Regardless of giving headaches to many IT heads, social collaboration tools are set to get a lot of likes among enterprises because of multiple benefits, writes Ajay Kaul
For many CIOs, social media belongs in the realm of the marketing team down the hall. The idea of bringing Facebook or Twitter into the workplace seems to be one of sheer lunacy—surely this would create a host of security threats and privacy concerns. However, the demand for enterprise social collaboration is on the rise—and with good reason.
Social media has become an integral part of how people communicate in their personal lives. It is natural that this new communication has begun to change how they collaborate and communicate professionally in the workplace. With millennials becoming an increasingly larger part of the workforce, CIOs will be forced to face enterprise social collaboration (ESC) in the future. Intelligent CIOs–who are ahead of the trend–have embraced it now, leading to staggering results.
Why CIOs hesitate to take the plunge
A set of common concerns often come up when CIOs are presented with the question of whether to implement enterprise social collaboration tools. In addition to the concern that adopting such platforms will decrease employee productivity, many executives fear the failure associated with internal social initiatives. In fact, 70 percent of internal social initiatives eventually fail. For CIOs who often lack practical knowledge about social media and fear change, this statistic is enough to keep them from considering the potential benefits of enterprise social collaboration.
The question remains: why should CIOs implement enterprise social collaboration platforms if they’re seemingly destined to fail? The answer is quite simple: the benefits far exceed the risks.
A new form of communication
For years, the social media revolution has been affecting how people communicate on a daily basis. Daily life has become increasingly digitalised. With the workforce becoming dominated by millennials, it is hard for employers to attract and keep a young workforce that thrives on and even expects social media to be integrated into their office lives. In addition, it allows for the mobile communication that has become so vital to modern business practices. ESC platforms allow information to be accessed from anywhere at any time, across multiple devices.
Overcome security issues
One of the biggest hesitations CIOs have about adopting enterprise social collaboration platforms is the potential security issues and threat to business critical data. While breaking down information silos and improving collaboration is great from a productivity standpoint, many believe that such platforms will result in the disclosure of confidential information. However, the opposite is true. Social collaboration tools have a host of security and governance measures in place to prevent such security breaches from happening. Administrators can easily control access rights for individual users and groups of users, making sure the right people have access to the right information. In addition, advanced tools allow for the creation of keyword-based profanity filters.
No more email overload
A common issue surrounding communication in the workplace is email overload: extended conversations between multiple parties that result in a long string of emails that must be sorted through for the information needed. While email communication is still great for quick messages, it is not conducive to carrying on in-depth conversations. With the ability to break things down into topics, sub topics and specific groups, ESC tools allow for quick and organised communication.
Fewer hassles
The cost of developing infrastructure can be high. Many platforms require constant upgrades and customisation in order to maximise the benefits for an individual company. Enterprise social collaboration tools eliminate these hassles. Hosted and cloud-based ESC solutions reduce the need for further capital expenditure on infrastructure. They are easy to scale up and down in order to suit the number of users on the platform, and require minimal or no customisation. Best of all, they eliminate the inconvenience of constant upgrading.
The solution to many problems
Today’s CIOs are facing a host of challenges – and enterprise social collaboration platforms provide many of the solutions they require. Not only does it provide a centralised and organised place for company communication, but also it creates a comprehensive knowledge base and allows for easy document management. Furthermore, platforms can be adopted with ease. Many enterprise social collaboration tools integrate with current business applications and systems, such as HRIS, CRM, Leave Management System and more. Easy and seamless integration allows for maximised return on previous investments in infrastructure.
The future is here
Getting social is inescapable. By 2016, 50 percent of large businesses will have implemented an enterprise social collaboration network. Thirty percent of these will be considered as crucial as email and telephones are today (source: Gartner) The enterprise collaboration market as a whole is estimated to be worth $47.3 billion in 2014 and expected to grow to more than $70 billion by 2019 (source: Digital Journal). Whether CIOs like it or not, the structure of business is changing from a network of isolated islands to one integrated body. Whereas, previously, each company branch would function individually; now every part of the body is aware of what the other parts are doing and all parts work together to accomplish company goals more efficiently.
Employees now expect companies to provide some means of the social collaboration they experience daily in their personal lives. The forward-thinking CIO must educate him or herself and fellow senior leaders on how the social media landscape functions outside of their company in order to determine how it can be best leveraged as an enterprise tool. Failure to do so simply cheats themselves and their company out of increased productivity, and the opportunity to tap into employee ideas and talents.
The time to go social is now. The business landscape will continue to change into a more collaborative, social atmosphere—those who do not change with the trends will find their company left behind.
Ajay Kaul is a Managing Partner at AgreeYa Solutions.
