Social business software survey results

| business value of social business
The business value of social business.
Customer survey results.

www.jivesoftware.com

For your employees, social business tools 02

are a no-brainer.
Easier ways to collaborate with each other, customers, and partners; simpler ways to share information; faster
resolution of service issues; and robust customer conversation monitoring across all forms of social media (from
Twitter to Facebook to blogs) all make the lives of line employees in sales, strategy, support and marketing easier.

Most executives and managers recognize the powerful improves productivity, improves customer communication, survey covered more than 500 respondents ranging
change that social engagement inside and outside the and boosts sales. But, as in any big IT buying decision, from individual contributors to CEOs at more than 300
company has already wrought on workflows, sales these leaders want to identify a clear return on companies. Responding companies ranged in size but
processes, and organizational decision-making. They investment (ROI). The good news is that the ROI for most were large organizations with 80% having greater
understand that their business will become more social business tools is now quite clear and that these than 1,000 employees, 60% having greater than 5,000
inherently social as the use case for the Internet changes tools can dramatically boost customer and employee employees, and 10% having greater than 100,000
to a more social orientation, both in the consumer and satisfaction, reduce turnover, boost sales, and improve employees. These companies spanned 35 different
business realms. idea generation within an enterprise or organization. industries, including IT, healthcare, financial services
and government. The survey results provide strong
Regardless, these same executives must justify every In December 2010 an independent survey firm conducted evidence that social business tools produce more than
dollar spent on software and information technology (IT) the largest survey to date examining the impact of the sufficient ROI, on average, to make any
products. Yes, they know that Social Business Software use of Social Business Software in corporations. The senior executive happy.


Higher engagement equals higher proﬁts. 03

Social tools have made it easier for people to communicate with others that are important to them in the consumer
realm and to better maintain friendships. We found this also to be true in the world of social business. Our respondents
reported an increase in employee connectedness by 39%. The survey respondents also reported that social business
tools increased employee satisfaction by 30%. All of this adds up to higher level of employee engagement. This is a
critical metric that translates into real, hard-dollar ROI.

At consumer electronics retailer Best Buy, a .1% increase employee engagement metrics posted earnings per
in employee engagement survey ratings at a store share (EPS) growth nearly 9% higher than EPS growth
translates into a $100,000 bump in annual revenues of comparable companies rated in the lower half of the
at that location, according to research published in study. According to other research from Gallup, more
the Harvard Business Review. A 2007 study by polling satisﬁed employees equates to higher levels of all manner
and research company Gallup Organization found of related KPIs including: customer loyalty (+56%),
that publicly traded companies rated in the top 25% in productivity (+50%) and employee retention (+50%).


Better employee retention, faster onboarding 04

means higher sales per employee.
A finding that the use of social business tools corresponds with increases in social engagement and improves
employee retention is a particularly critical finding. Any reduction in employee turnover results in immediate
cost savings to an organization.

The accepted estimate for the cost of turnover is between During that onboarding period, those workers actually
100% to 150% of an employee’s annual salary. From this cost money in several ways. Because they are operating
estimate, based on an employee base of 5,000 with an at a reduced rate of productivity but receiving full
average salary of $45,000 per year, a mere 1% decrease salary, they act as a drag on the key metric revenue per
in employee turnover could result in $1 million in annual employee. Those same new employees are more likely
savings. to slow down fellow employees by asking questions or
reducing process speed in the organization.
Likewise, new social business tools incorporate
socialization capabilities that make it easier to join and Leveraging social technologies can dramatically
become fully productive in an organization. This also reduce onboarding time. Social business tools encourage
has real hard-dollar benefits. The average knowledge knowledge sharing in unstructured formats more
worker requires between four and six months to amenable to search. Similarly, social business tools
effectively learn and assimilate the necessary skills encourage informal micro-communications between
and processes to perform their job effectively. employees. These low-impact, casual exchanges
facilitate knowledge transfer and impart wisdom
without causing significant task disruptions.


Better answers, less time searching, 05

faster access to expertise.
Finding the right answer to any given question can, in a diverse organization, prove frustrating. Multiple players
may have bits and pieces of an answer. The player who holds a key piece may be on vacation. The same sort of
collaboration and easy construction of transparent knowledge repositories that helps new employees onboard
quickly also empower employees to more quickly locate the right answer to a question.

Survey respondents reported a 32% decrease in time average annual cost of $14,000 per knowledge worker
required to find appropriate answers to questions or per year. The average sales person spends more than
information requests. That decrease led to faster decision two hours per week looking for the correct marketing
making, among other benefits. Further, users of social collateral. By reducing this search time by a mere 10
business tools claimed that they enjoyed a decrease in minutes per week a business could realize a revenue
time spent to find information and experts (as opposed to boost of greater than $50,000 per employee. For a large
answers) of 34%. organization with thousands of sales people, then,
implementation of effective social business tools could
These types of reductions, again, can seriously boost result in revenue increases ranging well into eight or even
a corporate bottom line. IDC estimated that the average nine figures, depending on improvements in information
knowledge worker expends 9 hours per week searching dispersion and retrieval and minimization of search time.
for information. This multiplies out, IDC found, to an


Less email, shorter meetings, 06

higher productivity, more ideas.
Even though we are now in the Post-Dilbert era, jokes about corporate life and copious time wasted sitting in
unnecessary meetings and replying to useless email chains still ring true for many employees and senior managers
alike. Social business appears to alleviate and moderate these woes. Our survey respondents reported a 27%
reduction in the amount of email sent inside their organizations, a result largely attributed to the use of social tools.

According to IDC, the average knowledge worker spends In terms of reduction of meeting time, social survey Ultimately, these types of gains mean nothing if there are
13 hours per week writing and reading emails. That respondents reported a 26% decrease in time spent not corresponding increases in productivity. Respondents
represents an annualized cost per employee of $21,000. on meetings. Respondents also noted that meetings did in fact report an increase in product collaboration
This number likely stretches higher in higher-paying work better in conjunction with social business tools and overall productivity of 37%, an indication that the
organizations or verticals, and for higher job roles. due to social mechanisms for capture of unstructured previously described reductions in unproductive activities
There are indications the IDC numbers are quite information through tags and other collaboration tools translated into increases in productive activities.
conservative. A survey of 1,000 workers in the United and annotation tools.
Kingdom by Star, a provider of on-demand computing and Enhanced collaboration meant that social business tools
communication services found that employees spend, on In another logical extension of these social tools users enjoyed higher project success rates and were
average, 32.5, 8-hour work days a year on email alone. efficiency gains, survey respondents reported a decrease also more likely to complete their projects on time. All
Reducing time spent by 27% would then represent a cost in duplicated tasks of 27%. They generally stated that of this, of course, is driven by ideas. And the use of social
savings of greater than $5,000 per employee, per year. social business tools made it easier for them to ascertain business tools correlated positively with new ideas, as
Beyond hard dollar savings, reducing email has other what colleagues are doing and to search quickly and well. Respondents reported a 32% increase in ideas
beneficial effects such as making information more effectively to determine whether all or part of a task they generated within a company. The next big idea, in other
accessible and more searchable by the entire organization are about to undertake have been previously executed by words, may come about because an employee had more
and breaking down information silos that lead to related another employee. time to think, chat with colleagues and contemplated the
inefficiencies. possible rather than bang away at mundane tasks.


Better addressing the needs 07

of customers, selling more.
All of the above gains are primarily inward facing. So what types of ROI benefits do social business tools provide
to more outward facing functions? As it turns out, the outward-facing process gains are comparable. Survey
respondents reported an increase in their sales win rate of 23%, an increase in new customer sales of 27%, and
increase in existing customer sales of 27%. The increase in existing customer sales is particularly impressive
because those sales likely involve a higher gross margin due to the reduced cost of sales inherent in reselling or
upselling to existing customers.

On the flip side of sales is customer support and Besides improving support, better communication with employees and the same applies to customers. Respondents
engagement. Social business tools drove real gains in customers also translated into a 34% increase in feed- recorded an increase in customer satisfaction of 33%,
those areas, as well. Respondents reported an increase back and ideas from customers. Social business tools increased customer retention of 31% and increase of
in communication with customers of 42% driven largely make it possible to not only crowdsource innovation but brand advocates by 31 percent.
by newfound abilities to engage customers in multiple also tap into the product expertise residing in your fan
channels simultaneously, from social channels to base. The increase in brand advocacy is particularly valuable.
traditional email and Web channels. According to Forrester Research, 94% of customers
Customers of companies that deployed social business trust “word-of-mouth” recommendations while only
This increase in communication accompanied a 28% were also more engaged not only with the company but 14% trust advertisements. Social marketing company
decrease in support calls, as customers were able to also with each other. Survey respondents reported that Zuberance found that brand advocates are worth five
get the support they needed more easily without picking social community usage by customers drove significant times more than average customers because they tend
up the phone. A decrease in volume of support calls has increases in web site traffic from existing customers to spend more and also will recommend a company with
multiple benefits. First, it reduces costs for your support (34%) and new customers. Giving customers a reason each recommendation on a searchable social media
team. Second, it allows support staff to concentrate on to come back to the website regularly also added to platform reaching at least 150 other people. So any tool
bigger cases and to better focus on cases involving the website sales, with survey respondents reporting an that can boost brand advocacy will quickly return its cost
most loyal and important customers. increase in web-based sales (usually the lowest cost through enhanced sales and enhanced word-of-mouth
type of sales) of 26%. Engaged employees are happy marketing and customer activations.


Social Business ROI is real. And it’s huge. 08

After reading through this information, any CFO should think differently about social business tools and view
these new technologies as clear revenue boosters with well-defined ROI that benefits both the top-line and the
bottom-line.

The benefits of social business tools seem quite logical.
Based on sheer adoption numbers (hundreds of millions
tools provide an invaluable framework upon which to
build a true social enterprise. This enterprise super-
“The imperative for business
of Facebook users are hard to refute), consumer social charges growth and innovation by tapping into the power leaders is clear: falling
platforms have clearly illustrated a tremendous ROI in
terms of allowing consumers to more easily keep track
of socialization and social applications to drive
monetization while simultaneously boosting employee
behind in creating internal
of projects, communicate with friends and family, and morale, saving everyone time, and keeping customers and external networks
share information. so happy they won’t shut up about your company.
could be a critical mistake.
Social platforms for enterprise logically extend these
capabilities to the organizational realm. Further, these Executives need to push
their organizations toward
becoming fully networked
enterprises.”
McKinsey Quarterly,
“The rise of the networked enterprise”,
December 2010


Social business software survey results. 09

39% increase in employee connectedness. 28% decrease in support calls.
25% decrease in onboarding time. 33% increase in customer satisfaction.
29% increase in executive communication. 31% increase in customer retention.
34% decrease in time to find information and experts. 34% increase in feedback and ideas from customers.
27% reduction in email sent. 34% increase in brand awareness.
26% decrease in time needed for meetings. 27% increase in new customer sales.
27% decrease in duplicated tasks. 27% increase in existing customer sales
32% increase in ideas generated within the company. 34% increase in web site traffic from existing customers.
23% increase in win rate. 32% increase in web site traffic from new customers.
32% decrease in time to find answers. 26% increase in web site sales.
37% increase in project collaboration and productivity. 31% increase in brand advocates.
30% increase in employee satisfaction. 33% increase in clicks from Google searches.
24% decrease in need for travel. 27% increase in channel sales effectiveness.
42% increase in communication with customers. 26% decrease in channel support costs.

All statistics from a survey conducted Dec. 2010 by third-party market research firm. The survey was open to all Jive Software customers. More than 500 people
from more than 350 companies responded; more than 60% of respondents came from companies with more than 5,000 employees. More than 10% of respondents
came from companies with more than 100,000 employees. Nearly 1/3 of respondents use Jive for both internal and external communities.

Jive. First in Social Business.
Jive is the largest and fastest-growing independent Social Business Software company in the world.
For more information, visit www.jivesoftware.com.

jive software 325 lytton avenue, palo alto, ca 94301 o 1.877.495.3700

Social business software survey results

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