Strategic applications might be more difficult to migrate to a SaaS model both from a customization and change management standpoint as well as from concerns about governance, reliability, compliance, and regulation. Retraining and data migration are a cost component in SaaS scenarios but are manageable in today’s increasingly online and data standardized world. How much will you actually save? The numbers vary, but recent reports say that moving to a SaaS version of your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system will save the average firm 25% to 40%, a number that likely translates well to other types of business applications given the core nature of CRM to most enterprises. A good place to get a sense of the options for SaaS versions of traditional business applications is to look at Monolab’s excellent Office 2.0 database.
Use Enterprise 2.0 to capture the knowledge and know-how of employees. The bad news: If you haven’t embraced Enterprise 2.0 across your organization already, then you’re aren’t going to be able to take advantage of this for a while. The good news: There no time like the present to start enabling the network to learn. Enabling open, persistent, freeform collaboration amongst far-flung workers allows vast amounts of institutional knowledge to pour out into visible places on the network where that information can then be studied, reused, and learned by others including (perhaps especially) new workers down the road.
In the mass layoffs taking place in organizations around the world, tens of thousands of years of built up expertise and capability are walking out the door, largely untapped; the knowledge residing in inaccessible places such as e-mail accounts, file servers, meeting notes, and most devastating of all, in the minds of the departing workers. While blogs, wikis, and other Enterprise 2.0 tools can’t be a direct replacement for people, they allow organizations to be highly elastic in terms of headcount while resisting the erosion of vital corporate culture, knowledge, historical context, and critical methods. You’ll also reap the other benefits of Enterprise 2.0 reported by many adopters: higher efficiency, more transparency, better communication, and so on. Making your intranet a vibrant, ever growing, worker-powered, two-way social media landscape is one of the surest investments you can make in your organization.
There are many reasons to start moving business applications and data to the cloud: Businesses have to keep latent capacity on hand to deal with high-water marks for demand, leaving a lot computing and network infrastructure lying idle and underutilized. The same businesses also can’t amortize the cost of purchases at nearly the scale that top-tier cloud vendors can, further driving up cost. Economies of scale are the name of the game in cloud computing and ready, on-demand access to them is what vendors provide, among other more run-of-the-mill benefits such as simplifying capacity planning and encouraging a more consistent enterprise architecture. I did some back-of-the-envelope costs calculations on moving to cloud computing and the results were eye-opening in terms of savings. The bottom line: We are a ways from moving all our enterprise computing to the cloud but it’s high time to begin the process of moving today.
Crowdsourcing does require a certain set of skills however, that is very different from traditional corporate hierarchical command-and-control, which works well even in outsourcing relationships, but much less in a social computing environment. While crowdsourcing is providing increasingly impressive stories of late (see the aforementioned open business models article), it’s also clear that some organizations will be a failure with it and that primarily online firms will have the most success. The latter live and die by their understanding of the network and tend to understand this model better. So, trying to do a lot more in your organization with a lot less this year? There are dramatic cost savings and leaps in innovation that can be tapped with crowdsourcing, one of the most potent Web 2.0 business models. If you aren’t doing it now or considering it, put it on your short list.
Despite early promise that CRM costs will drop and customer satisfaction will rise for comparatively small investment in online communities, most organizations have been painfully slow to move to them, almost complacently so. Though there is a definitely skill cap in creating and nurturing successful online customer communities, it’s not so large that it can’t be crossed fairly quickly when there is a need. And there is very much a need today. With the rank and file of the customer service and account representative ranks of organizations shrinking rapidly in many cases, now is time to provide your customers an entirely new and largely superior channel for communication, collaboration, and working together and amongst themselves. Organizations looking to minimizing customer disruption during staff turnover, lowering customer servicing costs across the board, and retaining the customers they still have must look to robust online customer communities in 2009.
Then there is ongoing story of enterprise mashups which bring lightweight integration and composite application development, often by end-users, directly to lines of business. See this list of mashup providers, most of which are offering highly capable solutions. What bottom line benefits will all of these bring beyond being to tackle problems you couldn’t before? Most of them will dramatically drive down the cost of application development, famously in the case of Rails, by as much as an order of magnitude. Integration is also one of the largest costs of software development and mashup approaches on the Web have been created out of sheer desperation and while a fair amount of success. Of course, these gains get dulled when shoe-horned into traditional software development processes, but if you are willing to think outside the box and move closer to the edge of innovation, there are major gains to be had.
I use the word refactoring since there also isn’t any budget for big bucks, big bang business process re-engineering. Refactoring is a means of “redesigning in place” and it’s a perfect way to describe a more rapid, recombinant “editing” of existing workflow using tools that are far more user-driven. The enterprise mashup tools above are a good example of a Web 2.0 platform that can address this challenge and so are Enterprise 2.0 tools which are emergent and freeform by definition and can adapt dynamically to the changing processes and structure of the workplace. Social networks and their activity streams are increasingly providing a means to start creating emergent workflow as well, though they are not as far along as mashups and Enterprise 2.0 in being able to address this opportunity today.
The modern technology landscape is an enormous one and the pace of technological change is only increasing, greatly challenging the 21st century organization which still tends to adopt new things in a top down manner. However, we are very fortunate that, given the generational challenges we face today, we have tools that those that came before us could not possibly imagine. Web 2.0 models offer one of the most potent ways we presently have to regroup, reorganize, and systematically improve what we’re doing in terms of private enterprise, government, and public service. Right now is a very exciting time indeed to be in business, for better or worse.
This progress towards achievement of our goals is made easier by the power of imaging in the mind – once the image of the outcome is fed continuously to the mind, it is only a matter of time before the goal turns into reality. Imaging is the most potent tool of the mind, to achieve anything in life.
Here is a simple illustration of imaging in getting to goals. Just think of something which each one us had vividly visualized and it came to existence after sometime – in some cases just a few days, and sometimes after longer time – things like your parents being with you when you got that university topper gold medal, or getting wedded to a spouse who has the name you liked the most, or you became the head of your division. Actually, in a corner of your mind, that image kept lingering unconsciously, and it led to the outcome. In fact how fast the image came to be true in existence is directly linked to the intensity and power with which we had done the imaging exercise. For sure, all of us will have at least a couple of events or instances, wherein powerful imaging came into reality, without seemingly much effort. That goes to show how powerful imaging can be, and just think of what we could aspire for if we chose to use imaging consciously in our desire to make it big.
Use the power of imaging in the mind in anything you want to do – visualize yourself as someone looking fit and 10 kgs lesser, commit the same to paper, and read the same about five times a day, and you will naturally act to do whatever is needed to look like that. This is just an easy example; your goal can be anything you always wanted.
It may seem complex and arduous but reaching goals is so simple when you passionately image and visualize the outcome of what you intend to achieve. This power of imaging combined with the power of having the goals as a written statement in your wallet, propels and catalyses your journey to achieving what you never could have thought possible.
Creating and recreating the winning images in the mind will seem tough only initially. But that comes with practice and exercise. As they say in any success literature, there an average of about 60000 thoughts per day that come into the mind. So the moment we write down about 10 or 20 life goals, and begin imaging the outcome in the mind, the mind is tutored and trained to focus on these goals. It gets into the subconscious mind, and moving or working towards achievement of the goals becomes a 24/7 process and the dynamics of action towards goals gets embedded in the subconscious mind.
These exercises of the mind make getting to goals great fun and easy too. The minute the mind is exercised and stretched it does not rest until the moment the image that is fed to it becomes a reality in life.
Good looks, great knowledge in any subject, getting into your dream company, becoming a CEO…be it anything, you become the CEO of your life by harnessing the power of imaging and getting to goals.
Social computing was hailed as a useful tool to gauge customer sentiment last week during a panel session at a Microsoft-sponsored conference.
Panelists from companies such as Dell, Intel Capital, and Sony detailed their experiences with social computing, in which computing is used as a platform for social interaction, at the Microsoft Global High Tech Summit 2009 event in Santa Clara, Calif. Social bookmarking, wikis, blogs, and e-mail constitute some forms of social computing based on the definition utilized by the panel.
At Dell, company founder Michael Dell in 2006 sought to identify customers dissatisfied online and solve their problem, said Bob Pearson, Dell vice president of communities and conversations.
"What we realized is we first needed to understand the landscape, what was actually being said about us," and put in place a good monitoring system and change company behaviors, he said.
There were 5,000 to 10,000 conversations about Dell happening everyday, and Dell wanted to monitor this. "We actually created a blog resolution team," Pearson said. Dell reaches out to people dissatisfied with the company to try to solve their problems, he said.
Sony also realized that tens of thousands of customers were conversing about Sony, said Rick Clancy, senior vice president of corporate communications at Sony Electronics. "It was a conversation we realized we needed to be a part of," Clancy said. Social computing provided a great opportunity to deal directly with consumers one on one, he said.
"The partnership that has emerged between communications and social networking with our customer service platform has been a tremendous success," said Clancy.
Social computing at enterprises still is in its early stage, said Robert Rueckert, director of Intel Capital.
"I really believe that most enterprises are just starting [down] the pathway," Rueckert said. Corporations would like to communicate not just with customers and employees, but also with partners, he said.
Dell, for its part, wants to expand social computing to business-to-business communications, Pearson said.
Companies without a social computing strategy have their employees already employing the concept on blogs or wikis, Rueckert said. Or, conversations are happening somewhere besides the company Web site, he said
"If you're an enterprise and you don't have a strategy around it, it's already happening," he said.
Panel moderator Brett Bonthron, partner at the TCG Advisors consulting firm, likened social computing to an improved version of knowledge management. "To me, one of the great things about social computing is its knowledge management done right," he said. Unlike knowledge management, social computing lets people contribute to conversations on their own terms, Rueckert said.
Social networking tools can produce expertise in surprising ways, said Rob Howard, CEO and founder of Telligent Systems, which offers social computing solutions.
"One of the most amazing trends that we've found is as companies adopt it, they quickly figure out that the expertise that they're looking for in an organization isn't always defined by organizational boundaries," Howard said. Someone might help with supply chain management who is not on the supply chain management team, he said.
ERP products have lacked social computing capabilities, according to Rueckert, "They're not as far along as the customers would like them to be," Rueckert said.
The Johari Window is a communication model that can be used to improve understanding between individuals within a team or in a group setting. Based on disclosure, self-disclosure and feedback, the Johari Window can also be used to improve a group's relationship with other groups
Developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham (the word “Johari” comes from Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham), there are two key ideas behind the tool:
By explaining the idea of the Johari Window to your team, you can help team members understand the value of self-disclosure, and gently encourage people to give and accept feedback. Done sensitively, this can help people build more-trusting relationships with one another, solve issues and work more effectively as a team.
The Johari Window model consists of a foursquare grid (think of taking a piece of paper and dividing it into four parts by drawing one line down the middle of the paper from top to bottom, and another line through the middle of the paper from side-to-side). This is shown in the diagram below:
Using the Johari model, each person is represented by their own four-quadrant, or four-pane, window. Each of these contains and represents personal information – feelings, motivation – about the person, and shows whether the information is known or not known by themselves or other people.
The four quadrants are:
What is known by the person about him/herself and is also known by others.
What is unknown by the person about him/herself but which others know. This can be simple information, or can involve deep issues (for example, feelings of inadequacy, incompetence, unworthiness, rejection) which are difficult for individuals to face directly, and yet can be seen by others.
What the person knows about him/herself that others do not.
What is unknown by the person about him/herself and is also unknown by others.
The process of enlarging the open quadrant vertically is called self-disclosure, a give and take process between the person and the people he/she interacts with.
As information is shared, the boundary with the hidden quadrant moves downwards. And as other people reciprocate, trust tends to build between them.
Tip 1:Don’t be rash in your self-disclosure. Disclosing harmless items builds trust. However, disclosing information which could damage people’s respect for you can put you in a position of weakness.
The process of enlarging the open quadrant horizontally is one of feedback. Here the individual learns things about him- or her-self that others can see, but he or she can’t.
Tip 2:
Be careful in the way you give feedback. Some cultures have a very open and accepting approach to feedback. Others don’t. You can cause incredible offence if you offer personal feedback to someone who’s not used to it. Be sensitive, and start gradually.
If anyone is interested in learning more about this individual, they reciprocate by disclosing information in their hidden quadrant.
For example, the first participant may disclose that he/she is a runner. The other participant may respond by adding that he/she works out regularly at the local gym, and may then disclose that the gym has recently added an indoor jogging track for winter runners.
As your levels of confidence and self-esteem rises, it is easier to invite others to comment on your blind spots. Obviously, active and empathic listening skills are useful in this exercise.
Keep in mind that established team members will have larger open areas than new team members. New team members start with smaller open areas because little knowledge about the new team member has yet been shared. The size of the Open Area can be expanded horizontally into the blind space, by seeking and actively listening to feedback from other group members.
Group members should strive to assist a team member in expanding their Open Area by offering constructive feedback. The size of the Open Area can also be expanded vertically downwards into the hidden or avoided space by the sender’s disclosure of information, feelings, etc about himself/herself to the group and group members.
Also, group members can help a person expand their Open Area into the hidden area by asking the sender about himself/herself. Managers and team leaders play a key role here, facilitating feedback and disclosure among group members, and by providing constructive feedback to individuals about their own blind areas.
In most cases, the aim in groups should be to develop the Open Area for every person.
Working in this area with others usually allows for enhanced individual and team effectiveness and productivity. The Open Area is the ‘space’ where good communications and cooperation occur, free from confusion, conflict and misunderstanding.
Self-disclosure is the process by which people expand the Open Area vertically. Feedback is the process by which people expand this area horizontally.
By encouraging healthy self-disclosure and sensitive feedback, you can build a stronger and more effective team.
