Collaborative Businesses Succeed on an ECM Foundation

Starting Your Journey to Become a More Collaborative Business

When it comes to turning the idea of social into opportunity for your organization, start by identifying local champions. "Don't think of trying to change everybody's adoption overnight," Allen Bonde, partner and principal analyst at Digital Clarity Group, says. "Look for those local ‘markets' within your organization where there is thinking around these topics and get those champions to be the starting point."

Bonde recommends starting your social business strategy with these three things:

Apply the idea of social to everyday work. Social tools help break down information silos so that no matter where a worker is or what device they're working on they can connect with the people and the files they need. The idea of social needs to be universally adopted and institutionalized in order for it to drive collaboration throughout the organization.

Think outside-in. Leaders need to embrace the social nature of business and start treating employees like customers. Arming your workforce with secure, user-friendly social tools will enable them to become more responsive and more innovative.

Get the right architecture. Without the best people, processes and technology tools, your social efforts run the risk of falling flat. Social business solutions are different from consumer social tools in some key ways, including system security and scalability. Spend time to really think about what your architecture needs to succeed.

"We need to think globally in terms of global business and in terms of customer requirements, but act locally," Bonde says. "The zen of social business is to always think globally about what we are trying to achieve, but act locally and break down the problem."