Expanding Work View

As per Maslow's
hierarchy of needs, social needs is the third most important need of
every human being. Pitching on this assumption, social networking
websites like Facebook, Orkut, Twitter have not only grown big but
have also become a part of our daily lives. With the popularity of
social networking sites, the world seems to be getting smaller. And
with this idea, enterprises are increasingly trying to bring all
their employees spread across the world in one roof; the common roof
being 'enterprise
social networking'. Companies are now implementing social networks
to promote social networks among their employees. Beginning with this
the next task for IT leaders would be to incorporate enterprise
social networking in to their overall unified communications and
collaboration strategy. Enterprise social networking is increasingly
becoming as common as the usage of emails and it will change the way
business is carried out. Not only the decision making process will
become faster
but customers will receive instant feedback and the employees will
even have a sense of belongingness towards their organization. The
emergence of web 2.0 technologies has enabled many
opportunities for networking among peers and knowledge sharing.

IMPORTANCE AND
RELEVANCE

Most of the companies are
bringing out their own enterprise social networks while some are
using existing social networks
to manage internal communication and activities. Mahindra &
Mahindra for instance has the 'One Mahindra' portal which is
based on Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007. It brings in a
common communication platform to share knowledge and build a central
information storehouse across the Mahindra Group. “These platforms
will facilitate and influence human interactions outside defined,
formal business process workflows and hierarchies. They can then be
used for knowledge and experience sharing, collaboration, for
building relationships outside the formal defined business
environment and for fulfillment for a common purpose that the members
of the community share,” says Satish Joshi, EVP and global head,
technology and innovation, Patni.

Companies have realized
that having an internal social networking site or creating a group in
popular networking sites will bring about a difference in the way
they carry out their business. Enterprise social networking is no
more confined to bringing in employees from their organization on one
common platform. Some organizations are even trying to bring their
vendors and customers together through their social networks.
Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) which has been developing
softwares for product development has introduced a common platform
called Vendors' Portal which collaborates the ideas of the solution
providers and the vendors. “Social product development reflects the
way modern engineers interact and collaborate in their personal
lives, leveraging the powerful new capabilities available in web 2.0.
PTC recognizes this dynamic new style of personal and professional
engagement and with Windchill SocialLink provides an enterprise wide,
secure
infrastructure to allow all stakeholders in product development the
freedom to engage with each other in a more social yet effective
manner,” says Rafiq Somani, area vice president, PTC India.

THE CHALLENGE

There are numerous
challenges which would come on the way of the acceptance of
enterprise social networking as a trend. Dealing with security and
privacy issues could be quite a task for the organizations.
“Organizations don't want employees' personal lives confused
with their work life and they most certainly would like to avoid any
circumstance wherein business details are inappropriately leaked out.
One of the biggest challenges that organizations face with ESN is how
to develop a balance between their employees' needs to use social
networking and focus on business goals and growth,” says Minhaj
Zia, national sales manager, unified communications, Cisco India &
Saarc.

If any organization wants
to adopt any new trend or technology, they would first of all like to
check whether it is secured or not. The issue of breach to privacy or
security is not only limited to the usage of social media. It was a
concern even during the days when people had immense craze of sending
and receiving messages. “Hackers will continue to target
individuals using social media sites. The need to secure social
networking interactions will increase, as more organizations adopt
social media as a core aspect of their marketing strategy.
Organizations will have a hard time controlling online social
networking activities of their users. The weak understanding of
online social networking safety practices, make it vulnerable to
frauds,” explains David Friedman, chief marketing officer, Narus.
There could be other challenges like the lack of adoption rate,
users' familiarity with social networking sites and unwelcome
transparency. If all these challenges are dealt properly, then this
trend would be accepted across other enterprises.

CONCLUSION

Companies are willing to
accept this trend provided it is user friendly, secure and most
importantly efficient. Organizations have realized that enterprise
social networking improves productivity, brings in innovation and
moreover generates growth for the company. “One of the trends we
foresee in the enterprise social networking space is the convergence
of these networks with cloud computing and smart mobile phone
devices,” adds Joshi. This is one of the areas which organizations
are definitely watching out for.