(Case study: Social Business: Full Speed Head or Proceed with Caution) Please answer all the given following questions
- Discuss Introduction.
- What is experiences implementing internal social networks?,
- Compare the experiences implementing internal social networks of the two organizations described in this case. Why were they successful? What role did management play in this process and how?
- Should all companies implement internal enterprise social networks? Why or why not? Give reasons with examples.
- Conclusion
to demonstrate their commitment to a more open. transparent work style. Employees who are used to IBM Connections as the social business toolset, collaborating and doing business in more tradi- Covestro's efforts are now paying off: 50 percent of tional ways need a incentive to use social software. employees are now routinely active in the company's Changing an organization to work in a different way enterprise social network. Although ROI on social requires enlisting those most engaged and interested business initiatives has been difficult to measure, in designing and building the right workplace envi- Covestro has benefited from faster knowledge flows, ronment for using social technologies increased efficiency, and lower operating costs. Management needs to ensure that the internal and Another company that has made social business external social networking efforts of the company work is Carlo's Bake Shop. an old family-owned are providing genuine value to the business. Content business that is the star of the Cake Boss reality tele- on the networks needs to be relevant, up to date, and vision series on the cable television network TLC. easy to access; users need to be able to connect to The company has 10 locations in New Jersey, New people who have the information they need and who York, and Las Vegas, and people can order custom would otherwise be out of reach or difficult to reach. cakes from its website. Thanks to the popularity of Social business tools should be appropriate for the Cake Boss, which created a huge upsurge in demand tasks on hand and the organization's business pro- for Carlo's products, the firm is looking to create a national presence over the next few years. use them. cesses, and users need to understand how and why to However, store operations were holding the com- For example, NASA's Goddard Space Flight pany back. Carlo's was heavily paper-based, and the Center had to abandon a custom-built enterprise mountain of paperwork wasted employee time and social network called Spacebook because no one led to errors, which sometimes resulted in a need to knew how its social tools would help people do their fix or remake cakes or offer partial or total refunds to jobs. Spacebook was launched in 2009 to help small customers, Custom orders were on paper and carbon teams collaborate without emailing larger groups. paper, order forms were misplaced or lost, and people Spacebook featured user profiles, group workspaces couldn't read the handwriting from the order taker. (wikis, file sharing. discussion forums, groups), and In the latter half of 2012, Carlo's implemented social bookmarks. Very few users adopted it, and Salesforce CRM with the Salesforce social network- Spacebook was decommissioned on June 1, 2012. ing tool Chatter as a solution. Some employees and members of Carlo's management team initially According to Kevin Jones, a consulting social and resisted the new system. They believed that since organizational strategist at NASA's Marshall and they already used email, Facebook, and Twitter, they Goddard Space Flight Centers, Spacebook failed because it didn't focus enough on people. It had been didn't need another social tool. The company was able to demonstrate the benefits of social business designed and developed without taking into conside to bakers and store sales teams, and using Chatter eration the organization's culture and politics, No changed the way they worked. one knew how Spacebook would help them do their Carlo's produces a very large volume of custom jobs as opposed to an existing method of collabora- cakes from a 75,000-square-foot commissary in tion such as email. This is not an isolated phenom- Jersey City operating around the clock. Chatter is enon. Dimension Data found that one-fourth of the now the de facto standard for internal communica- 900 enterprises it surveyed focused more on the suc- tion, from order to delivery. If a key cake decorator cessful implementation of collaboration technology is away, that person is still included in the communi- than how it's used and adopted. cation and discussion process. Upon returning, the Despite the challenges associated with launch- decorator can view any changes in color, shape, or ing an internal social network, there are companies design. using these networks successfully. For example, Because Carlo's employees now work more Covestro, a leading global supplier of coatings and socially, errors are down by more than 30 percent. adhesives, polyurethanes, and highly impact-resistant and crews are able to produce cakes and other cus- plastics, made social collaboration a success by tom products more rapidly and efficiently. Manag- making the tools more accessible, demonstrating ers have access to a data and analytics dashboard the value of these tools in pilot projects, employing that allows them to instantly view store perfor- a reverse mentoring program for senior executives, mance and which products are hot and which are and training employee experts to spread know-how not. They can see sales and transaction patterns in of the new social tools tools and approaches within the depth. As Carlo's expands nationally and perhaps company and demonstrate their usefulness, Using globally, the ability to connect people and viewPart I: Information Systems in the Digital Age Software Fails," searchmobilecoputing.techtarget.com, accessed March order streams is critical. Social business tools have 14, DM47: Cordelia Kroob, "The Growth of an Enterprise Social Network an transformed an organization that was gradually BASE." www.simply-communicate.com, accessed March 12, 2017; Insight sinking under the weight of paper into a highly Enterprises Inc. "Collaboration Technology Boosts Organizations. Accord- ing to an lesighi-Sponsored Report by Harvard Business Review Analytic efficient digital business. Services, "February 13, 307: Dimension Data, "2016 Connected Enterprise Hepeet" 2006, Gerald C. Kane, "Enterprise Social Media: Current Capabili Sources Sue Hildreth, "What's Neat for Workplace Collaboration?" search- ties and Future Possibilities," MIS Quarterly Execunter, March 2015; and contentmanagement. com, March 2, 3047: Arunima Majumdar, "3 Reasons Why Collaboration Tools Fail to Make the Indenied Impact."cLearning Dian Hinchcliffe, "In Europe's Biggest Firms, Social Business Is All Grown Industry, January 20. 2017: Margares Jones, "Top Four Social Collaboration Up." Enterprise Web 2.0. February 12. 2015. CASE STUDY QUESTIONS 2-13 Identify the people, organization, and technol- ogy factors responsible for impeding adoption described in this case. Why were some success- of internal corporate social networks. ful? What role did management play in this 2-14 Compare the experiences implementing process? internal social networks of the organizations 2-15 Should all companies implement internal enterprise social networks? Why or why not? MyLab MIS Go to the Assignments section of MyLab Mis to complete these writing exercises. 2-16 Identify and describe the capabilities of enterprise social networking software. 2-17 Describe the systems various management groups use within the firm in terms of the information they use, their outputs, and groups served. Chapter 2 References Banker, Rajiv D., Nan Hu, Paul A. Paylou, and Jerry Luftman. "CIO Reporting Structure, Strategic Positioning, and Firm Performance." MIS Quarterly 35, No. 2 (June 201 1). Bernoff. Josh, and Charlene Li. "Harnessing the Power of Social Applications." MIT Slam Mfor ment Review (Spring 2008). Boughzala, Imed, and Gert-Jan De Vreede. "EvaluatingBUSINESS PROBLEM" to demo Social Business: Full Speed Ahead or Proceed with Caution! transpar collabor As companies become more dispersed in the global are companies where employees have duplicated tional marketplace, employees are turning increasingly to communication on both social media and email, Changi increasing the time and cost of performing their requires workplace collaboration technology, including tools in desi for internal social networking. According to Craig jobs. BASF, the world's largest chemical producer ronme Le Clair, principal analyst for enterprise architecture with subsidiaries and joint ventures in more than 80 countries, prohibited some project teams from Man al Forrester Research, 50 percent of global workers using email to encourage employees to use new externa by 2020 will be between 20 and 35 years old. These are pr employees are experienced users of texting, message social media tools. on the ing, wikis, and Facebook and appreciate work tools Social business requires a change in thinking, casy t like the social media and chat apps used in their pri- including the ability to view the organization more peopl democratically in a flatter and more horizontal way would vate lives. Socia Adoption of internal social networking inside A social business is much more open to everyone's Lasks the company, often referred to as enterprise social ideas. A secretary, assembly line worker, or sales networking. is also being driven by the flood of clerk might be the source of the next big idea. As a result, getting people to espouse social business book use email that employees typically receive each day and are increasingly unable to handle. Hundreds requires more of a "pull" approach, one that engages For workers and offers them a significantly better way Cent of email messages must be opened, read, answered. socia forwarded, or deleted. For example, too much to work. In most cases, they can't be forced to use knew email is what drove Hawk Ridge Systems to adopt social apps. Glip, a cloud-based social tool for its 200 employ- Enterprise capabilities for managing social net- lean ces located in 15 offices in the United States and works and sharing digital content can help or hurt an Spac Canada. Glip features real-time messaging, group wik chat, videoconferencing, shared calendars, task organization. Social networks can provide rich and SOC management, and file sharing all in one place. Glip diverse sources of information that enhance orga- Spa helped Hawk Ridge operations manager Samuel nizational productivity, efficiency, and innovation, Eakin go from 200 to around 30 emails per day. or they can be used to support preexisting groups Acc org Another driver of enterprise social networking of like-minded people who are reluctant to com- municate and exchange knowledge with outsiders. Go is "app fatigue." In order to collaborate, many Productivity and morale will fall if employees use bec employees have to log on to numerous apps, cre- internal social networks to criticize others or pursue des ating additional work, Contemporary enterprise era social networking systems often integrate multiple personal agendas. capabilities in one place. Social business applications modeled on job A recent survey of 421 professionals conducted by consumer-facing platforms such as Facebook and Harvard Business Review Analytics Services found Twitter will not necessarily work well in an organiza- tion or organizational department that has incom- 90 that collaboration tools could be effective in boost- ing efficiency and productivity while enabling users patible objectives. Will the firm use social business to make better business decisions. The products also for operations, human resources, or innovation? The expanded the potential for innovation. However, not social media platform that will work best depends on all companies are successfully using them. Imple- its specific business purpose. mentation and adoption of enterprise social net- This means that instead of focusing on the tech- working depends not only on the capabilities of the nology, businesses should first identify how social technology but on the organization's culture and the initiatives will actually improve work practices for compatibility of these tools with the firm's business processes. employees and managers. They need a detailed When firms introduce new social media tech- understanding of social networks: how people are nology (as well as other technologies), a sizable currently working. with whom they are working. number of employees resist the new tools, clinging what their needs are, and measures for overcoming to old ways of working, including email, because employee biases and resistance. they are more familiar and comfortable. There A successful social business strategy requires lead- ership and behavioral changes. Just sponsoring a social project is not enough-managers
