Enterprise social software is gaining momentum in Israel towards the end of 2008, a trend that I believe will become stronger in 1H 2009. In a great timing, just before our KM and Collaboration User Forum, where we’ll demo IBM’s social software solution, TheMarker IT published a great article discussing enterprise 2.0 examples, from Deloitte, IBM and Best Buy.
The implementations vary from one company to the next, but the goals are similar: higher employee retention, knowledge sharing, win young talent, support global operations, shorten development cycles and others.
IBM’s Beehive, is a natural evolution of the company world renowned BluePages solution (employee directory), an inhirint part of IBM Intranet (w3):
“Very early on, we recognized the importance of connecting people within IBM and moving beyond a static view of the individual,” says Jeff Schick, vice president of social software. The heavily used directory includes 450,000 employees and gets 6 million lookups per day.
Although Beehive is still experimental, there are already some 38,000 employees (in just 9 months!) actively using Beehive, with actual benefits:
For Michael Ackerbauer, a manager in the CIO’s office at IBM, the results are already in. He learned about Beehive a year ago, and “I quickly got hooked,” he says, especially since he manages a team of developers who work remotely. “It’s valuable for the team to get to know me on a personal level, and I like to get to know them.”
Jeff Schick, VP, Social Software, IBM SWG, provides an advice for companies looking at social software solutions:
“Knowledge workers today have no time to add new activities to their day; they’re looking for how to work smarter,” Schick says. “Poor user adoption is rarely because users didn’t know how but rather didn’t see why.”
If you RSVPed to our user forum event Sep. 8, you’ll have the opportunity to epxerience Beehive first hand, along with Lotus Connections – IBM’s social software for the enterprise solution, which is based on our internal experience. Seating is limited, so RSVP now.
Update:
TheMarker IT artilce is a translated (with permission of course) version from The Industry Standard, ‘Social Networking Behind the Firewall‘.
Links:
TheMarker IT: IBM’s ‘Facebook’ (Hebrew)
Event: KM and Collaboration User Forum, Sep 8th, IBM Israel
The Industry Standard: Social Networking Behind the Firewall
IBM: Web 2.0 Goes to Work for Business
IntranetBlog: http://intranetblog.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2008/7/7/3781562.html
IntranetBlog: Beehive builds buzz at IBM
