Microblogging is no longer restricted to the social butterflies of the Internet, who channel their thoughts through such social networks as Twitter, Pownce, Digg, and Jaiku. Through the evolutionary process, enterprises are taking advantage of this Internet-fostered medium.
Companies have more choice when considering this approach these days, since a growing number of entrepreneurial spirits combine microblogging with networking software for corporate environments. Here are three examples:
Yammer (a subsidiary of Geni.com) lets folks share news, links, opinions, and information as well as discussion boards for employees. Yammer won top honors at this year’s TechCrunch50 awards; that site characterized it as “Twitter with a business model.”
Each Yammer provides free Web, desktop, IM, email, and SMS. Each user receives a profile displaying his or her photo, title, expertise, background, and space to describe what projects they may be currently working on. Yammer also provides an archive so it can be used as a knowledge base.
Yammer will charge $1 per user monthly, if a company opts to configure its own Yammer network, managed by its own administrator; and the company owns the content created by its employees.
Yammer offers network authentication and registration. The network admin can request securely exported documents and assign data to archives and backup locations. Traffic to and from the Yammer Website is encrypted using SSL. A mobile interface connects users via BlackBerry or iPhone.
Qik.Com [ed. note: how is that pronounced?] provides many of the features Yammer has, but offers free administrator control, available via instant access to the administrator panel. Advanced features include IP address range security, user management, and the ability to add non-company email addresses to the network.
There is also a provision to access the Twitter API, as well as SMS mobile texting. Another feature, TabStore, provides a to-do list manager and a frequent numbers list. QikCom has a competition tab that allows a company to track competitors’ products, looks for feeds from those competitors, and populates the tabs with comparable entries.
QikCom will provide additional TabStore features for a monthly fee. Also, QikCom plans to open its API to developers to create more applications, and income will be derived through a shared revenue model.
Present.ly performs basically the same functions as Yammer and QikCom, but it can support file attachments, allowing employees to send any document back and forth without using email. Another popular difference: Present.ly, doesn’t require all users to have the same email domain. Also, a company can allocate portions of the site to specific sectors or divisions of the business.
Present.ly is free for up to five people, and $1 a month per additional user. The site is basically à la carte as far as add-ons go.
But for every positive aspect that these enterprise microblogs provide, there is a very real danger concerning privacy and security . While the integral security features these services offer may be sufficient, much depends on the nature of the data that will be posted online. As observers have pointed out, the convenience of having corporate microblogs comes at a cost.
Still, for those willing to do the diligence (and pay the money) to safeguard their microblogs, the platforms described here, among many others, could become mainstays of enterprise services. As more applications become available, the further entrenched this new social networking concept is likely to become.
— Chris Poley has been a professional trader for over 20 years
Internally speaking is how I meant it. Ultimately it affects the company enterprise wide, so it would include investor ROI but mostly it is you as the implementer/introducer of this within your enterprise.
For example, at a buck a seat per month (or whatever the cost for whatever the technology) if I realized better communications say between consumer research dept and advertising dept, and I had a 2000 seat firm, this is a small price for opening this fuller communication between the departments. Grossly simplified, I know, but with tracking and analytics, I could see this increased communication occur and see the result recognized,
I've seen it "pop" for some companies whose workforce is spread across several campuses.
For investors/externally - this increased communication/traffic often leads to "eurekas" and "innovations" that weren't dreamed possible prior to chugging the KoolAid. Increased productivity, morale, dollar untilization - just the tip of iceberg.
Steve, Just curious when you use the term ROI are you using in context of Return on YOUR Investment as a either a shareholder or a VC?
Or is ROI meant as some acronym for time & money invested by the user of the new technology? Or is it these firms SaaS business model that is charging $1 per user per month a sharp price point?
As humans we all drink the KoolAid one time or another, it's in our DNA. We all thirst for the next technology that will improve our quality of life. Thanks for your incite.
I think you bring up an important point, ruffled feathers or not. You are not alone in wanting to see a ROI, albeit on an intangible. We forget how we may have believed/held the same yardstick up against email back in the Dark Ages of not so many years ago. And now it is as common as a (ack dare I say this) pencil, you know what I mean.
But an ROI is an ROI, and we've also seen many forced implementations fail for many reasons too as you fairly point out.
It may not be "THE" solution, "THE" cure-all, but when new tech comes through the door at a really sharp pricepoint, I know many who can't wait to drink their fill of KoolAid and then some. Having an internal sounding board is quite successful in larger companies who also use it extensively to cross fertilize findings and discoveries, helping to trim waste in the research budget and instead freeing up that capital for new innovation.
Ah rsheel, I'm just toying with you. Of course your statement is indefensible because it has no merit to be considered. But I get what your saying. Some corporate entities don't require this type of enterprise software, but thats a given.
Your 100% right that company executives are fed a bill of goods in many instances that fall far short of their advertised success.
In this case I see much potential as many testimonials will support. Thanks for being a good sport.
Whoa... Looks like I ruffled some feathers here...
Indefensible statement? It appears that you are overreacting. If your response is 'Dah' to the statement I made because you think I stated no new mind blowing observation, you are correct. Granted I just stated the obvious but do you know how many company executives go to conferences and drink the technological innovation 'Kool-Aid'. They come back convinced that they have found a panacea for all the cultural issue within the organization. Then they force a failed implementation.
All I am trying to do is bring another perspective on why microblogging (or any other technological innovation) may not be the solution to organizational behavior challenges a company might be having.
"If the culture of the company is not conducive to sharing Knowledge no matter what technological solution you implement you will not be able to solve the problem because people are not incentivized to turn implicit knowledge to explicit knowledge."
This statement is not only indefensible but irrespective of the post itself. What do I do with this statement other then say dah? Enterprise blogging is by no means viable for every business.
It is my understanding that a cost / benefit analysis would prove highly attractive for many firms. Ultimately, we'll see some hard numbers down the road.
So sit tight and let the band wagon start rollling without you.....feel free to jump aboard at anytime, everyone is welcomed. - Chris
Chris, I am still not sold on the business value of Enterprise microblogging. How is it going to improve productivity? Your link to the blog on Mashable.com talks about microblogging Business Value, but is microblogging really the right solution? For example: Knowledge Management is related to Organizational Culture. If the culture of the company is not conducive to sharing Knowledge no matter what technological solution you implement you will not be able to solve the problem because people are not incentivized to turn implicit knowledge to explicit knowledge.
I guess I am bit old fashioned and would like to see quantified business value before jumping on the band wagon of implementing microblogging at enterprise level.
Ktroulos, I concur, this enterprise microblogging is truly in its infancy. Only months old and Yammer boast 60,000 people and 10,000 companies have signed up. As this business evolves so will their capabilities.
Tags per se lack organizational structure and limit their utility for navigation. However, in researching this post I came across something called Cluster Tags, that can combined two diffeent datasets. If oranizations call for further development of this concept, the technology already exists.
The sky is the limit for enterprise blogs, if they listen to the needs of their customers.
As we pointed out, in our posts concerning due dilegence, when selecting a particular service, what was the deciding factor that tipped the scales toward Yammer and not another vender? Was it security, price point, WiFi capability, or some other specific feature and how does a CEO decide such a monumental desicion?
I believe enterprise microblogging will succeed if the vendors listen to the customers. This a pay service, to become a successful business they need to become an indispensable part of how corporations communicate within their company and industry.
If they could enrich the tag functionality (making it simpler and more comprehensive) and put extra filtering/aggregating mechanisms these tools could become an excellent project monitoring additions to the organizational process.
As an overall impression, in all the web2.0 apps universe, i have not seen tagging attracting serious attention by the devellopers.
I think that there are far too many people out there that would completely throw away pen and paper if they were able to organize electronic notes (call it twitts, bookmarks, shared links, calendar events/tasks etc.) in a comprehensive way.
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