Email was once the transformative technology that made it easier for people to work together, but email created silos. Intranets attempted to bridge these silos, but the technology did not fundamentally transform the enterprise. What’s the missing link? Social. The result? A secure social networking platforms designed for the enterprise. Download “When Collaboration Meets Community” and discover why enterprise collaboration must be social.

 Inside this two-page eBrief, discover how enterprise social: Enables faster innovation Creates better group dynamics Puts power in knowledge For more information, please visit http://www.tibbr.com/

1. When Collaboration
Meets Community:
How enterprise social networking
is transforming business

2. When collaboration meets community:
How enterprise social networking is transforming business
Twenty-five years ago, email was the big collaboration buzzword. The transformative technology
made it easier for people to work together—and still does today. But, as business technologist
Richard Rashty recalls, “Unknown to us practitioners, silos were being formed. If you were not
on an email thread, you were out of the conversation.”
The same can be said of intranets and other collaborative technologies. “Just being able to
collaborate on documents, projects, send large attachments and instantly communicate,”
Rashty continues, “did not fundamentally transform the enterprise to leverage the ‘Collective
Intelligence’ of organizations.”
Enter LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites.
Here was collaboration’s missing piece—the social aspect—made possible through public profiles,
lists of connections and the ability to interact with people in context. People using their personal
social networks wanted to have the same experience at work, but that challenged IT’s demands
for privacy, security and compliance.
The next logical step is what we have today: secure social networking platforms built for the
enterprise. Most analysts agree that these tools will be pervasive in just a few short years, and
companies will join in or start losing market share.
The old way of doing things, according to Rashty, limits “your company’s ability to innovate and
adapt to changing business conditions.” An integrated social network removes roadblocks and
cuts corporate red tape. “Align the technology with business models fostering employee and
customer empowerment, and an organization’s culture can become its greatest asset,” Rashty said.
Today’s enterprise social networking tools break through old paradigms by virtue of their all-inclusive
and asynchronous nature. The suite of new tools—including microblogs and activity streams—
go beyond basic online collaboration in the following ways:
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3. 1 Enterprise social networking enables faster innovation
A community space, makes company initiatives more transparent and open to contributions
from every corner. Everyone in an organization—even customers and suppliers—fosters innovation
and continuous improvement.
Social gives employees faster access to knowledge. Rather than sending an email to a limited
group of people, they can openly broadcast a question and get quality responses from colleagues
—often instantaneously. This helps to solve problems and drive innovation. Blogs and wikis around
specific subjects also help connect employees to subject-matter experts, uniting them with a
shared purpose.
2 Enterprise social networking creates better group dynamics
Social networking tools let managers pull together employees to work on projects, with a greater
sense of visibility and teamwork. Documents and updates are more easily shared. Subject-focused
blogs and microblogs keep people on task across multiple time zones. And combined with voice
over IP, these tools reduce travel and telecommunication costs.
3 Enterprise social networking puts power in knowledge
Knowledge management has always been difficult because memories fade and people move on.
But with social networking tools, almost everything can be stored, searched and cross-referenced
—preserving the collective wisdom of the organization. Formerly static, sidebar and forgotten
communications become searchable dialogues that can be referenced and refreshed. And better
decisions are made based on this shared information.
Conclusion
Social networking is here to stay in the enterprise. Organizations that are embracing these tools—
nearly half of all companies by most estimates—have seen dramatic improvements in factors like
time to market, employee morale and innovation. Businesses that put off the inevitable will miss
opportunities to become more agile and effective, with potentially costly results.
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4. About tibbr
tibbr is the social network for work. It brings people, apps, files and actions together in one
place—on a desktop, smartphone or tablet—so work gets done faster.
tibbr streamlines communication and encourages the sharing of ideas and inspiration so
organizations can take advantage of their collective intelligence.
Launched in January 2011, tibbr is already used by over a million humans in more than
100 countries, revolutionizing how we communicate, collaborate, share and learn.
Discover more at www.tibbr.com.
Try tibbr at try.tibbr.com/tibbr/web/signup
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Social Business News, January 3, 2012.
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