Corporate social network. Overview of corporate social networks: compare the capabilities and functionality. Use of corporate social networks in HR branding

| 27.02.2014

According to estimates of various sources, on average, every month, each employee spends about 12 hours to personal communication on social networks. You can prohibit access from workplaces, limit the time of visiting for some groups, but you can take the best that they have social networks in our toolkit, and meet the need for workers in virtual communication.

Someone will say that we have a corporate portal and why do we need something else. Let's see what corporate portal is? This is an internal website of the company that combines a large number information services and providing access to information relating to the Company's production processes. In addition to the classical functions for the provision of reference data on employees and structure of the company, the portal is used to unite with special information systems and services, financial and accounting systems, project management, file resources, forums, etc. What will the integration of the social network functions with the corporate portal ?

Terms and Definitions

For further understanding, add several abbreviations and definitions:

CCC is a corporate social network, analogous to the usual social network with its functionality, but created to meet business needs. This is a professional social network, the decisive tasks of the organization and maintenance of the company's activities.

Working page in KSS - Analogue of the personal page in the social network on the functionality, its main purpose becomes the provision of an employee with a convenient and unified tool to fulfill its official duties. It's kinda unified automated workplace by officer function. In most cases, the working page is personal, but if necessary, it may be impersonal for some posts, for example, the working page "Duty on Engineering Provision". It has a replacement function when during the absence of an employee, the working page is entirely or some of its functions are transmitted to other specialists or other work pages.

Working page functionality - a set of rules for displaying subscriptions for news, participation in groups and other functions, relevant official duties. Thus, the functionality of the working page of the technologist of the relay protection service and automation includes references to all software complexes used by the employee, notifications from these complexes, notifications from planners pointing to the need to fulfill regulatory actions, subscribing to applications, oscillograms, requests from others structural units, Changes in regulations, etc.

Owner of the Working Page - an employee who performs job duties corresponding to the functionality of this working page.

Favorable tandem

So, back to the advantages of the integration of the CCC and the portal. Employees of the company will be able to have their own profile, which is functionally different from the social network profile and contains other professional information (photos, hobbies) additional professional information - position, accommodation, telephone, competence and main job responsibilities. This will help to establish informal communication between colleagues and will contribute to strengthening the corporate spirit, will reduce the time costs in dealing with business issues, approval of actions and finding the right competencies.

Each employee, in accordance with his official duties, has a set of configured representations, notifications and filters and receives the necessary production information, orders and regulations, notifications about the onset of planned events, as well as additional information, for example, about colleagues' days. Further, performing the integration of social network functions with the electronic document management system and management system, the process of issuing instructions and coordination of documents is simplified. By turning on the function of calendar planning into these systems, you can not be afraid that some order will be forgotten.

The corporate social network completely takes on the function of internal communication and replaces email, expanding its functions. Creating conferences, chat, commenting and notes in the relationship with the functions of office work, the organization of instructions and calendar planning activities make information on business processes more affordable, visual and transparent, and the processes themselves are controlled. What else can be implemented using the introduction of a social network? Maintenance of almost all business processes of the company, the development of the corporate spirit of the team, the reduction of weak points in the organization of activities in the absence or insufficient competence of employees, the introduction of new automated systems and business processes, the preparation of new employees, the formation of the system of motivation, eliminating emerging conflict situations within the organization and . Consider some questions more.

Going together

What benefit can be obtained from the introduction of a corporate social network? If you answer briefly, this is the creation of a company's knowledge bank, a brain center with semantic bonds between business processes. This is a convenient organization of the workplace, where everything is at hand, like the conductor, where a single information space has been created for each workplace and where the various services are integrated into one information environment to perform job duties. This is the ability to send a person's needs in virtual communication to solve the company's tasks. This is a convenient organization of the execution of orders, controlling instructions, tasks, communication and feedback capabilities. This and user support service, as close as possible to their problems or needs.

Subscription, bulletin board, notifications and specialized news feeds, as similar services social networkswill help in the daily activities of any employee. So, the material-responsible person and other employees related to the supply of equipment will receive a notification on their "wall" that the contract is concluded and the shipment of goods has begun. And those who participate in the consideration of applications will receive notifications that another application has come for consideration.

Groups in the social network find their use and unite workers involved in the common cause. For example, in a situation with the automation of production tasks, it is clear that in the 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 block, etc.), which has its 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 relevant category and with the corresponding tags, participants are included in this group, their roles and responsibilities are determined.

For external customers of the company, counterparties, state and controlling subjects, the situation is similar. For example, according to the current or planned contracts for the provision of services and the supply of goods, business correspondence and coordination of documents are being coordinated. For a counterparty, access to the specialized CCC section is available (or the email gateway is configured for a specific counterparty by its email address so that the letters from it fall on the work pages of interested parties in the CCC). State and other subjects controlling the bodies with which the exchange of information is conducted, also gain their access to the resources of the corporate network.

The exact definition of the target audience to solve the entire variety of tasks of the company will allow you to structure and streamline activities, make it so that only the necessary information is at hand, and the necessary data could be found simple and accessible actions.

Such a tool as a forum or group chat will be useful during the active phase of the implementation of a project or, for example, when conducting an experienced exploitation of some system, when resolving a situation under a technical support agreement or in the provision of methodological and consulting assistance to a higher branch.

Notifications, News Feed, Bulletin Board on the Web Work page - Digest Business Information about the subject area on which the owner of the page is signed. CCC will tell you what to do and how to solve the production task, even if the employee is missing.

Frames in the network

What capabilities is the system in terms of personnel management? The working page of each employee contains information about their competencies and official dutiesdefined by keywords, tags or arbitrary description. The organization of HR-personnel access to such information will suggest possible changes in personnel composition in the event of a vacancy. Preparation of personnel, internship, conducting training and exchange of experience in posts is much faster. Personnel issues can be solved remotely, with the help of telecommunications.

Classic management speaks a lot about horizontal and vertical bonds in the management structure, but the KCC will create a relationship structure based on processes by adding a slight organization of working groups, diagonal relations between units and matrix management structures. The network will be able to take on any process, ranging from the Working Group to implement complex complexes on PJM standards and ending with the coordination of the work of the Commission on the Inventory of Material Assets.

On the work page, you can put bookmarks on the thematic links for the same type of functional duties, in particular, links to sites of regional and federal energy companies, sites of regulatory documentation for building design, websites of companies on technical support contracts of computing equipment.

Comments are added to the usual way to communicate e-mail, making instructions from messages, calendar scheduling based on messages, communication and grouping messages on topics, tag and keywords. This will allow not only easy to organize execution of the assignment, but also to collect together all sources of information for any task or process, find it in the future and restore the full picture of what is happening.

What sees the President of the Company, Chairman of the Board, General Director, Deputy Director of the Company? Production indicators, financial reports, violation reports, execution of instructions and group KPIs - in accordance with how filters are configured and which the aggregation is selected.

What's next? It is possible that the sectoral corporate social network, which unites the subjects of energy, controlling the authorities and government structures. Or a state social network if the state reform in the field of information technology will see the feasibility of creating its own corporate social network.

Problems in implementation

Despite the rapid growth in popularity of corporate social networking solutions, large distributed companies face difficulties in the introduction of the CCC. Why, although the number of installations abroad is growing in geometric progression, Russian companies are in no hurry with the choice of solutions for the corporate network? What difficulties arise from companies? What are the ways to resolve such conflicts?

From the point of view of technology, the introduction of the CCC affects almost all business processes of the company, and, as a result, this is a long-term project with a complex technical task and high cost. Many vendors of SAAS solutions and KCCs understand this and offer free versions, alone by limiting the functionality, others - limiting the number of licenses. We have to highlight a branch or business direction for use as a "pilot" project.

Causes doubts economic efficiency from the introduction of the network because it seems quite difficult to calculate ROI. In this case, to analyze efficiency, you need to include statistics and KPI tools, for example, to estimate the cost of operations, time to carry out the process, the absence of alterations, etc.

An obstacle to the implementation may be the psychological rejection of the CCC top management, which is based on the reluctance of the top management of the companies personally use this technology and be as it were to all workers. Some developers take into account this fact and specifically offer social tools for top management. For example, collect round tables with the participation of managers, where each social network participant can prepare its question, and the head will answer the conference call to questions that require attention from its point of view. Very similar to the Internet conferences that suggests Russian president to journalists.

The company's executives tend to believe that advanced solutions are needed only by IT-oriented companies, and ordinary employees believe that this is another information system that is not needed by anyone. But the practice shows that numerous foreign companies that are not related to information technologies have been successfully using the CCC in their daily work.

Also, a negative attitude towards social networks is made up of a certain stereotype on the uselessness of the social network for business. In practice, it turns out that employees always remain in touch and are involved in the process at any time, and the lack of awareness of employees increases the timing of the tasks and leads to the missed benefit.

In ordinary social networks there are practically no moderation, network participants allow themselves to be any statements that is unacceptable in a corporate environment. In fact, if the company has its own corporate culture, there will be no violations of this culture in the corporate network, and if the employee's correspondence will begin to lose business, there are always colleagues or direct supervisors who intervene and restore the normal course of the dialogue.

Information security services will be reported that the social network contains a huge number of information available to all. But if you determine the security policy for the CCC, then such a question is being implemented not more difficult than restrictions on 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 CCCs offer a variety of ways to motivate employees, assess their contribution to the process and formation of compensation for work. Given that the network can implement the functions of electronic document management, the issue of the legal force of actions in the network, let's say, such as fixing the facts of familiarization with business documentation and the legality of the application of the methods for assessing motivation in the corporate network. This problem is technically solved by the use of EDS funds, and the organizational and development of local regulations establishing the equivalent to virtual acts in the CCC with real actions.

Summing up, we can say that if social networks effectively solved the problem of people's communication in most countries, then corporate social networks will be able to make efficient corporate communication. Often, to achieve something, just use the possibilities. We know the possibilities of social networks - you need to take them into service and apply to achieve the objectives of the organization, company or authorities.

Corporate social networks based on the same principles as the classic, recently appeared, but have already become a trend. Explain it is easy. Progressive leaders realized the fact that to follow the path to the use of social networks in the company - the case is ungrateful and often not bringing the expected result. But to adopt this megapoil instrument, providing it with useful for business with functionality, is a solution with great prospects. Among the explicit advantages is the growth of the loyalty of employees, the savings of working time for the official correspondence, the status of a progressive company. As a result - improving the efficiency of business processes and profit growth.

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 came to the reasonable conclusion that an effective company is the one in which satisfied and happy specialists work. This task was solved very curious methods. For example, at one of the major concerns of the country on the passage installed a boxing pear, imitating the company's head. Each employee at the entrance was to "pinch" a mannequin, then the amount of fell, which, in his opinion, deserved a leader at the moment. What did it give? First, managers were able to evaluate the emotional background in the company, the popularity of certain decisions, which means that they were able to adopt the necessary measures to stabilize the situation. Secondly, the staff gained the right to vote and the ability to remove the emotional stress, albeit such a non-standard way. As a result, labor productivity rose at times, as well as the quality of products manufactured by the enterprise.

Examples can be given a lot - the conclusion is one: the concept created by the Japanese and known as Kaizen proved its viability. No wonder in Japan, frame flow rate is one of the lowest. People often work at the same enterprise all their lives. And the children and grandchildren come to replace them.

Socialized for business is in general the virtualization of Kaizen's ideas. This is transformed for modern society, its needs and technological opportunities. Method for creating an effective team in the company. The team, each member of which can fully implement its abilities in the workplace.

Corporate Social Network: What is my name ...

Socialized for business allows you to form information community within the company with well-developed vertical and horizontal connections. This means that employees of the company can interact in the network not only with each other, but also with management, and no matter where they are currently. Especially relevant corporate social networks for large companies whose offices are in different cities or even around the world. At the same time, their presence is perceived by the staff as part of the corporate culture, the same as the teams on the collar or a free gym, as evidence that the management of the company is interested in its subordinates and seeks to create comfortable working conditions for them.

What are corporate networks need for? They can play a significant role in the acceleration of business processes, in the exchange of experience, in discussing and making decisions on any working issues. At the same time, the process of involving employees into the corporate social network is much faster than, for example, to work with the corporate portal. This is because most social networks for business are adapted for social media users have a similar interface.

According to research McKinsey Global Institute, the use of corporate networks allows you to increase productivity by 20-25%. The main areas in which the internal corporate networks increase the labor productivity of employees:

  1. Search and collect information. Thanks to the possibility of creating a "knowledge base", where employees can add various regulatory and other important documents, the time to find information is reduced.
  2. Collaboration and Communication. The presence and functioning of the corporate network in the company saves working time On communication. With the help of the domestic social network, employees of the company can directly contact the desired colleague and almost instantly receive an answer, bypassing the mailbox and not spending time waiting.

In one of the largest medical insurance companies in Humana, 26,000 employees use the corporate social network. There are about 1,200 groups of various topics in the network - from music to maternity problems. Nevertheless, 70% of communications among themselves concerns working issues.

Despite the explicit benefit from the introduction of corporate social networks, in some companies this innovation is actively opposed. It is not even from the fact that the leaders consider networks of a waste of time, and for the reason that many of them do not see the difference between networks and, for example, a corporate portal. And since in most serious companies such portals are, then, according to the leadership, it is not worth spending time and money to duplicate what already exists.

This is a serious misconception. Let's try to figure out what is an intranet, corporate portal and corporate social network of the company And what 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 tasks, but not performing social functions. This decision gradually loses its popularity.

Corporate portal, or social intranet - In addition to the fact that the tool implies the existence of the knowledge base, combines information systems and accounting systems, project management, file resources, the portal partially solves social functions.

Concerning corporate SocietyThis 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 for developing and discussing a new project or idea. Each employee is open around the clock access to the knowledge base formed on the basis of personal experience - His and his colleagues. It is enough just to ask a question online or score it in the search. At the same time, the search in the social network has more flexible algorithms compared to the portal. But the main thing is that it is not just a working tool and workspace, it is primarily a place where you can relax a little, discuss with colleagues in an informal setting new project, regulation or document, and maybe the new dress of the chief accountant.

Attracts users and the usual network interface, simplicity and availability of services.

Review of intranets, corporate portals and social networks for business

According to the forecasts of analysts and software developers, the market of corporate social networks in the next two or three years will be intensively developed, and this will happen both in the field of decisions and in the field of use. The development of Western companies came to the market, they are translated and partially adapted to the domestic user. In the near future, it is worth waiting for activity and from Russian vendors.

As for the process of organizing a corporate social network in companies, he, according to experts, is still at an early stage in Russia. It is explained by the fact that many leaders, without seeing from the networks of instantaneous return, they simply do not want to spend funds on the unfavorable, in their opinion, innovation. The situation may change in the next two or three years. Leaders on the use of social networks in Russia, followed by the time the most conservative companies, are enterprises from the banking industry and retail.

Currently, only a dozen products are most demanded on the Russian market.

"Bitrix24"

This tool refers to the category of intranets with a separate social module. As part of the module, microblogging, messenger, photo galleries and a number of others are provided. The interface and functionality of the application reminds a bit of social networks in the 2005 variations. The social application in itself is free, but it does not work until the Bitrix24 base package is purchased. The cost depends on the selected tariff and the number of employees, as well as the embodiment: the version with the installation on its server will cost more cloud.

Daoffice.

The first Russian corporate social network. The focus, in contrast to the Bitrix24, is given to the social instruments. Microblogs in this network support # tags and @ names as in Twitter, there is an opportunity to put like "Likes" publishing, see a list of recommended friends, like on Facebook. Another distinguishing feature of the service is the elements of gameification: for adding messages on topical and useful topics, employees receive points.

Access to Daoffice is possible from mobile devices using Android and iOS applications. The cost of the installation is defined specifically for each company and depends on the number of users (maybe any), the embodiment (its server or cloud), the need for integration with other systems and the development of additional options. As for the free version, it is available only for large companies, with the number of employees more than 250 people.

One of the minuses of the free version is that when installing on its server, restrictions on administration tools appear.

Jive.

This decision refers to the category of intranets with social features. 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 selected package: SELECT, PREMIER or PREMIER +. A serious disadvantage of the application is the absence of a Russified version. In addition, according to customer reviews, the navigation in Jive is very different from the usual navigation on social networks.

Yammer

At the moment it is the most popular social intranet in the world. Available to users in Office365. The structure resembles Twitter, allowing employees to exchange short messages, form working groups and control the "status" of subordinates. Among other service features are file exchange and images, tag support in messages, browsing online contacts, search for people, groups and texts, formation and use of knowledge base. Thanks to the support of 25 languages, there is no language barrier when using the application.

After Yammer became part of the Office365 online office, its separate installation was impossible. Another substantial minus is the lack of an organization's option on consumer servers (on premise). Only a cloud solution with servers abroad (OFF Premise) is available.

"Gingerbread"

Domestic corporate social network. Its distinctive characteristic is a gameification - for certain achievements in the network, users receive prizes and bonuses, in this case in the form of virtual gingerbread. Among the possibilities of "gingerbread" - view the total ribbon of events and their discussion in groups, the rapid conduct of surveys on any topic, sharing of all types of files, attracting discussions of interested parties and experts, drawing up the knowledge base on Wiki principle, quick access to employee contact information, Viewing their publications, competencies and merit.

Gingerbread has an application for smartphones and tablets on Android and iOS. Called can be integrated with 1C-Bitrix and Microsoft SharePoint. The value of the solution depends on the type of package. "Gingerbread" offer three types of tariffs: "For promising" - free (15 people), "For clarified power" - about 16,000 rubles per month (cloud solution, 100 people), "all and forever" with the installation on the customer's server - Approximately 230,000 rubles per month. Using the network is advisable if more than 30 people work in the company.

IBM Connections

We are talking about a corporate social network. The solution allows you to configure personalized homepage, create your own documents and blogs, participate in discussions and exchange messages. As part of the application, the information base is possible, creating forums and surveys. Integration with Microsoft Office allows you to edit documents directly from the network. Works for android devices, WindowsPhone, iOS, BlackBerry.

The price of the application depends on the type of package and the options in it. Due to the possibility of organizing forums, blogs and information bases, the application is suitable for large companies. Among the disadvantages of IBM Connections, users say the dull color palette of the interface. The application is available in options on PREMISE and OFF Premise.

Facebook Workplace

This is a corporate social network in its pure form. It is an almost accurate copy of the classic Facebook. At the same time, user profiles are not related to their Facebook accounts. The rest of the network is available to the same tools - news feed, the possibility of creating a personal profile, groups, chats, presentations, video calls. The main advantage of Facebook Workplace is its familiar interface that does not require the user of reappection and addiction. The product for large companies, which was reflected even in the payment method for its installation. If the number of employees in the company does not exceed 1000 people, then the cost will be about $ 3 per employee, and with a number of 1000 to 10,000 people, the price will decrease to two. To test the program, a free three-month period is provided.

The main disadvantages are the lack of the caustomization and option of the organization on its own server. Only a cloud version with servers abroad is available.

Salesforce Chatter.

While little-known platform in Russia for organizing a corporate social network based on Force.com. Allows you to create personal page users, groups, microblogging with the addition of status, exchange messages, images, documents. In the new version of the application, you can see online user status, communicate with them in real-time chat and even do screen-sharing. The latter function is also available for group mode. By the way, the platform one of the first introduces the opportunity to communicate with external users, creating groups and inviting partners and customers there. With Chatter Connect, it is easy to integrate with external systems, first of all, MS SharePoint. Another advantage Chatter is a mobile interface designed for any mobile devices with touchscreen.

The application has a free version, however, in a slightly trimmed version. Moreover, SalesForce Chatter does not imply placement on servers, the paid version also offers only Internet access.

The disadvantages of the platform include the lack of caustomization and Russification (even "user manual" is written in English).

Podio.

An application that is an intranet that can be used including to create a social network belongs to Citrix. Its main difference from other corporate networks is that it is in a literal sense is a designer. If most networks provide only a standard set of functions for communications, creation groups, file sharing, and to add a specific function, integration with other applications is required, then in Podio these applications can be created in the visual designer by the Drag'n'Drop. The created application can be connected to the workspaces within the network. By default, the designer already has 200 applications. Another advantage of Podio is the possibility of working in it and invited counterparties: partners, customers, candidates for vacancies. The application is a Russian-speaking interface that significantly facilitates the work of domestic users.

The free version of the application is designed for 5 employees, 5 counterparties and 1 GB of memory. The paid version will cost $ 9 per user, plus version - at $ 14, premium - in 24 dollars.

The disadvantages of this platform, as well as the previous, refers to the absence 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, general knowledge base, forums, polls, tasks for yourself and employees, user catalog, collector ideas, blogs. Distinctive trait Service - gamefice. The network has an honorable board, which is automatically generated on the basis of various criteria - from useful tips to ingenious ideas and important publications for the company.

You can go to 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 begins from 2999 rubles per month for 100 users.

The main minuses - the presence of this platform only the web version (convenient mobile app Not developed), as well as outdated design of the late 90s.


Not all existing solutions perform all the functions of corporate networks, and not all of them are equally comfortable. Some are overwhelmed by functionality, others are not adapted to 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, first, is useful for work, and secondly, interesting for employees. Meanwhile, deploying the necessary functionality to provide "firstly", 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.

The development of modern technologies led to a real revolution in the field of working with corporate information. As you know, Professor Andrew Macafa (Andrew McAfee) from the Harvard School of Business, the author of the concept and concept of Enterprise 2.0, initially determined the concept as "the use of new platforms of social software within companies or between companies and their partners and clients." Macafa noted that such tools create numerous, often new relations between employees and various company working groups. These ties contribute to the dissemination of corporate knowledge and experience on the "cross-pollination" method, which creates real commercial advantages waves.

Today, the trend of the transition from the "Community of readers" to the "Writers Community" is clearly and clearly manifested on the Internet (blogs, forums and networks), but also in the corporate environment. Therefore, the role of the portal is growing as the points of attraction of social and business active employees. Those companies that, on the one hand, create a convenient platform for communication on the portal, and on the other hand, they stimulate employees there are there to communicate on professional topics, they 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 "cabinet" with "boxes" -ders, where those or other documents are folded and where they are not so easy to find them. In this form, information is very difficult to share: it can be found, but it will not be possible to transfer to colleagues, discuss, change.

"As soon as we begin to think how to increase the coefficient of use of corporate information, we arrive at social networking technologies: users not only consume information, but they can comment on it, to get feedback," says Viktor Komar, director of the IBS integration decisions department. - That is how we can make information work. Those companies in which the standard functional of the corporate portal works for a long time and successfully, it makes sense to look at the new opportunities for organizing employee interaction. "

Exchange instant messages and constant presence in a virtual information corporate environment - the most important tool Operational communications, - confirms Sergey Ryzhikov General Director of the company "1C-Bitrix". - Corporate social network (personal blogs, live ribbon, microblogging) is a mirror of a company where people and their relations are reflected with an accuracy of the smallest detail, the company's structure with all its effectiveness and non-optimality.

Solutions for organizing corporate social networks are becoming increasingly claimed from the purely practical considerations of the leadership. Companies are increasingly pronounced to realize that the most significant competences of employees lie in the sphere of "implicit knowledge." Implicit knowledge is in the heads of employees, in contrast to the explicit - documented on paper, in the form of files or data in various information systems. According to analysts, usually the ratio of implicit and explicit knowledge in the organization is approximately 80 to 20.

"Organizations that seek successful development must encourage employees to put on a corporate portal or any other resource of the company at least some part of the knowledge that are only in their heads - says Irina Maximets, Head of the Sitronix Company Software Department Information Technology" in Russia. - Corporate social networks with support for internal informal technologies to work with information - one of the effective tools to achieve this goal. "

"Thanks to the activity of employees, the Victor Komar continues the topic - the portal creates the so-called UGC (User-Generated Content -" Content created by users "), which is the main element for the corporate social network, and for the knowledge management system. It is clear that the playgrounds inside the portal will mostly be grouped according to a vocational basis - similar to how communities are being created on the Internet: lawyers will communicate with lawyers, and technologists with technologists. For example, in one of the major holdings, a global accounting program for accounting transformation is being implemented. And accountants of several dozen Holding enterprises scattered throughout the country are very necessary a platform for discussing their problems, sharing experiences, generate solutions. Where can they do it? Naturally, on the portal - and best on the platform specifically allocated for these purposes. "

In particular, portal technologies allow you to create a training social network based on a corporate portal, where specialists are discussing important topics, give advice and teach newbies, create documents and offer ideas. In fact, employees create and form a community of like-minded people and professionals. The solution of this task allows them to create the values \u200b\u200bof the company, "charge" newcomers and tighten less active employees to participate in corporate teams. In addition, according to Irina Maximets, the portal can become an indispensable tool for implementing the strategy of the entire corporation or transition to a new branding program.

The correct use of the proposed corporate portal technologies helps companies maintain uniqueness and not lose their value in the market.

The possibilities of corporate social networks are complemented by the fact that in modern platforms there are means of transparent integration of the desktop and custom applications with the portal. For example, a person right from Word can publish a version of the document, and it becomes available to other users. And progress in search technologies (tagging, keywords, typing, voice search), the ability to pass through various sources, including subject to the level of access, which provides portal to users, allow you to make any content easily accessible.

Well forgotten old

Tools for the creation of domestic social networks and collaboration are included in almost all modern developed technologies, software line of large ECM vendors - such as IBM, Documentum or Microsoft. In addition, there are a large number of specialized solutions on the market, "sharpened" precisely under the corporate segment.

Konstantin Zhukov notes: "The Concept of Enterprise 2.0 and the Wiki, Blogs and Mash-UP applications are continued to gain popularity. I would like to note that the new version of SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.3 is widely supported all these modern trends. "

The organization and work of internal corporate social networks is similar to open. In them, each user also fills his profile, indicates competences, interests, goals, leads blogs, establishes relationships with colleagues. At the same time, it can be formed freely, on the conditions of self-organization of a group of people who are interested in certain things. An important factor At the same time, the visualization of all this farm and the rapid foundation of the necessary information within the corporate network. Ideally, the larger the company, the more claimed these technologies in it.

However, it is necessary to understand that the perception of some people of the term "social network" as something supernova and the very latter is incorrect, "reminds Dmitry Romanov, director of development of information management technologies. - In fact, the social network is a combination of interactions / relationships between different people, which exists from the moment of the emergence of a person as a biological species. And this topic is actively studied by sociologists from the 20s and 30s of the last century. Therefore, it is possible to say with absolute confidence that relations within the framework of the social network exist ever and everywhere, in any organization and are an integral part of any social structure. Currently, it is only about using modern technologies to add to already existing and new social networks another channel of people's communication, which allows all the information of interactions to be apparent.

Sergei Ryzhikov advises to deploy a corporate social network under the motto "his example - other science": to popularize the new tool it is very important that the leaders among the first places messages in their blogs.

It is desirable to determine the corporate regulation as soon as possible, which determines that the company's orders, current information that is interesting to employees (for example, about awards) is published only on the corporate portal. It is necessary to carry out the document to the file server as quickly as possible.

However, not all portal solutions developers are supporters of the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating their own corporate social networks in organizations. Global networks like Facebook are already united by the employees of one company, providing them with the necessary opportunities for communication and socialization.

"It will be more logical and more efficient to accurately implement, encapsulate these networks into a corporate portal, providing naturally, the necessary level of confidentiality of data and security, is advised by Artak Oganesyan, Deputy General Director of EPAM Systems on Business Development and Customer Development. - Such a "splicing" will allow employees to communicate in the usual social network, will provide an opportunity to increase the creative and team spirit of their work - due to the organization of forums, stimulating the discussions of ideas and tasks, supporting joint initiatives and so on. In fact, it will be another tool for reverse (or, it is better to say, bidirectional) the link between the company in the person of its leaders of 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. 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 becomes a single access window and a convenient tool for working remote employees: Many portal solutions already have an adapted interface to display on mobile devices.

"I think that the portals should develop in the direction of improving mobility," says Artak Oganesyan. - Already now the availability of corporate mail, instant messaging and social networks on smartphones, netbooks and tablets allows employees to constantly be in the organization's information space. Opening access through such mobile devices to the rest of the portal functions (to corporate information systems, knowledge bases), the company will provide a continuous connection with its personnel and its constant involvement in workflows. So theoretically (from the point of view of technology) the employee will not be obstacles in order to live all 24 hours a day at work, albeit "virtually": the ability to "work out" will be limited only by reasonable temporary frames that everyone can establish for themselves myself. "

Development of special applications and portal service interfaces to work on the most popular mobile devices, in particular on the iPad.

Through such solutions, you can in real time to display decision-making support systems on your mobile device, corporate systems Management and analysts, monitoring systems, comments Viktor Komar. - The company's head, regardless of where it is located, the operational data on sales, business analysts configured to it KPI, and all this quickly, in a beautiful and visual form on the screen of its mobile device. Immediately he can take the necessary managerial decision. Such solutions at the junction of mobile platforms, portal technologies and corporate applications are increasingly in demand, they always allow you to keep the "hand on the pulse" and manage the company very quickly in any situations.

Since in many companies, the corporate portal is already implementing the possibilities of remote access, working with him from home or during a business trip, the next step of its development can be the organization of interaction with external partners, counterparties, contractors. There are no technical obstacles and problems to create a special partner area on the basis of the portal and provide access to topical directories, priceas and other necessary information, to implement the services you need.

Dmitry Romanov advises to pay attention to Social Network Analysis technology, allowing to visualize and analyze internal social interactions in the company. With their help, it is possible to find informal communities of people, identify formal and informal leaders, watch how interactions within communities and between them are arranged. Technologies also allow us to analyze the nature of the use of different communication channels. Their use makes it possible to really extract much benefit from the existing picture.

"The fact is that before all these processes were invisible for a long time," explains Dmitry Romanov. - People communicated among themselves and sent paper documents at best; This interaction was lost, and to track the overall picture was difficult, but rather, it is impossible. Now almost all types of communication people leave traces. And software products of the Social Network Analysis just allow this information to observe, make visible, analyze and use to improve the efficiency of work. "

Soon, you can expect the use of the portal capabilities to visualize data in the spatial dimension, building on its basis specialized geo-information services, 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 advantages of portal solutions without turning them in your enterprise and without worrying about the support and maintenance of the decision.

Curious, according to Sergey Ryzhikov, a segment of video conferencing and IP telephony develops: "We expect large changes in this segment and increase demand: these technologies allow organizations to do more in less time and improve the efficiency of individual employees and companies in general."

Portal technologies - "Klondike" new opportunities for the company. There are many interesting data and information in any organization. Before the development of portal technologies, there were no interfaces, no sites to find this data and make accessible. Find and show them - Here is the main purpose of the portal. For example, if there is a document management system in the company, it is possible to make a simple thing - to bring information about how much an employee "hangs" inconsistent documents or, for example, to publish the work of the divisions (such peculiar online "Honor Boards" are obtained).

"Such information will be interesting to many; An element of adversary will appear, maybe labor productivity will grow up, - Viktor Komar believes. - There are many similar data in any company, just not everyone knows how to use them. And to do this, you just need to give people access to them, give the opportunity to compare this data with others. Then users will go to the corporate portal, write to a corporate forum, participate in discussions, ask questions to leadership. And the management can conduct online and offline meetings. The portal providing the possibilities of bilateral communications is a good tool to reduce the distance between the manual and employees. The leadership sees what problems the employees are concerned, and they, in turn, get the opportunity to communicate directly with top management, bypassing a variety of hierarchical steps. "

Another trend in the field of portal services is related to the fact that companies in the larger extent to portal individual functions of their specialized systems so that they are available to users in a convenient and understandable form. It is clear that all specialized systems have their own features, their interface, but employees whose work is not directly related to them directly, there is no time nor the desire to understand these systems. For them, it is much more convenient for a simple portal service offering adapted functionality.

The portal allows you to build even a complex business process in a clear way and helps step by step to go through it even in an inexperienced user, "explains Viktor Komar. - This is a very convenient tool for all employees and profitable for the company, since resources are saved by using the self-service scheme. Moreover, the range of integrable applications and, accordingly, the tasks solved through the portal are very wide: from ordering passes and projector up to work with SAP and analytical systems. In the latter case, the organization of access through the portal to corporate applications allows you to save on the payment of licenses of jobs. And the greater the number of employees, it is necessary to access the data of a particular application, the more savings will be.

It is wrong, since it is still quite different tools with different properties and different tasks.

  • Comments to the news on the portal is not a social network!
  • Page with user profiles on the portal is not a social network!
  • Even blogs and wiki is not a social network!

It all does not involve people! Attendance fluctuates between low and very low, and the number of posts and comments can be counted on the fingers. Familiar?

Blogs

Blogs are a good tool for a thorough expression of your thoughts. But their largest drawback is that far from all users are ready to write long thorough notes.

It is believed that out of 100 readers only 1 will write notes in the blog. And only 10 will comment. Thus, new posts will appear a couple of times a week. It is too rare that your employees have a habit to regularly go to read new blogs.

And if people do not have the habit of reading, it will not even write to such a blog that 1% of users who would like to do it. After all, what's the point of writing what almost no one read? That is why corporate blogs rarely receive true popularity.

Wiki.

Wiki is a good useful tool for working together or to accumulate and systematize knowledge.

But by itself he is not involving. Few people will go to Vicky every day and reread the articles - whether something new did not appear. Subscription to changes also does not give the desired result, since most changes are insignificant and do not concern you personally (I base on personal experience).

As a result, the wiki often becomes a lot of time for several enthusiasts who simply believe in its utility.

Forums

Forums can give a fairly good degree of user involvement. Still less than they can give social networks. It can be said that the forums are the progenitor of the current social networks.

In my opinion, the main problem of forums is their complex structure with sections, subsections and tops. To get to the content you need, each time you have to drink a little :)

Social networks in this sense bring a good subscription tool (or "add-ons"). This allows you to subscribe to the necessary people and the necessary themes and then read only one page of the news that contains only what you really are interested.

Therefore, forums are, though a good tool, but more and more passing into the past.

Email

Although email and has positive sides Applications, do not close the eyes and for many problems arising from working with it, in particular problems with communications:

  • The information is hidden in the mailboxes and access to it is impossible for people who do not participate in the conversation;
  • For each recipient, the letter information is duplicated. As a virus;
  • Excessive applications to letters eat a disk space;
  • Communication with each new person involved in the discussion is difficult.

But there is another thing that made email the largest productivity productivity for employees - imposing communication by email to the recipient of the letter. Yes, this applies precisely to the recipient, and not to the sender. Develop the storage structure of letters and disassemble chaos in folders with incoming messages - it leads to this in the mail of its own communication structure. As a result, filtering letters becomes a difficult task - it is necessary to determine actual information, find the letters relating to each other and scatter all this by folders. These actions do each person who participates in the discussion for each individual branch of the letters. And if you add to this highly intelligent work "Professional Spam" - when the recipient does not have the ability to abandon some discussions to which he was added by the sender - the situation becomes unmanageable for many people and a lot of time is spent in empty.

Illustration of the difference between the "culture of professional spam" and "culture of choice".

In the "culture of choice", everyone and everyone has the opportunity to determine in what conversations they want to actively participate. Most likely, it will be discussions representing the value for the employee and the topics of interest to it. This means that the default conversation topics are open and placed on open platforms. In this case, the sender accepts the fact that the recipient is not obliged to spend his time for familiarizing with all publications, but reads only those that are most interesting and valuable.

Even people using email in the habit can be lured into a new type of communication. They still can write messages by e-mail, automatically leaving messages in a corporate social network, and not the list of addressees in email. Thus, they will definitely deliver the information to whom it will be interesting. Even if other team members choose a subscription to a group / subject via email, the information will remain available on the network to everyone who will ever need it. As soon as recipients read the information, they can calmly delete an email and will sure that they will find the contents of the letter in the group / theme. In other words, there is no need to spend time on the organization of letters in the mail client folders to simplify the search in the future. They simply enter the group in the corporate social network to find the right discussion, find it with the help of a general search or in the list of topics. If they want to leave a comment on the discussion, why not do it in a group where everyone will see who commented on, instead of creating numerous ligaments of emails by clicking on the "Reply to All" button.

How to benefit from corporate social network

Unlike blogs and wiki, writing in social network is very easy, because it does not require the creation of great detailed articles. And write a post for a couple of sentences - it's easy, it can almost everyone. Our statistics show that active writers in the corporate social network - 30%. That is, the involvement is an order of magnitude more than that of blogs (1% of authors and 10% commented).

The corporate social network solves the task of involving people better than any other of Enterprise 2.0 tools. It really allows you to achieve the fact that your employees will go there every day. Just because there will always be something new and interesting.

And if your employees begin to go to your social network every day, then it will immediately become a way to increase attendance and all other internal resources - corporate portal, blogs, wiki, project management systems, distance learning systems and others. To do this, it will be enough to just publish in the social network links to new events in these resources, with which it can be done automatically.

To speak quite briefly, the corporate social network is intended to increase attendance and the demand of all existing communications and collaboration to you in your company. And therefore it is impossible to be confused with any other!

A recent study conducted by McKinsey Global Institute, called "The Social Economy: Unlocking Value and Productivity Through Social Technologies", argues that with the help of social technologies, companies can increase productivity by as much as 25%.

According to the results of studies, scientists at McKinsey Global Institute identified four main areas in which platforms for collaboration are most effectively improving the labor productivity productivity:

  1. Email. About 28% of the time (11.2 hours per week) is on average spending on answers and read emails. When using corporate social networks, time costs are reduced by as much as 30% (about 4 hours per week), due to the possibility of searching for all the messages created.
  2. Search and collect information. 19% (7.6 hours per week) on average, spend money on the search for internal information, which has certain employees in the company. Again, due to the possibility of searching among the absolutely whole created content, this figure can be reduced by almost 35% (up to ~ 4.9 hours per week), saving, on average, 2.7 hours per personnel.
  3. Communication and collaboration. Using the phone, email, personal meetings between employees takes about 5.6 hours of the working week (14%). With the help of an internal social network, an employee can directly contact the right person, bypassing the mailbox, and without clutching it, which will help your company to save up to 35% of working time (2 hours) per employee.
  4. Execution of specific tasks. Employees of the company for tasks spend the most time, approximately 39% or 15.6 hours per week. Domestic social networks help increase productivity by about 15% (2.3 hours per week). On the one hand, corporate instruments allow you to centralize all workflows in one place, and on the other - all your employees can use these functions to directly execute tasks.

Myths about social corporate instruments

Many do not solve the use of social tools for working together due to delusions or lack of a clear route to success. In addition, fuzzy descriptions of the advantages of the connection and involvement of employees do not transmit the true meaning of the exchange of knowledge and social cooperation to solve the most important problems of business. Well, do not forget about security issues.

Below are five common myths that prevent the receipt of advanced tools for social collaboration within the company, and comments to them.

Myth 1. - Social platforms for collaboration are not reliable and safe.

Since most social tools For collaboration, we are located within the IT infrastructure of the organization, you can be sure that all your data is in a safe environment - an ideal platform for specialists and groups working on confidential projects or tasks.

Myth 2. - Corporate social tools are more for uniting employees, communication and fun, they cannot be used to perform tasks.

Companies turn to corporate social platforms to achieve critical business purposes, including for rapid interaction, exchange of knowledge and building more rational communications in order to avoid unnecessary headaches and restrictions of email, which was discussed above. Instead of sieving a chain of several email letters, only to find the most important and relevant information, and then wait for an answer, employees receive instant access to experts, departments and information to perform critical tasks!

Myth 3. - Corporate social instruments help employees use social media for communication with their key audience.

Traditional social networks, such as Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, first of all, combine people on a personal, equal level outside of corporate firewalls. Corporate social instruments, on the contrary, are used to attract users within the organization to solve business tasks, disclosure of expert knowledge to create innovation, decision-making and improve results. These interaction tools are safe, rational, work in real time and synchronize interaction and communication commands, which leads to an increase in their performance and profitability.

Myth 4. - Corporate social instruments do not solve real business problems / do not show true ROI.

There is a great need for an informal working tool that bypass typical software barriers existing in most organizations. Modern technologies (CRM, ERM, business process automation and others) make their work, keeping information and providing assistance to standard business processes, but do not support dynamic informal communications necessary for innovative thinking and joint decisions. Corporate social collaboration tools have shown a positive increase in efficiency, performance and transparency of business, helping teams to solve real problems and perform tasks. The main thing that needs to be done is to associate these indicators in the business goals of the organization. After compliance with business goals, the true advantages of corporate social tools for working together to be measured to obtain a real ROI.

Myth 5. - Social Corporate Tool for Collaboration cannot be adapted to meet my needs. I have no choice but to invest in a fully reliable platform.

The company can always choose which tools social interaction Will provide the opportunity and advantages that are most important for the organization. The Formicary Collaboration Group believes that these tools can be divided into three categories: the involvement of employees, awareness of employees and collective mind. Companies can start with categories that meet the most relevant needs of the business and continue the introduction of already from there. For example, it makes sense to choose tools that maximize the talent database of your organization for forming personnel reserve Or improve direct interactions between teams for making decisions on critical issues. Regardless of the category or needs of the Company, the implementation must occur not overnight, but become a process.




What is a corporate social network? Corporate social network 3 for personal communication with all the outside world for collaboration within the company -Cozdan is specifically for business, it comes to people to cooperate effectively, -a companies - to develop successfully.




Corporate social network in the structure of internal communications Corporate social network 5 Communication Destinations Tools Vertical, unilateral, top-down, one to many corporate edition Corporate portal (intranet) Electronic mailing stands, information boards Corporate radio and TV horizontal, one-sided, one to one corporate mail Messengers (ICQ, Skype) Smoking, Kitchen, Horizontal Cooler, Vertical, Multilateral, Many Corporate Social Network




Social Base Knowledge Corporate Social Network 7 Experts indicate their topics readers signed on topics, ask questions experts write content, answer questions. The readers discuss and evaluate the ratings of experts and the documents links News Questions and Answers Ideas ... Motivation of experts with social system Estimates and recognition








Expected implementation results. Benchmarking (1) Corporate Social Network 12 McKinsey: Communications using social networks can increase productivity of interacting employees (interaction workers) by 20-25% Source: The Social Economy: Unlocking Value and Productivity Through Social Technologies, Mckinsey Global Institute, July 2012


Expected implementation results. Benchmarking (2) measurable benefits: reducing the costs of excluding duplication of tasks Reduction of the costs of reorganization of business processes Saving costs in projects by improving collaboration and communications Increased employee productivity at the expense of fast communications and access to expertise Acceleration of adaptation of new employees immeasurable benefits: improvement Vertical Communications between Employees and Guide Organization Open Environment for Communication and Preservation Discussions Strengthening Drivers Success Corporate Social Network 13 Roi Payback Total Benefit (PV) Total Costs (PV) NPV 365% 4.3 months $ $ $ Source: Forrester Research, The Total Economic IMPACT OF YAMMER ROI for three years, taking into account risks


Expected implementation results. Benchmarking (3) Corporate social network 14 39% more horizontal connections 25% faster Adaptation of new employees 29% more communications with top management 34% less time to search for experts and information 27% less correspondence by 26% less meetings 24% less time on Commands 27% less duplication of tasks 32% more ideas generated within a company 23% more successful tasks 32% faster receipt of answers to questions 37% higher productivity of collaboration 30% higher employee satisfaction Source: Jive Software, The Business Value of Social Business. Customer Survey Results.


Assessment of results. Examples of KPI Using a system Number of active profiles Attendance: Number of inputs on Communication Day: Subscriptions (Followers) Activity: Number of messages, comments, recommendations (Likes) Use the speed of answers to questions ... Value for Business Time Costs for Calling, Calls, Meetings Customer Solution Solution Number of ideas proposed by employees Detection of a hidden personnel reserve engagement, loyalty, motivation, fluidity ... Corporate Social Network 15


Implementation Methodology Corporate Social Network 16 Establishing a Concept Formation of the Working Group, including representatives of HR, IT, Marketing and other units. Coordination of the objectives of the project and the indicators of its success (KPI). Coordination of the pilot launch plan. Pilot launch Creation of the first community of active users, identifying groups, interests, to discuss, development of typical scenarios. "Sowing" content. Assessment of the results of pilot launch and deployment plan. The decision is to implement or not deploy the Deployment of the CCC for all employees and units. Explanation of the employees of the goals and objectives of the CCC, training, replication of the best practices identified in the pilot project, "sowing" of content. Employee involvement program. Integration with other systems. Management Monitoring of the use of the CCC, moderation, monitoring of metrics and evaluation of the results of implementation (KPI), receipt and analysis of feedback. Development of functionality and CCC content.


Project Team Corporate Social Network 17 Project Manager Network Development Community-Manager Business Users Leaders Group Experts Promotion HR Project Manager T & D Manager Marketing & PR Technology Manager System Administrator Specialist MS Specialist MS SharePoint Consulting Project Manager Consultant Implementation Instructor Developers Courage Project Employees Daoffice.


History of success: Retail network MTS Corporate Social Network 18 Main goal: learning new and retention of experienced sellers. Situation before launch: fluidity on average 7-10% per month. Costs for reception and training of a new seller 6000 rubles. + 1 month of his work (