Crafting new guidelines for strategic deployment of Social Business systems

AIIM, the Association for Information and Image Management has gathered leaders from 18 Social Business and Content Management companies to serve on the second major taskforce project in the social content definition process, this one headed by Professor Andrew McAfee, known as the grandfather of E2.0. “I am excited to partner with AIIM on this effort,” says Dr. McAfee. “The technologies, practices, and philosophies of the 2.0 Era continue to affect companies in important ways, and it is critical to study the phenomenon as it unfolds. This project will give us the chance to see firsthand and in real time how organizations are changing the way they generate and use information, one of the most important transformations taking place in today’s business world.”

In a kickoff meeting at the Sloan School of Management at MIT, task force executives architected the plan for the creation of case studies and a road map for the responsible use of Social and Enterprise 2.0 technologies in transforming key business processes. The road map will focus on use cases and select processes that are core to most business organizations.

According to McAfee, Marketing and Sales are two groups that clearly should work closely together, but too often don’t. “We’re going to examine how the new tools for collaboration and interaction are impacting the interface between these two functions, and hopefully improving it,” he says. Business innovation is another process to be examined in the Social construct. “Until very recently, companies had to specify in advance who their innovators were. Now they don’t. We’re going to explore how technology-facilitated open innovation is playing out across companies,” explains McAfee.

In addition to defining the Social Business impact on improving specific processes, the taskforce will also investigate how the tools and approaches of the 2.0 Era are changing the way knowledge workers interact on a day-to-day basis, and bringing higher levels of serendipity and goodwill to the enterprise and its ecosystem. “This isn’t about Social for Social’s sake”, cautions AIIM President, John F. Mancini. “Our efforts are designed to help organizations use these systems in a strategic way to improve the flexibility of their core business functions, making them more responsive to, and inclusive of internal and external customers,” he says.

Working with Dr. McAfee, the task force will be conducting broad business research across industry verticals as well as interviews with select CIOs and IT executives from major corporations and government agencies this summer. The group’s analysis and findings will be presented in a series of AIIM-produced reports, whitepapers, webinars, and a virtual conference this fall.