Cisco Cisco WebEx Social for Mobile White Paper

Organizations using existing tools and systems that have grown into social business systems may decide to

remain loyal to these systems, on the premise that the additional functionality provided meets the requirements

list above and those specific to the organization.
However, those organizations looking to deploy an SBS from nothing or without a suitable, functionality-rich

upgrade path should look to an established end-to-end provider to achieve the most effective, integrated, simple-

to-deploy, and cost effective solution.

Recommendations

1. Perform a detailed requirements gathering (scoping) exercise.

a. Identify all of the touch points through which users will need or want to interact with the system
b. Identify existing content and systems that need to be integrated into the SBS
c. Determine who the primary stakeholders for the SBS will be; try and involve more than just the IT

department (e.g. Legal, HR, Corporate Communications)

2. Explore and understand the governance aspects of the system before building the system.

a. Define the rules – Avoid the “too much social, not enough business” scenario by providing clear boundaries,

and use case studies to explain benefits. Take a sensible approach to enforcing these rules

3. Evaluate which aspects of a social business system are most important and relevant to your organization to

generate your own “Primary Drivers”. For example, a large consulting company based in multiple offices may

focus on expertise sourcing, remote communications and external collaboration as their primary drivers. Then

use the “Primary Drivers” to help identify which types of SBS are applicable.

4. Identify a supplier with an established history of success who can provide functionality, service, and support.

Such a supplier should be treated as a business partner, selected based on existing customer testimonials,

corporate stability, and correlation to your organization’s own business models and mindset.

5. Communicate your goals and plans to your employees; social business systems will not work without them.

Ask staff how they ideally want to interact with the system and from which devices.

6. Deploy the solution in stages. Bring your users along as each stage is rolled out.
7. Ensure that the many communication channels identified in the scoping exercise are prioritized and then

deployed according to priority.

8. Measure the return on investment and communicate results using the tool

a. Measure both the explicit benefits (reduced communication and travel costs) and the implicit benefits

(improved team communication and reduced customer service times).

References

1. “The Social Graph”

http://bradfitz.com/social-graph-problem

2. Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration – Andrew McAfee

http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/2006-spring/47306/enterprise-the-dawn-of-emergent-collaboration/

Forrester - Social Enterprise Apps Redefine Collaboration

http://www.forrester.com/Social+Enterprise+Apps+Redefine+Collaboration/fulltext/-/E-RES59825

4. 2011 AIIM Industry Watch – “Social Business Systems”

http://www.aiim.org/Research/Industry-Watch/Social-Business-2011

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