Enterprise Collaboration News, Reviews

As CMSWire readers well know, there's a ton of interest and hype out there about all things social business. Companies are looking to upgrade their existing portals and intranets and want new ways of empowering their workforces. While social offers the promise of new ways to communicate and collaborate that are faster, more transparent, and more efficient than ever, it is hard at best to keep track of all the many things being said and promised.

Open Text continues its Purpose-Driven Speaker Series this week in Washington, DC. On Wednesday, September 21, Michael Edson, Director of Web and New Media Strategy at the Smithsonian Institution, will talk about the most interesting and challenging issues facing business and government today. Notably, he’ll address how the present and the future are getting closer together, and how to rethink the notion of strategy in this context.

Customers want increased transparency when interacting with companies because then they can make sure they really get what they want or need from the company. They can provide and ask for the right information early on in the process, allowing them to discover if things are going in the wrong direction and take proactive action.

Welcome to the end of the week and another roll-up of articles from our gracious experts. This time around, we got the lowdown on social media challenges and changes for SEO, collaboration personas and even a look at the evolution of online communities. 

This time in Google news, Docs takes a nosedive but makes up for it nicely with new, discussion-inspiring features and other enhancements. Meanwhile, the search results page is getting yet another makeover. 

The report is in from Chess Media Group on the state of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration. What's the verdict? Orgs are still implementing the technology before the strategy and they aren't taking the time to define/track success metrics.

Heads up, people. High-definition video is about to hit the world of Social Business, thanks to a strategic partnership between Polycom Inc. and Jive Software. 

Every business wants to improve collaboration; after all who doesn’t want employees to work together in smarter, more effective ways to help achieve company goals? When you launch a social business initiative, however, saying you want to improve collaboration won’t cut it. Improving collaboration in itself is not typically a company goal. You need to ask yourself, What is the outcome we need to achieve?

Facebook has 700 million-plus members. LinkedIn, the business equivalent, has well over 100 million members. Twitter has a user population well in excess of 100 million as well. A business looks at these social media tools and wonders what benefits they bring to the top and bottom line.

As well as working as an intranet consultant, I am very proud of the fact that for almost ten years I have been a visiting professor at the iSchool, University of Sheffield, so this month’s column has a slightly academic twist to it, but with some important practical implications.

While many of us may take remote computer access for granted, a new survey reminds us that it’s not undervalued. Teamviewer’s May 2011 survey of more than 2,000 Americans, conducted by Harris Interactive, revealed that remote computer access is an important priority for Americans.

Yesterday, Mindjet announced a new cloud-based collaboration solution and a new acquisition. It received lots of attention. Today, Mindjet comes with a news on its desktop solution: MindManager 2012. Does it deserve the same attention?

In one of the talks I give, I use a picture of African women carrying large jugs of water on their heads. Given this is usually a talk on collaboration, I get lots of puzzled looks. The picture is not about collaboration, but to make a point and be a focus for a story.

Sometimes in the rush to collaborate, or develop new collaboration tools, the humble intranet and its uses across the enterprise are forgotten. Not so in the case of UK-based Interact, which has released v4.9 of its Interact Intranet, its flagship intranet application that is far from humble.

This week Deb Lavoy struck a chord with her article which said social is not about technology or about corporate culture. Jacob Morgan sparked discussion when he wrote that there's no such thing as a social business. Both perspectives (and the related comments) are thought provoking and, if you missed them, worth a quick weekend read.

We need to remember that for the everyday worker, the organization, the customer, times have changed -- social is a big part of that change.

Let's look at the strategies and technologies that help make us more social creatures. Here's a good start:

• What's the Difference? Community Manager vs. Social Media Manager
• Social Media Marketing 101: Who Are You? What Do You Do?
• Making Money Off Social Media: Nothing Else Matters #socbiz
• Why Content Management is Not Social Business

Most Popular

• Microsoft, IBM, Jive Lead Gartner's Social Software in the Workplace Quadran
• Social Business: 6 Must-Have Apps for the Enterprise App Store
• Social Business Doesn't Mean What You Think It Does, Neither Does E2.0
• 50 Ways to a Better Intranet
• Gartner's Companies to Watch in Social Software for the Workplace Include Telligent, Salesforce.com, Drupal

Editor's Picks

• What's the Difference? Community Manager vs. Social Media Manager
• Networking for Success: 4 Case Studies on Social Business
• WEM: How a Web CMS Can Help You Deliver Qualified Leads
• Percussion CM1: Web CMS as a Product, Not a Framework
• The Art of SharePoint Success: 10 Reasons Why SharePoint Projects Fail

Around the Web

• Tracking the KPIs of Social Media
  
• CIO: from information to innovation (infographic)
• Taking a Proactive Approach to Social Media Complaints
• 67 questions usability testing can answer
• The Customer Is Always Wrong

Featured Events (all events | post your event)

• Sep 13 -- (Webinar) How to Create and Manage Rich Customer Experiences
• Sep 26 -- Telligent's The Big Social Conference in Dallas, Tx
• Oct 2 -- Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco, CA
• Oct 3 -- Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Anaheim, CA
• Nov 8 -- Sentiment Analysis Symposium in San Francisco

Featured Jobs (all jobs | post your job)

• Content Manager at Capitalone
• Editor/Content Manager at Thomson Reuters-Boston
• Director, Product Marketing at New Relic
• Front End Web Developer at Acquinity Interactive
• Enterprise Content Management - Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting LLP