Enterprise Collaboration-Other Considerations
Final blog in this series focuses on other considerations that you might want to look at for a successful implementation of enterprise collaboration.
Enterprise Collaboration-Privacy and Security
An important part of any IT project is Privacy and security. In this blog, I take a look at some of those options from an enterprise collaboration perspective.
Enterprise Collaboration- Tools
Now that we have talked about Vision and Process behind Enterprise Collaboration, I wanted to touch on the tools that could be used for successful implementation.
Enterprise Collaboration- Process
We talked earlier about the Enterprise Collaboration Vision. Now I want to talk about the process involved in making it a reality.
Enterprise Collaboration-Vision
In this blog I wanted to share some of my views with you all regarding Enterprise Collaboration. This blog focuses primarily on Vision for Enterprise Collaboration but the following blogs would talk about Process, Tools, Privacy and Security and Other Considerations.
All relationships are “Personal”
Many times, we like to think that it’s better to separate the business and personal relationships. In my view, I like to keep all relationships personal (keep in mind varied degrees of being personal). My analysis here is focused on work relationships and here are my thoughts:
- In general, we like people better at work when we have things in common with. Many people underestimate the value of small talk which might lead us to like each other as people.
- In terms of team work, personally liking your team members is a big boost to productivity.
- The act of “Care” is crucial in building trust among peers and the power of trust is huge. These basic human fundamentals acts when done in a right, fair and personal way go a long way.
- Event with clients, I believe in making relationships with them personal. For example: Even with a simple question about a client’s family or holidays can make that connection. People want to feel happy about who they work and do business with.
- With investors or donors, it has been proven again and again that if you make it personal with them and not just be all business, you are more prone to receive more funding too. They might like the business concept but then if they are not sure on who I am personally, they are in that reserved mode and will wait and watch to know you more.
- Remembering simple things such as birthdays can make them feel really special. It targets right on their social belonging need and when it’s fulfilled, it’s a great feeling.
- I personally add my business contacts to my facebook so they can see that other side of me because that’s who I am and I don’t believe in hiding regular stuff in my life from anyone. Some people are nervous about doing that and would call it a bad idea. My take on that is if you are doing something wrong and you don’t want others to see it then why do it. Stay true to yourself. The last thing you want is those business contacts to add you and then finding out that other side about you which they don’t like. So keeping it transparent helps.
- In the age of Google or Bing, where it’s so easy to figure out what you are about in your personal life, take proactive measure and let them know your personal side.
NO!! That doesn’t mean I’ll share everything with my business contacts or coworkers which I would share with my family but then I wouldn’t share that deep personal stuff with everyone or on any social media either.
You decide!!
When will Facebook be that old thing of the past?
We have seen how Myspace and Orkut came, got everyone excited and then that enthusiasm faded away. It is fairly reasonable to assume that other social networking websites such as Facebook will face a similar fate. In my view the reasons are simple for that:
- These sites could not keep the excitement alive. The new features of a site will only prolong the excitement for so long. What I mean by that is it becomes part of our life and it gets boring after a while if you are not getting much value out of it. People want to be part of something special.
- Many people using these sites are not social and they were doing it because everyone around them was doing it so that peer pressure kicked. After a while they start feeling “I don’t care”.
- You can meet people back from your high school days, great!! NOT. We add them and get excited about talking with them and then realize wow there was a good reason I didn’t talk to them for so long.
- Oh great!! I can play games like Mafia Wars and FarmVille now mentality goes pretty quick if no one participates in that game with you.
- The attention span and “Care” window of people is very small these days and if the next best thing catches their attention they’ll leave their current social networking site pretty soon. And yes the next best thing is exciting for us as we are more loyal to being social than using just that site for accomplishing our goal.
- The concept of social belonging on media changes when we realize it’s not important for us on how long two people have known each other rather its more about if we have things in common and how much can we engage each other.
I ask myself these questions when thinking about facebook. How many of Facebook’s early adopter still actively use it and not just send in their twitter feeds? How many of the new sign ups on facebook are people who were late adopters of technology in general and what’s their retention span in the past?
The user based content depends on the content, quality of people in your network and “Purpose” of those users in using that social networking website. Yes content, quality of users and purpose leads to something beyond just excitement, is far more engaging and long lasting. This is the reason I don’t mention Twitter having a similar fate in the near future is because they have done this right. That’s not to say that twitter will never be that old thing.
You decide!!
Why the craze of tablet computer market??
Recently, Apple Inc. announced the launch of it tablet computer in late January of this year. Sony came out with its tablet PC “Dash” and it was anticipated that Microsoft would announce a similar product at CES 2010 but they didn’t. But why all the hype about tablet computers.
What personally excites me is the elimination of barriers between me and my computer namely, keyboard, mouse and the wires if you not using wireless devices. I would rather feel that responsive screen with my hands. I think in many ways we underestimate that sense of touch and gratification that inanimate objects can give us through that perfect response. This is what makes it an interactive experience. For example: The immediate success of iPhone was because of it touchscreen and the experience it provided to the users, everything else followed later.
You decide!!
Value of a Single Face in a Global Village
With the advent of social media, it’s been easy for people to have multiple lives and personalities. In general many of them have a professional and a social/more private side to them. I’m a firm believer that us people, having a common face for all the facets of your life is essential for the following reasons:
1. Right thing
It lets your colleagues and friends know what you’re about without confusing them and they are not getting mixed messages from you. An argument could be that you keep your friends and colleagues separate and having a single face could mean not compartmentalizing your life into professional and personal. To that, I would say that why would you want to hide a part of you from your friends or colleagues. If you are not doing anything wrong then why hide anything. My professor and mentor, Dr. Bret Simmons, once mentioned that, “Social media is like a coffee shop not your living room”. But to extrapolate that it’s not a bar either and the question I would ask is why would a picture of you drunk make your friends happy? Appropriate material you put on social media should not offend your colleagues either.
2. Privacy
I don’t think there is any privacy on the internet so if it’s online, people have access to it. Numerous times I’ll have tweets on my account showing the worst “Status Updates” etc. I do think people posting those messages thought that they were private messages but Privacy on Social Web is a myth.
3. Trust
Ever wonder what your colleagues or friends might think of you when they find out that you had something to hide. Most people trust openness, consistency and honest approach more than anything else. I see this as an opportunity to build that trust. Let’s not forget there are credit rating agencies which are thinking of using social media to figure out how trustworthy you are rather than just checking your credit score. In that scenario, they would also be monitoring the friend circle and notice who you hang out with. Trust is the key in all situations.
4. Global Village
I was talking to an ex colleague and now friend of mine and he mentioned something very useful. In 1920’s and 30’s people were noticed all the time, how they behaved and how trustworthy they were since in those days cities were smaller and everyone knew everyone and therefore no room for cheating or deceptions. He then said we are entering a similar era with social media now where everyone can find out a lot of stuff about you. “Google is your new business card” whether you like it or not. This makes a fundamental shift in society where people would like to keep the same face wherever they go.
Why cell phone service should be free in future?
With the current pace of Web 2.0 and social media technologies, I believe that in a matter of 2-3 years cell phone services will be offered for free or for minimal charge for the following reasons:
- The mobile platform and technologies are growing at fast speed. The downloads of mobile apps and their user friendliness are a good indicator of that.
- With Web 3.0 technology, companies would be able to monitor what people are talking/ chatting etc. about with their peers or just searching. Not only that, companies would be able to acquire those intelligent data repositories and make sense out of it for specific customer needs and wants.
- The next step is to capitalize on that information and mobile platform is the best for that since people are always closest to their cell phones.
- This is where the companies would be advertising their products in a real time framework. For example: If you need a toy for a kid in your family and you are talking about it or searching it online, realizing the need for those marketers is that intelligent data. Then the key is to advertise it when that person is let’s say in a mall which could be as simple as a reminder or notification that the best deal in town for that toy is in that mall.
- With that, marketers could focus on the customers especially, impulsive buyers which is a huge market and convert their advertisement into a sale.
- Once a few companies start doing that, others will follow.
- Some consumers might not see immediate advantage of that and might think of creating a “Don Advertise on My Cell Phone Registry” which would mean catering to a smaller market segment.
- In that case, for companies it will become more advantageous to adjust their advertising dollars on mobile ads rather than traditional media.
- We are talking about the same concept as newspapers or TV where consumers might be willing to look at those ads if the cell phone charges are free or minimal.
Of course, the option of paying the full cell phone service fee and have no ads on their cell phones should be an option for those who want it like that. But given the current economic conditions or lack of boom time in future will also stimulate people to take this offer.
As always, your comments and feedback are always appreciated.
