So here we are at Enterprise 2.0 in Boston. I will be reporting on it on this blog over the next few days. I recently found an interesting related study. As reported in AdWeek, the current order of customer interaction methods starts with face-to-face, followed by websites, channel partners, call centers, traditional media, advisory groups and finally, social media. However, this order may flip in a few years. During this time, according to an IBM survey of 1,709 CEOS from 64 countries and 18 industries, social media will leap to the number-two spot while traditional media plunges to the bottom.
Saul Berman, a partner in IBM’s global business services organization is quoted as saying, “It’s all part of this move towards openness, both with your customers, with your employees, your business partners, and engaging them all together in what I call this redefinition of the organization—more broadly defined.” It is social business of which enterprise 2.0 is a subset.
The study also found that many CEOs plan to create a more social workplace and, more importantly, the best ones already have. Social media is a major source of data on customers, partners, and markets, in general. Here is where the study gets really interesting from my perspective. “While 54% of the outperformers said they have access to and can draw insights from data, only 26% of the underperformers said as much. And 57% of the outperformers said they could translate those insights into action, but 31% of the underperformers said they are able to do so.”
This rise in social business and the need for more and better data is causing a shift in metrics. For example, one participant in the IBM study said they had previously measured call center productivity by brevity but has since shifted focus to allow for longer calls that can gather more customer data.
This is part of the general trend away from simply trying to strip out costs to adding value and the rise of intangible assets such as knowledge and the people who know how to collect, interpret, and act on it as I wrote about last Friday. I am sure we will be learning a lot about this over the next few days.p
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