Each chef has their own signature recipes. And only he knows what seasoning, mood or melody that sounds during cooking is the secret of a great dish. The same is true in business - each leader has his own management methods, each company has its own "kitchen". Can a corporate social network become the main ingredient of the dish or does it remain a pleasant, but not at all obligatory, decoration? Like a rose on a cake, let's say...
Many companies block access to social networks in working time. Others, on the contrary, launch their own networks, encouraging communication between employees on professional and personal issues. Opinions about the need for implementation may also differ: someone sees only advantages in the fact that employees always stay in touch and are involved in the process at any time, someone, on the contrary, believes that social networks distract employees from their main duties and you can do just fine without them. However, both of them recognize that social networks are a powerful trend in communication, not only in private life, but also in corporate life.
According to Andrey Dankevich, Marketing Director of DaOffice, a Russian corporate social network, this is a full-fledged business tool, but even before implementing it in a company, it is very important to clearly understand what the result should be in the end. For example, the task is to quickly adapt new employees. In this case, the corporate social network perfectly complements traditional learning systems (distance or face-to-face trainings, courses, seminars, etc.) precisely by the emergence of social ties. For example, mentoring is developing - more experienced employees help newcomers by answering their questions on social networks, an adaptation program is starting to work, and this concerns not only skills, knowledge of the product or the ability to serve the customer, but also adaptation within the team. A person immediately becomes a participant and a member of the team, while it is quite easy to understand how much he has joined the team and whether he is ready to interact with colleagues.
Innovation management
The corporate network is a good tool for socialization, however, according to experts, it is important that this does not become an end in itself. Elements of social networks can be integrated into other IT systems so that users are involved in existing business processes.
Let's take an innovation management system as an example. In many modern companies the collection of ideas of employees is somehow present. In this case, the corporate social network can be used as a tool for the initial collection of ideas from employees and further transfer of data to the "big" system for managing ideas and innovations. The benefit of such integration is that each of the systems does its own thing. The easy-to-use KSS generates a large flow of ideas through greater employee engagement, and sophisticated expertise is done through a complete innovation management system. In addition, the corporate social network makes the process of submitting and voting for ideas open and transparent. Thus, the company becomes more innovative, involves employees in the processes of business change. This, on the one hand, gives a great advantage for the business, as it becomes possible to implement those changes that are useful and important for employees, and on the other hand, it is an additional motivation for them. "My idea is realized, I have contributed to the development of the company" - this is a very strong motivator.
This point of view is supported by Alexandra Popova, Leading Specialist of the Internal Communications Department of CJSC JSCB "Russlavbank" . In her opinion, the value of a corporate social network is that involving employees in solving important issues motivates everyone to reveal their own potential. "It can also be noted that employees have a sense of responsibility for the business, which allows them to look at the company through the eyes of the owner and learn to make important decisions based on the benefit to the organization," she concludes.
Communication problem
In general, there are quite a lot of systems with which KSS can be integrated. However, here it is very important to choose exactly those with which integration will be really in demand, turning the KSS from just an environment for communications into an environment for increasing the efficiency of employees.
Letobook social network implemented in Leto Bank became such an environment for increasing the efficiency of employees. The social network here is the main and main carrier of all information that is generated within the bank, and is used, first of all, to optimize and improve work processes - all internal processes, from issuing new uniforms to employees to calculating interest on a loan, are discussed in the public domain in networks. All ideas are accepted for consideration, those that are really worth putting into practice are implemented, the authors of the ideas receive gratitude from the first persons, and this is a powerful stimulating and motivational program.
"For us, letobook has become an excellent platform for communication in all directions, both horizontally between colleagues from different departments and regions, and vertically between employees and management of the bank. Thanks to this, we not only know what is happening in all corners of our network, but we can promptly signal their problems, respond to these signals, discuss possible options development of a given situation and make optimal decisions. We were able to avoid the isolation of the head office and top management of the bank from the real aspirations and problems of employees of our regional points of sale - that is, to get away from a common communication problem for all large federal-scale companies. In the social network, the entire internal life of the bank is visible at a glance, any event, any difficulty immediately becomes public knowledge, and this is a huge power and great opportunities for development and improvement," says Alina Morozova, leader in internal communications and Internet projects JSC "Summer Bank"
87% of bank employees are registered in the letobook network. From 27 to 50% of them use the network daily.
Overall Efficiency
Sofya Semenova, Head of Internal Communications and Branding at Volvo Group, believes that the corporate social network is an excellent tool for managing and motivating staff, as well as for organizing joint work over projects, storage and exchange of information, knowledge management within the organization. "The corporate social network brings to the business environment all the advantages of social networks: speed of information exchange, intuitive simplicity and accessibility, user-friendly interface, support for mobile devices, flexible subscription tool, ability to ask for advice, ease of creating new contacts, use of a knowledge base in general access and collective intelligence for solving problems," notes Sofya Semenova.
Reducing staff turnover
A corporate social network, just like a VHI policy, free fitness and lunches, is an indicator of care for an employee, recognition of his value. This to some extent guarantees the influx of high-class specialists aimed at long-term cooperation. At the same time, they are ready to work for a salary even slightly below the market. Another significant function of the social network is fast adaptation beginners due to the possibility of prompt search for the necessary information without the participation of a mentor. Employee cards, corporate structure, office traditions, sensitive moments, work procedures - the answers to these questions are easy to find in the KSS.
Reducing stress levels
The low efficiency of each employee, caused by stress from daily workloads, translates into low efficiency of business processes. Each employee during the day should have the opportunity to be distracted from the performance of official duties - for example, to communicate with colleagues. The social network allows you to do this within the company, while the employee is not "turned off" from the workflow.
Formation of an open environment
In large companies, especially those with a large number of geographically distributed branches, out-of-town divisions are often not aware of what is happening at the head office. Employees are practically unfamiliar with each other, there is no cohesion, no team, no motivation. A corporate social network creates a common space in which everyone can communicate with a colleague, exchange experiences, wherever he is. In addition, the notification system instantly conveys all important information about events in the company to each employee. An open environment allows you to increase the efficiency of the company. Each employee, each department feels like a part of the team, clearly understands how his actions correlate with the actions of his colleagues. For example, the introduction of an enterprise social network by Procter & Gamble, which employs 140,000 people in 160 countries, has helped significantly increase productivity across geographically dispersed projects.
Creation of fast communications
A corporate portal or e-mail is not capable of speeding up communication between employees. In addition, people avoid communication in working "tools" purely psychologically. In a corporate social network, created in the image and likeness of all well-known classical social networks, employees contact much more easily, gradually transferring the solution of work issues to the CCC. The time for discussion of projects and their coordination is reduced.
Information base formation
In the CCC, all user-generated content - cases, contact information for clients, project discussions - forms a unique information base that remains in the public domain even after the dismissal of an employee. Of course, from the point of view of storing information, a corporate portal is more convenient, but official information is usually published on it - sample documents, orders, etc. The network is more flexible, it collects and stores a lot of unofficial data posted by users.
Reducing the risk of data leakage
A corporate social network reduces the risk of leakage of important information in a company, as employees stop communicating at work in regular social networks or instant messengers. The consequences of data leakage can be the most unpleasant - from severing relationships with counterparties to loss of profit or market share. With the introduction of a corporate social network, it becomes unlikely that one of the colleagues, through a misunderstanding or stupidity, would publish something very important for the company on them. All communication on work topics is conducted in the CSS, therefore, the risk of leakage becomes minimal, since corporate social networks have a very high level of protection.
Another point is the possibility of free communication between management and subordinates through a closed channel about important steps taken by the company. This is especially true for companies with a developed network of branches.
ROI?
In addition, the leaders asked their subordinates to remove their contacts from public access. The mass exodus of businessmen from social networks began after the hacking scandal of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Information appeared in the media about his romance with TV presenter Lauren Sanchez. The billionaire accused the brother of mistress Michael of leaking.
Businessmen are influenced by talk that the world of privacy is fading into oblivion, Alexey Lukatsky, an Internet security consultant at Cisco, is sure.
| Disabling or deleting your account from one social network will not solve the problem, because we leave our information in Internet banks, when ordering products, using mobile communication services. Unfortunately, it is impossible to completely leave the online space and close the leak of information about yourself, it will continue to happen, the expert said. |
In February 2020, Tesla founder Elon Musk urged followers to leave Facebook and called the social network "sucks".
2015: Analysts: 80% of social networks in business are not effective
Corporate social networks in the future will become the main communication channel for comments and decision-making regarding the work produced by companies, according to Gartner experts.
However, according to experts, 80% of business social initiatives in this area will not be successful before 2015, primarily due to inadequate management decisions and excessive emphasis on technology.
Analysts remind executives that the paradigm of using social tools in business is fundamentally different from the paradigm of using information systems such as
| 27.02.2014According to various sources, on average each employee spends about 12 hours a month on personal communication on social networks. You can forbid access to them from workplaces, limit visiting hours for some groups, or you can take the best that social networks have in their toolkit and satisfy the need of workers for virtual communication.
Someone will say that we have a corporate portal and why do we need something else. Let's see what is a corporate portal? This is an internal website of the company, uniting a large number of information services and providing access to information related to production processes companies. In addition to the classic functions of providing reference data about employees and the structure of the company, the portal serves to integrate with special information systems and services, financial and accounting, project management, file resources, forums, etc. What will the integration of social network functions with a corporate portal give?
Terms and Definitions
For further understanding, let's add a few abbreviations and definitions:
KSS is a corporate social network, an analogue of the social network familiar to many with its functionality, but created to meet business needs. This is a professional social network that solves the problems of organizing and supporting the company's activities.
Working page in KSS- an analogue of a personal page on a social network in terms of functionality, its main purpose is to provide the employee with a convenient and unified tool for performing his job duties. This is a kind of single automated workplace by job function. In most cases, the work page is personal, but if necessary, it can be anonymized for some positions, for example, the work page “engineer on duty”. It has a substitution function, when, during the absence of an employee, the entire work page or some of its functions are transferred to other specialists or to other work pages.
Work page functionality- a set of rules for displaying subscriptions to news, participation in groups and other functions corresponding to the job description. So, the functionality of the working page of the service technologist relay protection and automation includes links to all software complexes used by the employee, notifications from these complexes, notifications from schedulers indicating the need to perform routine actions, subscription about incoming requests, oscillograms, requests from other structural divisions changes in regulations, etc.
Work Page Owner- an employee performing official duties corresponding to the functionality of this working page.
Profitable tandem
So, back to the benefits of integrating the CSS and the portal. Employees of the company will be able to have their own profile, which is functionally different from a social network profile and contains, in addition to personal information (photos, hobbies), additional professional information - position, location, phone number, competencies and main job responsibilities. This will help set up informal communication between colleagues and will help to strengthen the corporate spirit, will reduce the time spent in solving business issues, coordinating actions and searching for the necessary competencies.
Each employee, in accordance with their job responsibilities, has a set of customized views, notifications and filters, and in a timely manner receives the necessary production information, orders and regulations, notifications about the occurrence of planned events, as well as additional information, for example about the birthdays of colleagues. Further, by integrating the functions of the social network with the system electronic document management and ensuring management, the process of issuing instructions and coordinating documents is simplified. By including the scheduling function in these systems, you can not be afraid that some order will be forgotten.
The corporate social network completely takes over the function of internal communication and replaces e-mail, expanding its functions. The creation of conferences, chat, commenting and notes in conjunction with the functions of office work, organizing assignments and scheduling activities make information about business processes more accessible, visual and transparent, and the processes themselves - controlled. What else can be done with the introduction of a social network? Accompanying almost all business processes of the company, developing the corporate spirit of the team, reducing weaknesses in the organization of activities in the absence or insufficient competence of employees, introducing new automated systems and business processes, the training of new employees, the formation of a motivation system, the elimination of emerging conflict situations within the organization, etc. Let's consider some issues in more detail.
Walking together
What are the benefits of implementing a corporate social network? In short, this is the creation of a knowledge bank of the company, think tank with established semantic links between business processes. This is a convenient organization of the workplace, where everything is at hand, like a conductor, where a single information space has been created for each workplace and where various services are integrated into one information environment to perform job duties. This is also an opportunity to direct the needs of a person in virtual communication to solve the problems of the company. This is a convenient organization of the execution of instructions, control over assignments, tasks, the possibility of communication and feedback. This is also a user support service that is as close as possible to their problems or needs.
Subscription, bulletin board, notifications and a specialized news feed, like similar social networking services, will help in the daily activities of any employee. Thus, the materially responsible person and other employees associated with the supply of equipment will receive a notification on their "wall" that the contract has been concluded and the shipment of goods has begun. And the persons participating in the consideration of applications will receive notifications that another application has come for consideration.
Groups in a social network find their application and unite workers involved in a common cause. For example, in a situation with the automation of production tasks, it is clear that in an organization there are many business processes that are at different stages of automation. In these relationships, there is a project customer (technological divisions, financial and economic unit, etc.), which has its own needs, and there is a project executor (own developer or IT curator when performing automation by third parties). For each business process, a group is created in the appropriate category and with the appropriate tags, participants are included in this group, their roles and responsibilities are defined.
For external clients of the company, contractors, government and controlling entities, the situation is similar. For example, under existing or planned contracts for the provision of services and the supply of goods, business correspondence and approval of documents. For the counterparty, access to a specialized section of the CSS is organized (or an email gateway is configured for a specific counterparty at his email address so that letters from him get to the working pages of interested parties in the CSS). State and other entities, regulatory authorities with which exchange of information, also get their access to corporate network resources.
Precise definition target audience to solve the whole variety of tasks, the company will allow to structure and streamline activities, to make sure that only the necessary information is at hand, and the necessary data can be found with simple and accessible actions.
A tool such as a forum or group chat will be useful during the active phase of the implementation of a project or, for example, when conducting a trial operation of a system, when resolving a situation under a contract technical support or in the provision of methodological and consulting assistance by a higher branch.
Notifications, news feed, message board on a work page on the web - a digest of business information about the subject area to which the page owner is subscribed. KSS will tell you what needs to be done and how to solve production task even if the employee is absent.
Frames on the network
What opportunities does the system provide in terms of personnel management? The work page of each employee contains information about their competencies and official duties, specified by keywords, tags or an arbitrary description. Organization of access of HR-staff to such information will allow suggesting possible changes in the staff in the event of a vacancy. Training of personnel, internships, training and exchange of experience in positions is carried out much faster. Personnel issues can be solved remotely, with the help of telecommunications.
Classical management talks a lot about horizontal and vertical links in the management structure, but CCC will create a process-based relationship structure, adding light workgroup organization, diagonal links between departments, and matrix management structures. The network will be able to take over any process, from the implementation workgroup complex complexes according to PJM standards and ending with the coordination of the work time of the commission for the inventory of tangible assets.
On the working page, you can bookmark thematic links for the same type of functional duties, in particular, links to the sites of regional and federal energy companies, sites of regulatory documentation for the design of buildings, sites of companies under contracts for technical support of computer equipment.
to the usual way of communicating e-mail comments will be added to messages, creation of instructions from messages, scheduling based on messages, linking and grouping messages by topic, setting tags and keywords. This will allow not only to easily organize the execution of the order, but also to bring together all the sources of information on any task or process, find it in the future and restore a complete picture of what is happening.
What does the president of the company, the chairman of the board, the general director, the deputy director of the company see? Production indicators, financial reports, reports on violations, execution of orders and group KPIs - in accordance with how the filters are configured and which aggregation is selected.
What's next? Perhaps an industry-specific corporate social network that unites energy entities, regulatory authorities and government agencies. Or a state social network, if the state reform in the field of information technology sees the expediency of creating its own corporate social network.
Implementation Issues
Despite the rapid growth in popularity of enterprise social networking solutions, large distributed companies are facing difficulties in implementing social networks. Why, although the number of installations abroad is growing exponentially, Russian companies not in a hurry to choose a solution for a corporate network? What difficulties do companies face? What are the ways to resolve such conflicts?
From a technology point of view, the introduction of QSS affects almost all business processes company, and, as a result, this is a long-term project with a complex terms of reference and high cost. Many SaaS and KSS solution vendors understand this and offer free versions, some by limiting functionality, others by limiting the number of licenses. It remains for us to allocate a branch or business line to be used as a "pilot" project.
Raises doubts economic efficiency from the implementation of the network because it seems quite difficult to calculate the ROI. In this case, to analyze the effectiveness, it is necessary to include statistical tools and KPIs in the KSS, for example, to assess the cost of operations, the time to complete the process, the absence of rework, etc.
An obstacle to implementation may be the psychological rejection of CAS by top management, which is based on the unwillingness of the top management of companies to personally use this technology and be, as it were, on an equal footing with all employees. Some developers take this fact into account and specifically offer social tools for top management. For example, to collect round tables with the participation of managers, where each member of the social network can prepare their own question, and the leader can give an answer in conference mode to questions that require attention from his point of view. It is very similar to the Internet conferences that the President of Russia arranges in front of journalists.
Company executives tend to believe that only IT-oriented companies need advanced solutions, while ordinary employees believe that this is another information system that no one needs. But practice shows that numerous foreign companies that are not related to information technology successfully use CCC in their daily work.
Also, a negative attitude towards social networks is formed from a certain stereotype about the uselessness of a social network for business. In practice, it turns out that employees always stay in touch and are involved in the process at any time, and insufficient awareness of employees increases the time for solving problems and leads to lost profits.
In ordinary social networks, there is practically no moderation, network members allow themselves to make any statements, which is unacceptable in a corporate environment. In fact, if a company has its own corporate culture, then there will be no violations of this culture in the corporate network, and if the employee’s correspondence begins to lose its business character, there are always colleagues or immediate supervisor who will intervene and restore the normal course of the dialogue.
Information security services will say that the social network contains a huge amount of information available to everyone. But if you define a security policy for the CSS, then such a question is no more difficult to implement than the restriction to any other information resources. And coordination and control over access to information will remain in the hands of information security services.
Most of the existing CASs offer a variety of ways to motivate employees, assess their contribution to the process and generate compensation for work. Given that the network can implement the functions of electronic document management, the question arises of the legal validity of actions in the network, such as fixing the facts of familiarization with business documentation and the legality of applying methods for assessing motivation in the corporate network. This problem is technically solved by using EDS tools, and organizationally - by developing local regulations that establish the equivalence of virtual actions in the CSS with real actions.
Summing up, we can say that if social networks have effectively solved the problem of communication between people in most countries, then corporate social networks will be able to make corporate communication effective. Often, in order to achieve something, it is enough just to use opportunities. We know the possibilities of social networks - we need to take them into service and use them to achieve the goals of an organization, company or government.
Corporate social networks, based on the same principles as the classical ones, have appeared recently, but have already become a trend. It's easy to explain. Progressive leaders have realized the fact that following the path of banning the use of social networks in the company is a thankless task and often does not bring the expected result. But to adopt this mega-popular tool, providing it with useful functionality for business, is a solution with great prospects. Among the obvious advantages - the growth of employee loyalty, saving working time for official correspondence, the status of a progressive company. As a result - increasing the efficiency of business processes and increasing profits.
The conceptual foundation of corporate networks was laid back in the middle of the last century by the Japanese - the founders of the quality management system. It was in this country that they came to a reasonable conclusion that efficient company- one in which satisfied and happy specialists work. This problem was solved by very interesting methods. For example, at one of the largest concerns in the country, a punching bag imitating the head of the company was installed at the checkpoint. At the entrance, each employee had to “weigh” the mannequin with the number of slaps in the face that, in his opinion, the manager deserved. this moment. What did it give? Firstly, managers were able to assess the emotional background in the company, the popularity of certain decisions, which means they were able to take the necessary measures to stabilize the situation. Secondly, employees have gained the right to vote and the opportunity to relieve emotional stress, albeit in such a non-standard way. As a result, labor productivity has increased many times, as well as the quality of products manufactured by the enterprise.
Many examples can be given - there is only one conclusion: the concept created by the Japanese and known as kaizen has proven its viability. No wonder Japan has one of the lowest employee turnover rates. People often work in the same company all their lives. And they are replaced by their own children and grandchildren.
A social network for business is, in general, a virtualization of kaizen ideas. It's transformed for modern society, his needs and technological possibilities way to create an effective team in the company. A team, each member of which can fully realize their abilities in the workplace.
Corporate social network: what's in my name for you ...
A social network for business allows you to form an information community within the company with well-developed vertical and horizontal connections. This means that company employees can interact online not only with each other, but also with management, regardless of where they are currently located. Corporate social networks are especially relevant for large companies whose offices are located in different cities or even around the world. At the same time, their presence is perceived by employees as part of the corporate culture, the same as team building events or a free gym, as evidence that the company's management is interested in its subordinates and strives to create comfortable working conditions for them.
What are corporate networks for? They can play a significant role in accelerating business processes, in exchanging experience, in discussing and making decisions on any work issues. At the same time, the process of involving employees in a corporate social network is much faster than, for example, in working with a corporate portal. This is because most social networks for business are adapted for social media users and have a similar interface.
According to research by the McKinsey Global Institute, the use of corporate networks can increase labor productivity by 20-25%. The main areas where intranets improve employee productivity include:
- Search and collection of information. Thanks to the ability to create a "knowledge base" where employees can add various regulatory and other important documents, the time to search for information is reduced.
- Collaboration and communication. The presence and functioning of the corporate network in the company allows you to save working time on communication. With the help of an internal social network, company employees can directly contact the right colleague and receive an answer almost instantly, bypassing mailbox and without wasting time waiting.
At one of the world's largest health insurance companies, Humana, 26,000 employees use the corporate social network. There are about 1,200 groups on the network with a wide variety of topics - from music to motherhood problems. Nevertheless, 70% of communication between employees relates to work issues.
Despite the obvious benefits of the introduction of corporate social networks, in some companies this innovation is actively opposed. This is not even due to the fact that managers consider networks a waste of time, but because many of them do not see the difference between networks and, for example, a corporate portal. And since most serious companies have such portals, then, in the opinion of management, it is not worth spending time and money on duplicating what already exists.
This is a serious misconception. Let's try to figure it out what is an intranet, a corporate portal and a corporate social network of a company and how they differ from each other.
There are three main technologies:
- intranet;
- corporate portal or social intranet;
- corporate social network.
intranet- a tool that solves only business problems, but does not perform social functions. This solution gradually losing its popularity.
Corporate portal or social intranet- in addition to the fact that the tool implies the existence of a knowledge base, it combines information systems and accounting systems, project management, file resources, the portal also partially solves social functions.
Concerning corporate social network, then this is a project for employees, created by them. In the network, any specialist in a couple of minutes will be able to create, for example, a working group to develop and discuss a new project or idea. Each employee has round-the-clock access to the knowledge base formed on the basis of personal experience- him and his colleagues. It is enough just to ask a question on the network or score it in the search. At the same time, search in the social network has more flexible algorithms compared to the portal. But the main thing is that this is not just a working tool and workspace, it is first of all a place where you can relax a little, discuss with colleagues in an informal setting. new project, regulation or document, or maybe a new dress for the chief accountant.
Attracts users and familiar network interface, simplicity and availability of services.
Overview of intranets, corporate portals and social networks for business
According to the forecasts of analysts and software developers, the corporate social networks market will develop intensively in the next two or three years, and this will happen both in the field of solutions and in the field of use. The developments of Western companies have come to the market, they have been translated and partially adapted to the domestic user. In the near future, we should expect activity from Russian vendors.
As for the process of organizing a corporate social network in companies, according to experts, it is still at an early stage in Russia. This is explained by the fact that many managers, not seeing instant returns from networks, simply do not want to spend money on an unprofitable, in their opinion, innovation. The situation may change in the next two or three years. The leaders in the use of social networks in Russia, which will eventually be followed by the most conservative companies, are enterprises from the banking and retail industries.
Currently on Russian market only about a dozen products are most in demand.
Bitrix24
This tool belongs to the category of intranets with a separate social module. Within the framework of the module, the functions of maintaining microblogging, instant messenger, creating a photo gallery and a number of others are provided. The interface and functionality of the application is a bit reminiscent of social networks in the 2005 variation. The social application itself is free, but it will not work until the Bitrix24 basic package is purchased. The cost depends on the selected tariff and the number of employees, as well as the implementation option: the version with installation on your server will cost more than the cloud version.
DaOffice
The first Russian corporate social network. The main attention, unlike Bitrix24, is paid to social tools. Microblogs in this network support #tags and @names like on Twitter, it is possible to like posts you like, see a list of recommended friends, like on Facebook. Another distinguishing feature of the service is gamification elements: for adding messages on relevant and useful topics employees get points.
Access to DaOffice is possible from mobile devices using applications for Android and iOS. The installation cost is determined specifically for each company and depends on the number of users (can be any), implementation option (your own server or cloud), the need for integration with other systems and development additional options. As for the free version, it is only available for large companies with more than 250 employees.
One of the disadvantages of the free version is that when you install it on your server, there are restrictions on administration tools.
Jive
This solution belongs to the category of intranets with social functions. Jive users can customize their individual workspace. The application contains tools for managing tasks, corporate content and projects.
Jive is available for mobile devices and can be integrated with Office365 and Google products. The price of the application depends on the chosen package: Select, Premier or Premier+. A serious drawback of the application is the lack of a Russified version. In addition, according to customer reviews, navigation in Jive is very different from the usual navigation in social networks.
Yammer
It is currently the world's most popular social intranet. Available to users as part of Office365. The structure is similar to Twitter, allowing employees to exchange short messages, form working groups and control the "status" of subordinates. Other features of the service include file and image sharing, support for tags in messages, viewing online contacts, searching for people, groups and texts, building and using a knowledge base. With support for 25 languages, there is no language barrier when using the application.
Once Yammer became part of Office365 Online Office, it was no longer possible to install it separately. Another significant disadvantage is the lack of organization option on the consumer's servers (on premise). Only a cloud solution with servers abroad is available (off premise).
"Gingerbread"
Domestic corporate social network. Its distinguishing characteristic is gamification - for certain achievements in the network, users receive prizes and bonuses, in this case in the form of virtual gingerbread. Gingerbread features include viewing the general feed of events and discussing them in groups, quickly conducting polls on any topic, exchanging files of all types, involving interested persons and experts in discussions, compiling a knowledge base on the wiki principle, quick access to contact information employees, viewing their publications, competencies and merits.
Gingerbread has an app for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. The network can be integrated with 1C-Bitrix and Microsoft SharePoint. The cost of the solution depends on the type of package. "Gingerbread" offers three types of tariffs: "For promising" - free of charge (15 people), "For those who know the power" - about 16,000 rubles per month (cloud solution, 100 people), "Everything and forever" with installation on the customer's server - approximately 230,000 rubles per month. Using the network is advisable if the company employs more than 30 people.
IBM Connections
This is a corporate social network. The solution allows you to set up a personalized home page, create your own documents and blogs, participate in discussions and exchange messages. Within the framework of the application, it is possible to form an information base, create forums and polls. Integration with Microsoft Office allows you to edit documents directly from the web. Works for Android devices, Windows Phone, iOS, Blackberry.
The price of the application depends on the type of package and the options included in it. Due to the possibility of organizing forums, blogs and information bases, the application is suitable for large companies. Among the shortcomings of IBM Connections, users note the dull color palette of the interface. The app is available in on premise and off premise versions.
Facebook Workplace
This is a corporate social network in its purest form. It is almost an exact copy of the classic Facebook. At the same time, user profiles are not connected in any way with their Facebook accounts. Otherwise, the same tools are available on the network - a news feed, the ability to create a personal profile, groups, chats, presentations, and make video calls. The main advantage of Facebook Workplace is its familiar interface that does not require retraining and getting used to by the user. A product for large companies, which was reflected even in the method of payment for its installation. If the number of employees in the company does not exceed 1,000 people, then the cost will be about $ 3 per employee, and if the number of employees is from 1,000 to 10,000 people, the price will drop to two. To test the program, a free three-month period is provided.
The main disadvantages are the lack of the possibility of customization and the option of organizing on your own server. Only the cloud version with servers abroad is available.
Sales Force Chatter
So far, a little-known platform in Russia for organizing a corporate social network based on Force.com. Allows you to create personal pages of users, groups, microblogs with adding status, exchange messages, images, documents. In the new version of the application, you can see the online status of users, chat with them in real time, and even do screen-sharing. The latter function is also available for group mode. By the way, the platform was one of the first to introduce the ability to communicate with external users by creating groups and inviting partners and clients there. Chatter Connect easily integrates with external systems, primarily MS Sharepoint. Another advantage of Chatter is its mobile interface, designed for any mobile device with a touchscreen.
The application has free version albeit in a somewhat truncated version. Moreover, Salesforce Chatter does not involve hosting on servers, the paid version also offers only Internet access.
The disadvantages of the platform include the lack of the possibility of customization and Russification (even the "User's Guide" is written in English).
Podio
The application, which is an intranet that can be used, among other things, to create a social network, is owned by Citrix. Its main difference from other corporate networks is that it is literally a constructor. If most networks provide only a standard set of functions for communication, creating groups, sharing files, and integration with other applications is required to add a specific function, then in Podio these applications can be created in the visual designer using the drag’n’drop method. The created application can be connected to workspaces within the network. By default, the designer already has 200 applications. Another advantage of Podio is the possibility of working in it with invited contractors: partners, clients, candidates for vacancies. The application has a Russian-language interface, which greatly facilitates the work of domestic users.
The free version of the application is designed for 5 employees, 5 contractors and 1 GB of memory. The paid version will cost the company $9 per user, the plus version is $14, and the premium version is $24.
The disadvantages of this platform, like the previous one, include the lack of Russification. In addition, developers offer only a cloud version of the system.
cybercloud
This service allows you to create a full-fledged corporate social network with complex functionality: news, private messages, files with shared access, common base knowledge, forums, surveys, tasks for yourself and employees, user directory, ideas collector, blogs. Distinctive feature service - gamification. There is a leaderboard in the network, which is formed automatically based on various criteria - from useful tips to brilliant ideas and important publications for the company.
You can access the social network from any device - computer, smartphone or tablet. Developers offer two versions of the system - cloud and boxed. The service is designed for large companies, its cost starts from 2999 rubles per month for 100 users.
The main disadvantages are that this platform has only a web version (convenient mobile app not developed), as well as an outdated design from the late 90s.
Not all existing solutions perform all the functions of corporate networks, and not all of them are equally convenient. Some are overloaded with functionality, others are not adapted for Russian-speaking users. The latter concerns imported developments. Therefore, the problem of developing a universal domestic product is very relevant.
The corporate portal should be, firstly, useful for work, and secondly, interesting for employees. Meanwhile, having deployed the necessary functionality to provide the “first”, many companies underestimate the need for the second component. With the introduction of social networking technologies for corporate needs, organizations have fundamentally new opportunities for development.
Development modern technologies led to a real revolution in the field of corporate information. As you know, Professor Andrew McAfee from Harvard Business School, the author of the concept and concept of Enterprise 2.0, initially defined the concept as “the use of new platforms of social software within companies or between companies and their partners and customers.” McAfee noted that such tools create numerous, often new connections between employees and different workgroups of the company. These connections help spread corporate knowledge and expertise in a "cross-pollination" fashion that creates real business advantages for the wave.
Today, the trend of transition from the “community of readers” to the “community of writers” is clearly and clearly manifested not only on the Internet (in blogs, forums and networks), but also in the corporate environment. Therefore, the role of the portal as a point of attraction for socially and business-active employees is growing. Those companies that, on the one hand, create a convenient platform for communication on the portal, and on the other hand, encourage employees to communicate on the portal professional themes, can get very interesting and useful results for themselves.
However, the structuring of information on the portal is often organized in the form of a multi-tiered "closet" with "boxes" - sections where certain documents are folded and where it is not so easy to find them. In this form, information is very difficult to exchange: it can be found, but it will not be possible to transfer it to colleagues, discuss it, change it.
“As soon as we start thinking about how to increase the utilization rate of corporate information, we come to social networking technologies: users not only consume information, but can also comment on it, receive feedback, - says Viktor Komar, Director of the Department of Integration Solutions at IBS. - That's how we can make information work. For those companies that have been running the standard corporate portal functionality for a long time and successfully, it makes sense to take a closer look at the new opportunities for organizing employee interaction.”
Instant messaging and permanent presence in the virtual information corporate environment - essential tool operational communications, - confirms Sergey Ryzhikov, CEO of 1C-Bitrix. - Intra-corporate social network (personal blogs, live feed, microblogging) is a mirror of the company, where people and their relationships are reflected to the smallest detail, the structure of the company with all its efficiency and non-optimality.
Solutions for organizing corporate social networks are becoming more and more in demand due to purely practical management considerations. Companies are increasingly realizing that the most significant competencies of employees lie in the area of “tacit knowledge”. Implicit knowledge is in the minds of employees, in contrast to explicit knowledge - documented on paper, in the form of files or data in various information systems. Analysts estimate that the ratio of implicit to explicit knowledge in an organization is typically about 80 to 20.
“An organization that strives for successful development needs to encourage employees to put on the corporate portal or any other resource of the company at least some part of the knowledge that is only in their heads,” says Irina Maksimets, Head of the Software Department at SITRONICS Information Technology" in Russia. “Corporate social networks with the support of internal informal technologies for working with information are one of the effective tools for achieving this goal.”
“Thanks to the activity of employees,” Viktor Komar continues, “the so-called UGC (user-generated content) is created on the portal, which is the main element for both the corporate social network and the knowledge management system. It is clear that the sites inside the portal will be mainly grouped according to their profession - similar to how communities of interest are created on the Internet: lawyers will communicate with lawyers, and technologists with technologists. For example, one of the large holdings is implementing a global program for the transformation of accounting. And the accountants of several dozen enterprises of the holding, scattered throughout the country, really need a platform to discuss their problems, share experience, and generate solutions. Where can they do it? Naturally, on the portal - and best of all, on a site specially designated for this purpose inside it.
In particular, portal technologies make it possible to create a learning social network based on a corporate portal, where experts discuss important topics, give advice and train newcomers, create documents and offer ideas. In fact, employees create and form a community of like-minded people and professionals. Solving this problem allows them to create company value, “charge” newcomers and pull less active employees to participate in corporate team events. In addition, according to Irina Maksimets, the portal can become an indispensable tool for implementing the strategy of the entire corporation or its transition to a new branding program.
Proper use of the proposed technologies of the corporate portal helps companies maintain their uniqueness and not lose their value in the market.
The possibilities of corporate social networks are complemented by the fact that modern platforms now have tools for transparent integration of the desktop and user applications with the portal. For example, a person can publish a version of a document directly from Word, and it becomes available to other users. And progress in search technologies (tagging, keywords, typing, voice search), the possibility of end-to-end search through various sources, including taking into account the level of access that the portal provides to users, makes it possible to make any content easily accessible.
well forgotten old
Tools for creating internal social networks and collaboration are included in almost all modern advanced technologies, software lines of large ECM vendors such as IBM, Documentum or Microsoft. In addition, there are a large number of specialized solutions on the market, "sharpened" specifically for the corporate segment.
Konstantin Zhukov notes: “The concept of Enterprise 2.0 and its constituent Wikis, Blogs and mash-up applications continue to gain popularity. I would like to note that the new version of SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.3 widely supports all these modern trends.”
The organization and operation of internal corporate social networks is similar to open ones. In them, each user also fills out his profile, indicates competencies, interests, goals, blogs, establishes connections with colleagues. At the same time, groups of people who are interested in certain things can be formed freely, on the terms of self-organization. An important factor this is the visualization of all this economy and the rapid finding of the necessary information within the corporate network. Ideally than bigger company the more demand for these technologies.
However, it is necessary to understand that the perception by some people of the term "social network" as something super-new and the latest is incorrect, - reminds Dmitry Romanov, director of information management technologies development at IT Co. - In fact, a social network is a set of interactions/relationships between different people, which has existed since the appearance of man as a biological species. And this topic has been actively studied by sociologists since the 20-30s of the last century. Therefore, we can say with absolute certainty that relationships within a social network exist always and everywhere, in any organization and are an integral part of any social structure. At present, it is only a question of using modern technologies to add another channel of people's communication to existing and new social networks, which allows all information of interactions to be made visible.
Sergey Ryzhikov advises deploying a corporate social network under the motto "His example is science for others": in order to popularize a new tool, it is very important that managers be among the first to post messages on their blogs.
It is desirable to define corporate regulations as soon as possible, which determines that the company's orders, current information that is of interest to employees (for example, about bonuses) are published only on the corporate portal. It is necessary to transfer documents there from the file server as soon as possible.
However, not all developers of portal solutions are supporters of the idea of creating their own corporate social networks in organizations. global networks like Facebook are already uniting employees of one company, providing them with the necessary opportunities for communication and socialization.
“It would be more logical and efficient to carefully implement, encapsulate these networks in a corporate portal, naturally providing the necessary level of data confidentiality and security,” advises Artak Oganesyan, Deputy CEO EPAM Systems for business development and customer service. - Such "merging" will allow employees to communicate in the usual social network, will provide an opportunity to increase the creative and team spirit of their work - by organizing forums, stimulating discussions of ideas and tasks, supporting joint initiatives, and so on. In fact, it will be another tool for feedback (or, better to say, bidirectional) communication between the company represented by its managers at various levels and employees.”
Mobile, Cloud, Innovative
With the development of mobile devices (including tablets), remote access to corporate data will be more and more in demand. From this point of view, it is worth noting the active development of the mobile direction of portal technologies, their support for working with mobile devices of various formats and platforms, and the associated high expectations of customers regarding the availability of portal solutions through mobile devices. The portal is becoming a single window of access and a convenient tool for remote employees: many portal solutions already have an adapted interface for display on mobile devices.
“I think that portals should be developed towards increasing mobility,” says Artak Hovhannisyan. - Already, the availability of corporate mail, instant messaging and social networks on smartphones, netbooks and tablets allows employees to constantly be in the information space of the organization. By opening access through such mobile devices to the remaining functions of the portal (to corporate information systems, knowledge bases), the company will ensure continuous communication with its staff and their constant involvement in work processes. So theoretically (in terms of technology) the employee will have no obstacles in order to live all 24 hours a day at work, albeit “virtually”: the opportunity to “work hard” will be limited only by reasonable time frames that everyone can set for themselves myself".
There are developments of special applications and interfaces of portal services to work on the most popular mobile devices, in particular on the iPad.
Through such solutions, it is possible to display data from decision support systems in real time on a mobile device, corporate systems management and analytics, monitoring systems, - Viktor Komar comments. - The head of the company, regardless of where he is, with one touch receives on the screen of his mobile device operational sales data, business analytics, customized KPIs, and all this is fast, in a beautiful and visual form. Here he can take the necessary managerial decision. Such solutions at the intersection of mobile platforms, portal technologies and corporate applications are more and more in demand, they allow you to always keep a "hand on the pulse" and manage the company very quickly in any situation.
Since in many companies the corporate portal already implements the possibility of remote access, employees can work with it from home or during a business trip, the next step in its development may be the organization of interaction with external partners, counterparties, contractors. There are no technical obstacles and problems in order to create a special partner zone on the basis of the portal and provide access to up-to-date directories, price lists and other necessary information, to implement the services needed by partners there.
Dmitry Romanov advises to pay attention to Social Network Analysis technologies, which allow visualizing and analyzing internal social interactions in a company. With their help, you can find informal communities of people, identify formal and informal leaders, and see how interactions within and between communities work. Technologies also make it possible to analyze the nature of the use of different channels of communication. Their application makes it possible to really derive a lot of benefit from the existing picture.
“The fact is that before all these processes were invisible for a long time,” Dmitry Romanov explains. - People communicated with each other and sent paper documents at best; this interaction was lost, and it was difficult, if not impossible, to trace the big picture. Now almost all types of human communication leave traces. And software products Social Network Analysis classes just allow this information to be observed, made visible, analyzed and used to improve work efficiency.
In the near future, we can expect the use of the portal's capabilities for visualizing data in a spatial dimension, building specialized geoinformation services on its basis, which may be relevant for transport and logistics companies.
Konstantin Zhukov predicts the development of portal technologies in the "clouds". For small and medium-sized companies, this will allow you to use all the benefits of portal solutions without deploying them at your enterprise and without worrying about support and maintenance of the solution.
Curiously, according to Sergey Ryzhikov, the video conferencing and IP telephony segment is developing: “We expect big changes and an increase in demand in this segment: these technologies allow the organization to do more in less time and increase the efficiency of individual employees and the company as a whole.”
Portal technologies are a "klondike" of new opportunities for the company. Every organization has a lot of interesting data and information. Before the development of portal technologies, there were no interfaces or platforms to find and make this data available. Finding and showing them is the main purpose of the portal. For example, if a company has a document management system, you can do a simple thing - display on the portal information about how many inconsistent documents “hang” on which employee or, for example, publish the performance indicators of departments (such kind of online “Honor Boards” are obtained).
“Such information will be of interest to many; there will be an element of competitiveness, maybe labor productivity will grow, - Viktor Komar believes. - There is a lot of such data in any company, just not everyone knows how to use it yet. And to do this, you just need to give people access to them, give them the opportunity to compare this data with others. Then users will go to the corporate portal, write to the corporate forum, participate in discussions, and ask questions to management. And management can hold online and offline meetings. A portal that provides two-way communication is a good tool to reduce the distance between management and employees. The management sees what problems employees care about, and they, in turn, get the opportunity to communicate directly with top management, bypassing many hierarchical steps.
Another trend in the field of portal services is related to the fact that companies are increasingly bringing certain functions of their specialized systems to the portal so that they are available to users in a convenient and understandable form. It is clear that all specialized systems have their own characteristics, their own interface, but employees whose work is not directly related to them have neither the time nor the desire to understand these systems. For them, a simple portal service offering tailored functionality is much more convenient.
The portal allows you to build even a complex business process in an understandable way and helps even an inexperienced user to go through it step by step, - Viktor Komar explains. - This is very handy tool for all employees and beneficial for the company, since resources are saved through the use of a self-service scheme. Moreover, the range of integrated applications and, accordingly, the tasks solved through the portal is very wide: from ordering passes and a projector up to working with SAP and analytical systems. In the latter case, organizing access through the portal to corporate applications allows you to save on paying for seat licenses. And the more employees you need to give access to the data of a particular application, the greater the savings.
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