todd and potentially audienceCLOSE