Enterprise Social: A Slow Revolution in How Businesses Operate

About half of employees say that the use of social tools boosts their productivity at work.  But the problem is that many organizations don’t know how to formally respond to or to take advantage advantage of these tools.  Businesses worry that that heavy use of social tools are actually time wasters and will result in lower productivity rather than higher.  They worry that their businesses will become less predictable as the use of social media increases. IT departments also see these new tools as more difficult to control and to fully be able to put under their control.  Those are the findings of a Microsoft/Ipsos report.

Charlene Li, founder and analyst at Altimeter Group, said that “Employees are already bringing their own devices into their workplaces, but now they are increasingly bringing their own services as well.  Employees expect to work differently, with tools that feel more modern and connected, but are also reflective of how they interact in their personal lives. Enterprise social represents a new way to work, and organizations embracing these tools are improving collaboration, speeding customer responses and creating competitive advantages.”

Kurt DelBene, president, Microsoft Office Division, said that “just as email accelerated the pace of business in the ’90s, enterprise social will be the driver of greater agility and transformation in the 21st century workplace.  As we look ahead at how collaboration and communications continue to evolve, we believe the tools people use today — email, instant messaging, voice, videoconferencing, social — will come together and be deeply integrated into apps in ways that will speed collaboration and truly transform the way people work.”

Adam Pisoni, Yammer co-founder and CTO, said the move by organizations to social tools won’t come overnight.  “Social is still too separate.  To get the widespread adoption that we need, we have to integrate and become part of the tools that they’re already using. A lot of the step-changes that we’re going to see in adoption are going to come as we see those integrations come to fruition.”

Mark Fidelman, CEO of social business consultancy Evolve!, said that the problem with organizations trying to control social media “is that a rigid, tightly controlled process inhibits innovation and agility. And innovation and agility make organizations more adaptive to market changes and competitive threats.”