Unsure where gamification can best be used within your company? Still figuring out how to establish a real measurement of employee engagement? Unclear which direction to take with the Yammer/SharePoint roadmap? Contemplating a move to the cloud but haven't thought out your governance strategy? This week's contributors have got you covered.

Top Social Business Article 

Gamification isn't necessarily a secret, but companies are still exploring the potential that it can bring to their internal and external strategies. In this piece, Gamification: The Secret Weapon of Employee Engagement, Kris Duggan (@kduggan) gives some advice into the when, the why and the how businesses can use game mechanics in the workplace:

Research has shown that once basic needs are met, additional cash rewards do not help motivate employees. In her research, Ventrice found that when employees were asked to estimate the dollar value of workplace recognition, 57 percent reported that the most meaningful recognition cost the organization nothing." 

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Top Customer Experience Article 

Stephen Fishman (@trivoca) is never afraid to tread where others would not, and this article is no exception. Reporting from the South by Southwest Conference, Stephen found solace in a talk that acknowledged the need for design thinking in APIs, a cause he has supported before, in his Where No UX Professional Has Gone Before.

... even though these are necessary to make progress, neither of these tactics are sufficient to solve the underlying misunderstanding of how design thinking can advance the power of strategic API usage and adoption in the marketplace."

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Top Information Management Article 

There's been a lot of hoopla about cloud computing and the strategic and financial benefits it can bring. But many details fail to get mentioned, such as data security and governance. Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet) takes on the latter in his How to Maintain a Governance Strategy in the Cloud:

The key to taking advantage of the cloud is to understand and align your business requirements with the cloud in mind. Understand that not every workload can be moved into the cloud, and that most others should be transitioned over time, and in a phased approach, to ensure compliance and data sovereignty issues. Most technology mistakes are made when you do not adequately understand your business requirements, and the risks of taking action (and of inaction)."  

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