Cisco has released the results of a third-party global study designed to assess how organisations use consumer social networking tools to collaborate externally, revealing the need for stronger governance and IT involvement.
The study findings indicate that the business world is at the early stages of adopting these tools and in the process of identifying key challenges, such as the need for increased governance and IT involvement, which may impact the integration and adoption of these new platforms and technologies.
The research is the first of a two-part series that Cisco has commissioned to explore the impact of social networking and collaboration applications in the enterprise.
The new study is based on extensive interviews with 105 participants representing 97 organisations in 20 countries around the globe.
The use of consumer-based social networking tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, as collaboration platforms is connecting organisations with the external world in myriad ways. These tools bring technology and business together through innovative experiences, connect people and information, establish potential new routes to market, and enhance customer intimacy and brand awareness.
Some 75 per cent identified social networks as the consumer-based social media tools they primarily use, while roughly 50 per cent of the group also identified extensive use of microblogging.
Social networking tools are spreading into core areas of the value chain, including the marketing and communications, human relations and customer service departments. Within marketing and communications, these tools have already become an integral part of the organisations' initiatives, as marcomm staff members have understood and acted on the shift from "broadcast" to "conversational" communications or rich interactions. Small and medium-sized businesses are actively using social networking channels to generate leads, but this remains a growth opportunity for larger companies.
Only one in five participants identified any policies in place concerning the use of consumer-based social networking technologies in the enterprise.
Due to the unstructured nature of social networking, companies continue to struggle with policy creation and adoption, as copying an established governance process from other, more structured areas (for example, information technology) often doesn't work for social networking. Businesses also find difficulty in striking the right balance between the social and personal nature of these tools while maintaining some degree of corporate oversight.
Across the board, respondents recognised that consumer-based social networking and collaboration tools will continue to evolve, as will their complexity, and that these tools will continue to influence the way business is conducted. The key for organisations will be the way they adopt and integrate these tools into the enterprise IT environment.
The following issues need to be addressed regarding the adoption, deployment and governance of social networking in the enterprise: when, how and what initiatives are to be launched (and not launched); how the enabling technologies should be managed; and how employee use of these technologies should be managed.