Enterprises: Avoid Hype When Going Social
Jinfo Blog

By Shimrit Janes

Abstract

FreePint's Topic Series: The Social Enterprise is in full swing with articles on SharePoint and its alternatives such as Huddle, Confluence and open source WordPress published this week. Capco's collaborative platform "CapInTouch" is also under the spotlight in a case study with takeaways for others considering a bespoke solution. Stick to what's meaningful for your business and avoid the hype, advises Shimrit Janes in her editorial.

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A strong theme throughout our FreePint Topic Series: The Social Enterprise is the need to avoid hype or "social for social's sake", instead sticking to what's meaningful for your business.

We've seen this already in Steve Bynghall's articles covering the importance of elements such as governance, advocates, and realistic definitions of success, whilst Richard Hare introduced us to the importance of good design and meaningful measures.

This week, we turn to technology - looking at alternatives to SharePoint - and a case study focusing in on a real-life social enterprise. Looking forward to next week, we also begin to tackle the difficulties of analytics and demonstrating value.

To SharePoint or Not to SharePoint?

One challenge that appears again and again for organisations is to what extent SharePoint presents an effective solution for their requirements. Often driven by a need to integrate with corporate IT's Microsoft-based roadmaps, stories abound about costly customisation projects, or the need to integrate with other social technologies.

This is not to say that you cannot have an effective social enterprise based on a SharePoint solution. However, this isn't for everyone, and in Is There Really an Alternative to SharePoint? by James Mullan we explore alternative solutions such as Huddle and Confluence along with open source solutions including Joomla, Drupal and WordPress.

Capco: the Importance of Culture

Whilst data and statistics can provide real insight to what's going on "under the bonnet", there's nothing like someone else's story as a way of providing inspiration and lessons.

In her case study of Capco, Rebecca O'Reilly gives us precisely this. Borne of Capco's culture of user-centred innovation, "CapInTouch" is a collaborative platform that was built in-house, and continues to evolve in response to the way that Capco's people work. Readers can find out precisely what the ingredients to Capco's success as a social enterprise are, with key take-away lessons.

Finding the Value of Statistics

Demonstrating the value of a social enterprise programme is another topic that often presents itself as real challenge for organisations. Coming up next week, we take a closer look at this area.

Azfar Islam will be challenging the notion of data for data's sake, suggesting instead that the organisation should be embedding their own notion of "value" within stories that demonstrate the impact of social ways of working on the business.

Editor's Note: The Social Enterprise

The FreePint Topic Series: The Social Enterprise runs from January to March 2014 to examine the ways that organisations are maximising internal social connections and knowledge management.

Register your interest now for notification of new content published in the series, to get early announcements to register for FreePint Webinars produced in the series, and to receive a free copy of the FreePint Report: Buyer's Guide on Social Tools, scheduled for publication in March.

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