CFOs generally have little connection with the soft side of information technology such as Web 2.0. It is argued that you only get a proper grip on matters through ‘real IT’, like ERP. Despite the pain it cost to implement wall-to-wall packages like SAP, top managers are subsequently rather satisfied with the results. But after enterprise technology, social technology is now gaining ground. Just another hype or is there more to it?
Large companies are a maze of procedures and working methods are enforced. Procedures are based on the notion that knowledge is accumulated in the hierarchy. But is that really the case? It’s becoming increasingly evident that freer group processes are needed for the development and sharing of knowledge. Technology failed in the past in terms or organising knowledge management. But knowledge is still power; managers and employees don’t always share their acquired knowledge. Business units should achieve their target towards which the reward is geared. Successful businesses do something about this ‘silo mentality’ to prevent customers and shareholders becoming the dupe. Take for example Web 2.0. This has everything to do with a new approach to working. After all, the war on talent is not won by blocking access to blogs, social platforms, Wikis and file sharing. Just like the networking hours during seminars or the Rotary, these newfangled trends don’t generate any hard ROI. However, they do contribute to improved relations with and between employees. Effective internal relations are the oil that lubricates the radar works. Everyone knows how little use cold-calling has. Thanks to professional networking sites like LinkedIn or its internal counterparts, it has become much easier for people to seek each other out for advice, projects and best practices. If you have to work increasingly across business units and in a multidisciplinary manner, social networking sites become essential without your own firewall. A CIO of one of the big four accountancy firms told me that the partner board refused investment in an internal social network. The CIO demonstrated that social platform Facebook had well over 8,000 employees with their own page containing details about all of their achievements, their CVs and their interests. On the public web, in other words, which is also visited by competitors and head hunters! Suddenly, the board was convinced.
Genie’s escape from the bottle
Dow Chemical invests in corporate social networks. This entails more than the sec introduction of SharePoint, a handy tool for making information from all sorts of applications accessible to employees. But it only works if the information is shared. A major international technical consultancy firm wanted the projects and their relevant documents shared on a digital platform. This would make for more efficient cooperation between project teams and even customers. Project leaders felt that the knowledge sharing would rob them of their authority, while a reward for removing the knowledge partitions remained forthcoming.
Pre-competitive cooperation in R&D, as is popular in the medical or electronics fields, is a trend. This ‘open innovation’ is also vital in ecosystems where flexible cooperation between parties in the chain speeds up new product introductions (NPIs). Social networks play a key role in this as well. Assessments of new products by consumers and customers and the processing of complaints are issues that increasingly take place online and in the public sphere. The genie has escaped from the bottle. Those who are open, also when it comes to mistakes, stand to gain a lot.
Many CFOs have difficulty financing this soft side of IT. Fortunately these aren’t the pricey mega projects that ERP or CRM is. What’s more, social IT often happens naturally, without having to be forced. Letting go, learning and especially participating is the best approach. And go easy on the banning, something that is still an obstacle for this branch of sport. Of course there are security issues, but what’s the use of brutal repression when employees can simply work around the firewall? A business has to identify the born networkers among its people and encourage them to further expand the network via the internal social system. Bear in mind that personal topics are far stickier than business-related news.
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