IT Knowledge Hub » Networking http://itknowledgehub.com ...a place for IT Professionals Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:56:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 The Missing Half Of A Social Enterprise http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/the-missing-half-of-a-social-enterprise/ http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/the-missing-half-of-a-social-enterprise/#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:39:00 +0000 Chirag Mehta tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6293579155917103664.post-7152940371770791929 In my previous post “Social CRM Is Only The First Half Of A Social Enterprise” I started the discussion on why social CRM is only the first half of a social enterprise and how we can go to the core and build a true social enterprise. Continuing the discussion on the missing half on a social enterprise this is the part 2.

Transform productivity silos into collaborative content curation:

The social software gets better as more people use it but we need more people to make it useful. There is no easy way out. As Andrew McAfee’s rightly put it Email is a 9x problem. There isn’t significant juice in standalone social software to gain broader adoption due to the endowment effect. There is a huge adoption barrier for standalone social software to be successful since it is not contextualized into a business process. The users simply see it as yet another tool that increases their cognitive overload.

I suggest don’t go after social software that is designed to create a parallel universe. Instead design solutions that are contextualized within existing business processes and makes it very easy for the end users to curate existing content from several structured, semi-structured, and unstructured sources e.g. Email, Wiki, PowerPoint, ERP, CRM, SharePoint etc. The nature of the content could be any artifacts such as an invoice, purchase order, strategy document, pipeline report, documentation etc. Describing what collaborative content curation can actually do for enterprise software would require a blog post by itself. I suggest you read democratised curation by JP and "The Seven Needs of Real-Time Curators” by Scoble. But in nutshell if designed correctly it offers significant potential to help people find, nurture, and syndicate the enterprise content with collaboration on steroids. The users continue using the tools that they like. However suddenly these tools start feeling more and more social with collaborative on-ramps and off-ramps. Social media, cloud computing, and collaborative content curation will be peanut, butter, and jelly for a social enterprise.

Use social tools to challenge and rethink management practices:

Efficient tools are not a proxy for an efficient management. The tools of the past did bring the automation and productivity but did very little to influence the way the organizations are being managed. Adding social fabric to existing processes may bring in some additional benefits but a true social enterprise should thrive for the tools that completely make them rethink the management practices almost to the point to cause disruption.

How about opening up the cost structure to the entire organization, democratize the decision making process, run bottom-line based prediction markets – not how much we will sell it for but what will it cost us to build it. It’s an endless list. This will be unsettling in the beginning for some but it would eventually yield great results.

The generational shift is already ready for this disruption. The baby boomers are on their way out and the current mid-level and senior gen X managers will be replaced by the millennial very soon. Millennial is a born-social generation. As one millennial told my friend when asked what does career mean to him – “I want to have awareness of what’s going on around me, have micro-conversations on social tools, and create context. This context is my career”. Such philosophy will challenge the current management practices and put organizations in a difficult situation.

But this is an opportunity as well. The organizations can completely rethink the management practices as they start their journey to be a true social enterprise. This is not just about asking a CEO to use a blog to communicate with the employees but to have a social-first attitude at every single step of the management.

Earn your user base by leaning in with a consumer start-up mindset:

One of the biggest differences between the enterprise and the consumer software is that the user is not a buyer in the enterprise software. Enterprise software vendors don’t attempt to win the end users since they don’t have to. The end users have no choice. I suggest that if you are an enterprise software company that designs social solutions lean in with a consumer start-up mindset where you really have to earn your user base.

The cafeteria menu is my personal favorite example. One of my friends’ company spent $600k to redesign their intranet and the most popular page on the new Intranet is still the cafeteria menu that gets updated every week. Why not solve that problem? Provide cafeteria information that is fresh and accessible from mobile devices. Now, you have my attention. Add social and location-based functionality to help me find other employees to network and have lunch with. This is the new HCM. Well, not exactly, but you get the point.

If you attempt to design an IT-driven top-down solution to enforce “socialness” it simply won’t work. You need to win your users to use your solutions even if, in theory, they don’t have a choice.

Having fun and being productive should not be mutually exclusive.
]]> In my previous post “Social CRM Is Only The First Half Of A Social Enterprise” I started the discussion on why social CRM is only the first half of a social enterprise and how we can go to the core and build a true social enterprise. Continuing the discussion on the missing half on a social enterprise this is the part 2.
Transform productivity silos into collaborative content curation:
The social software gets better as more people use it but we need more people to make it useful. There is no easy way out. As Andrew McAfee’s rightly put it Email is a 9x problem. There isn’t significant juice in standalone social software to gain broader adoption due to the endowment effect. There is a huge adoption barrier for standalone social software to be successful since it is not contextualized into a business process. The users simply see it as yet another tool that increases their cognitive overload.
I suggest don’t go after social software that is designed to create a parallel universe. Instead design solutions that are contextualized within existing business processes and makes it very easy for the end users to curate existing content from several structured, semi-structured, and unstructured sources e.g. Email, Wiki, PowerPoint, ERP, CRM, SharePoint etc. The nature of the content could be any artifacts such as an invoice, purchase order, strategy document, pipeline report, documentation etc. Describing what collaborative content curation can actually do for enterprise software would require a blog post by itself. I suggest you read democratised curation by JP and “The Seven Needs of Real-Time Curators” by Scoble. But in nutshell if designed correctly it offers significant potential to help people find, nurture, and syndicate the enterprise content with collaboration on steroids. The users continue using the tools that they like. However suddenly these tools start feeling more and more social with collaborative on-ramps and off-ramps. Social media, cloud computing, and collaborative content curation will be peanut, butter, and jelly for a social enterprise.
Use social tools to challenge and rethink management practices:
Efficient tools are not a proxy for an efficient management. The tools of the past did bring the automation and productivity but did very little to influence the way the organizations are being managed. Adding social fabric to existing processes may bring in some additional benefits but a true social enterprise should thrive for the tools that completely make them rethink the management practices almost to the point to cause disruption.
How about opening up the cost structure to the entire organization, democratize the decision making process, run bottom-line based prediction markets – not how much we will sell it for but what will it cost us to build it. It’s an endless list. This will be unsettling in the beginning for some but it would eventually yield great results.
The generational shift is already ready for this disruption. The baby boomers are on their way out and the current mid-level and senior gen X managers will be replaced by the millennial very soon. Millennial is a born-social generation. As one millennial told my friend when asked what does career mean to him – “I want to have awareness of what’s going on around me, have micro-conversations on social tools, and create context. This context is my career”. Such philosophy will challenge the current management practices and put organizations in a difficult situation.
But this is an opportunity as well. The organizations can completely rethink the management practices as they start their journey to be a true social enterprise. This is not just about asking a CEO to use a blog to communicate with the employees but to have a social-first attitude at every single step of the management.
Earn your user base by leaning in with a consumer start-up mindset:
One of the biggest differences between the enterprise and the consumer software is that the user is not a buyer in the enterprise software. Enterprise software vendors don’t attempt to win the end users since they don’t have to. The end users have no choice. I suggest that if you are an enterprise software company that designs social solutions lean in with a consumer start-up mindset where you really have to earn your user base.
The cafeteria menu is my personal favorite example. One of my friends’ company spent $600k to redesign their intranet and the most popular page on the new Intranet is still the cafeteria menu that gets updated every week. Why not solve that problem? Provide cafeteria information that is fresh and accessible from mobile devices. Now, you have my attention. Add social and location-based functionality to help me find other employees to network and have lunch with. This is the new HCM. Well, not exactly, but you get the point.
If you attempt to design an IT-driven top-down solution to enforce “socialness” it simply won’t work. You need to win your users to use your solutions even if, in theory, they don’t have a choice.
Having fun and being productive should not be mutually exclusive.
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Once you finish reading this white paper, you'll be better informed about your options and the various issues that you need to take into consideration before making the final decision.

Request Free!]]> With most VoIP systems, there are usually no charges for domestic long distance calls and only a minimal charge for international calls. But that’s just one major benefit among many others when you switch to a VoIP system. In this white paper, WhichVOIP.com will detail all the various pros and cons of such a system to be sure that you select the system that best meets your needs. If you do switch to VoIP, you’d need to learn about the next step involved in choosing the right system and WhichVOIP.com will compare the options that are available.

Once you finish reading this white paper, you’ll be better informed about your options and the various issues that you need to take into consideration before making the final decision.

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Get free white papers delivered direct to your inbox from IT Knowledge Hub! Register now for cutting edge webcasts, reports, and white papers in your area of expertise.]]> http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/networking/voip-phone-service-for-small-business-all-the-features-of-corporate-phone-systems-at-a-fraction-of-the-cost/feed/ 0 Desktop Virtualization for Mobile Users http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/networking/desktop-virtualization-for-mobile-users/ http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/networking/desktop-virtualization-for-mobile-users/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:20:00 +0000 Free Network / Communications Magazines and Downloads from itknowledgehub.tradepub.com http://itknowledgehub.tradepub.com/c/pubRD.mpl?sr=rss&_t=rss&pc=w_ct68 Laptops are fast becoming the desktop of choice in corporate environments, and while they meet the need for a great user experience and the ability to work from anywhere, anytime, they also introduce more complexity and greater risk for corporate data loss.

Now, organizations can extend the benefits of desktop virtualization to mobile laptop users for new levels of portability and security. Citrix® XenClient™ delivers the no-compromise control and security that IT demands and the performance and flexibility mobile laptop users expect.

Attend this webinar and learn how XenClient:
  • Extends the benefits of desktop virtualization to mobile users
  • Delivers the security that IT needs with the flexibility that users demand
  • Uses Intel vPro technology to ensure local VMs run at maximum performance
Wed, Jul 21, 2010 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT

Speakers:
Simon Crosby
CTO, Virtualization and Management
Citrix Systems

Richard Uhlig
Intel Fellow & Chief Virtualization Architect
Intel Corporation

Request Free!]]> Laptops are fast becoming the desktop of choice in corporate environments, and while they meet the need for a great user experience and the ability to work from anywhere, anytime, they also introduce more complexity and greater risk for corporate data loss.

Now, organizations can extend the benefits of desktop virtualization to mobile laptop users for new levels of portability and security. Citrix® XenClient™ delivers the no-compromise control and security that IT demands and the performance and flexibility mobile laptop users expect.

Attend this webinar and learn how XenClient:

  • Extends the benefits of desktop virtualization to mobile users
  • Delivers the security that IT needs with the flexibility that users demand
  • Uses Intel vPro technology to ensure local VMs run at maximum performance

Wed, Jul 21, 2010 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

Speakers:
Simon Crosby
CTO, Virtualization and Management
Citrix Systems

Richard Uhlig
Intel Fellow & Chief Virtualization Architect
Intel Corporation

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The companies will work together to deliver a complete hardware, software, services and sourcing solution that will accelerate customers’ transition to the Windows Azure platform. more…

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Tangled Web – Silent Threats & Invisible Enemies

Today’s cyber-criminals are experts at using anonymity, deceit and subterfuge to victimize companies with a variety of covert malware, spam and scams that hamper employee productivity and cut profits. Attacks using rich media, open-source platforms, web 2.0 collaboration tools and social-networking sites make business networks vulnerable to this new breed of web threats.

On-premise web-security solutions have the disadvantages of high costs for infrastructure, managing the security system and training IT staff. Learn about the advantages of a hosted web security and content filtering service that intercepts web-borne viruses, spyware and phishing threats while controlling web traffic through URL filtering.

Complete the form below to access this White Paper from MessageLabs:

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]]> http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/tangled-web/feed/ 0 Email Archiving: a Business-Critical Application http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/email-archiving-businesscritical-application/ http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/email-archiving-businesscritical-application/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:33:26 +0000 admin http://itknowledgehub.com/?p=22857 Message-Labs

Email Archiving: a Business-Critical Application

Today’s businesses are especially vulnerable to accidental email loss, compliance demands, and the threat of e-discovery. Yet these same companies often have the fewest resources for combating these risks on their own. Many businesses today are turning to email archiving services to eliminate losses. Additional benefits of professional email archiving services include greater employee productivity, less need to rely on company storage servers, and increased protection. Email archiving also protects email 24X7 with enterprise-level backup and support. Data is secured at multiple sites and restoring archived email happens quickly and does not require IT professionals. For most businesses, costs are significantly lower and data is more secure compared to companies that choose to run and maintain in-house archiving software solutions.

Complete the form below to access this White Paper from MessageLabs:

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]]> http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/email-archiving-businesscritical-application/feed/ 0 Death to PST Files http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/death-pst-files/ http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/death-pst-files/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:31:31 +0000 admin http://itknowledgehub.com/?p=22849 Message-Labs

Death to PST Files

Email is one of a company’s most widely used assets—the average corporate user sends and receives 167 messages per day. Since a company must provide employees constant access to their email accounts and retain copies of every important message, managing the email of an entire enterprise is exceedingly difficult. Many employees use Personal Storage Table (PST) files as a “personal email filing cabinet” that can burden a company’s storage and cause data loss or corruption. Learn how a hosted archiving solution helps companies  manage the huge volume of email messages, guard against data loss and comply with document-retention regulations.

Complete the form below to access this White Paper from MessageLabs:

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]]> http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/death-pst-files/feed/ 0 Email on Cruise Control http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/email-cruise-control/ http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/email-cruise-control/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:30:34 +0000 admin http://itknowledgehub.com/?p=22856 Message-Labs

Email on Cruise Control

All manners of communication, external and internal, corporate memos to customer orders and even legal documents now flow freely via email.  Given the high value of the information flowing through email, companies must ensure that their email systems are availability, secure, private, compliant with regulatory requirements and resilient to data loss and legal exposure.

This paper will discuss the wide variety of challenges associated with email security and availability and illustrate how integral email is to the operations of any organization.  More importantly this paper will highlight an alternative hosted solution by Symantec Hosted Services

Complete the form below to access this White Paper from MessageLabs:

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