Implementing Facebook for the Enterprise and SNA

For those who don’t know what “Facebook for the Enterprise” is all about, just imagine a private social network application in the business context. The concept behind it is straightforward: Leverage the knowledge of an organization by incentivizing and facilitating collaboration. The name of a few vendors will give you a sense of how big this trend is: SAP, Oracle, and Salesforce, just to name some well-known players.

Think about the benefits for a minute. Have you seen a post in Facebook similar to the following: “Who can recommend me a nanny for this weekend?” Give it a try and make a post to solve an ordinary problem on Facebook. Chances are that you will get better and faster solutions, than by making a few calls or talking with a couple of friends. This is exactly what companies are seeking for, faster and better problem solving.

The basic functionality of the software includes information sharing, work in groups or projects, chatting, “Twitting”, among other features. Cisco is now including more advanced features like videoconferencing, video calls and voice calls. Take a look at some promotional videos that explain how this applications work and a couple of pictures to visualize the idea:

Yammer:

http://vimeo.com/90896486

Salesforce Chatter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfnQRKMOqi0

SAP Streamwork:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOMr4s-0Qqg

Oracle Social Network:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK60hDNuTDo

                How Yammer looks:

               

                An example of Salesforce Chatter:

         

It’s a very promising tool, I have no doubt about it. This should be working in every company or at least, in their near future projects pipeline. How easy it is to implement? I thought it would be a piece of cake. Nobody had to apply any “change management” to implement Facebook. The providers have video tutorials that perfectly explain the functionality and this should be “natural” for people, at least to the big majority that use Facebook on a daily (or hourly) basis. Well, it is not.

In the company I work for, we launched Chatter in late 2011. The last post made on the application was entered in June 2012 (as shown in the image below). The use of the software went flatline six months after the first post. Why? I could give many reasons to why the project did not work but to keep the story short, this is where I believe Social Network Analysis (SNA) can help.

With SNA the most active contributors to collaboration in the company could be spotted, allowing the implementation team to work with the people that could keep the discussions alive. Previous to the launch of the social network software, a survey to gather employees interaction data would be required for the Social Network Analysis. With the information obtained in the survey, an analytical tool like UCINET can be used to identify the people that are most frequently (degree) contacted for information or that contact the most number of people to get the work done (the collaborators).

SNA is a powerful tool that can be applied for better collaboration without the need of social network applications but together, they can deliver a tremendous value in an era where collaboration is key to succeed.

Summary:
1. Challenge: To implement an enterprise social network.
2. Data required: Survey employees for collaboration at work or level of interaction. With a short question asking for the employees to whom they seek the most for advice or information (Select the top 5). Easy to get, as it would be a short internal survey. 
3. Most important network measures: Degree, as it is key to find the most influential people in the company and the Eigenvector, to complement the Degree to spot the informal leaders.
4. How will SNA help solve the challenge: Helping spot the most active contributors to collaboration in the company. Employees that would lead the engagement of the social network platform.  

- Diego Londoño