Dion Hinchcliffe recrunches the social software computing argument giving it an enterprise focus. Drawing on discussion at McKinsey & Co and Forrester, Dion believes:
…it appears that the two-way Web is increasingly moving the power out of the hands of trusted institutions and into the hands of everyday users, who decide for themselves what products they should buy, whose information they should consume, what marketing they want. Thus, online communities are increasingly driving the vision of institutions because these technologies put the majority of power into the hands of communities, essentially take it away from existing formal social structures and organizations.
OK – in the UK we tend to lag US thinking by 6-18 months. But are there any palpable signs the UK profession is willing to embrace these ideas? Jeff Nolan at SAP thinks:
The change in enterprise computing is coming, but it’s going to take a lot longer than many of us would hope and when it does it will be apparent that the primary driver is a new generation of workers who expect different things from their systems and services than we do.
I believe enterprise includes the majority of professional firms because by its very nature, ‘we’ are in the business of delivering personal and personalised services. It therefore makes sense for firms to develop strategies that embrace social software. Jeff is unclear about the timeframe he’s considering but I think it’s a lot closer than people imagine. Is there any evidence to support this?
According to Blogging 4 Business, PwC is dispensing tax guidance using blogs. If it is then I’m having a hard time tracking them down, despite being a PwC portal user. There is a feedback mechanism in the Tax News section but it looks more like a covert attempt to flog services. Why, for instance should I need to leave a phone number if I’m making a suggestion? Isn’t moderated comment or an email address sufficient? But I do know their internal IT is developing wikis. This makes sense, especially where you need to develop knowledge management style systems. Which all practitioners should be doing anyway. So what other evidence can I put forward?
Offline discussions with a small but growing number of firms implies the odd toe is being put in the water. It is a bottom up thing – as I have suggested before – not just in terms of people but in terms of firms engaging. In other words, in the larger firms, there are what I imagine some partners might call renegades having a go while the smaller firms are leading a slow but steady march.
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