Measuring the Value of Social and Mobile Solutions in the Enterprise

"The impact of new technologies is invariably misjudged because we measure the future with yardsticks from the past."  Stephen Baker

How does one measure the value of mobilizing and socializing an enterprise?  In the book Social Business by Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies, written by Dion Hinchcliffe and Peter Kim, they report that in 2010, McKinsey and Company published survey results of companies engaged in social business activities that  showed firms engaged systematically in social business processes had 24 percent higher revenue.  Frost and Sullivan found similar results showing companies that deployed social tools saw improved performance in innovation (68 percent versus 39 percent that didn’t deploy), sales growth (76 percent versus 50 percent that didn’t deploy), and profit growth (71 percent versus 45 percent that didn’t deploy).  From those results it appears something good happens to companies when they embrace the social business concept.  I think it is too early to say exactly how these improvements happened, but at this stage it is simply important to recognize the correlation.

Measuring the ROIs for mobile and social is difficult.  We know the exercise of determining an ROI is useful in order to set priorities, but most of us, down deep know these innovations are important and necessary even if we cannot exactly identify the ROI.  They have significantly changed the way we all communicate in our personal lives, and they are guaranteed to change the way we communicate in our work lives as well.  These innovations are changing the very way business is done.   At the least we should be studying these trends and engaging in pilot projects.

Some of the most significant changes social and mobile technologies are making in the enterprise today are based on:

• faster communications
• more open exchanges of ideas
• reduced communication channel hierarchies that prevent open communication
• communication accountability - names are associated with ideas
• faster identification of problems
• knowledge exchange
• more collaborative decision-making
• shared situational awareness
• data-driven decision-making

What is the value of having enterprise-wide situational awareness?  What is the value of being able to see an entire project or account discussion in one collaboration site?  What is the value of eliminating artificial barriers to ideas and innovations?  It is a whole new way of doing things and we may have to develop new yardsticks for measuring these capabilities.
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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

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Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

SMAC Tsunamis and Mobile Strategies

I was reminded these past few weeks of the many challenges organizations have keeping their business and IT strategies aligned with rapidly evolving technology innovations and changes in their marketplaces.  Two weeks ago I attended a military related conference and listened as the different military branches shared their mobile strategies and the processes they must follow in order to bring new solutions online.  Yikes!  It is incredibly challenging as their administrative processes for acquiring new technologies typically take years, but mobile technologies are evolving much quicker than that.

Even though the military processes are necessarily cumbersome for acquiring new technologies, testing them, and then going through formal RFPs and contract negotiations, their strategies for how to use mobile solutions are well defined.  This is different from the commercial sector where it is often relatively easy to acquire new technologies, but there lacks a mobile strategy to support it.

Last week I taught mobile strategy and SMAC (social, mobile, analytic and cloud) strategy sessions in England, Scotland and Belgium.  It was a crazy travel schedule, but what an adventure!  I was again impressed with the need for more combined training between business and IT - training that educates business on the possibilities of these technologies, and IT on what it takes to support them.

Social, mobile, analytics and Cloud, plus the Internet of Things are hitting markets like a tsunami.   One of the key points I emphasize in my strategy sessions is that this SMAC tsunami, or the "Nexus of Forces" as Gartner describes them, is approaching and overtaking companies whether it fits into their three year plan or not.  Companies don't operate in a vacuum.  They can't always dictate the timeframe of technology waves and innovations.  Somehow companies must recognize these important trends and change rapidly from a Plan A, to a Plan B or C in order to remain upright.

I am seeing entire industries overturned by these technologies.  I am seeing new business models appear and rapidly changing competitive landscapes.  The questions I get asked daily now are,  "How will these technologies impact my industry and business, and how should we respond?"  It is interesting to note these are mostly business strategy related questions.

The military, although they have slow processes, often have well defined strategies.  In the commercial sector I see relatively fast processes but a lack of strategies today.  This offers enormous opportunities for companies that can see these tsunamis approaching, get prepared and use these forces to achieve competitive advantages.

I will be discussing many of these new trends, innovations and strategies tomorrow on a live webinar at 11 AM EST.  I invite you to join me.  Mike Karlskind, VP of Service Optimization Strategies with ClickSoftware, and I will be discussing, "The Role Big Data Plays in Real-Time Enterprises, Mobile Strategies and Field Services."  Register Here!

Registration Link: http://go.clicksoftware.com/role-big-data-plays-with-real-time-enterprise-mobile-strategies-and-field-services.html?utm_source=December18thWebinarKB.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Video Series: SAP and SMAC Compilation

SMAC - social, mobile, analytics and cloud are the hottest topics in the SAP ecosystem right now.  This segment of the Mobile Expert Video Series is a compilation of the latest opinions of SAP folks on this subject.

Video Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6ErWJCgRCw


*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.