Enterprise Social Collaboration and the Next Generation of CIOs

Ajay Kaul, Managing Partner, AgreeYa Solutions

Getting social is inevitable. According to Gartner, by 2016, 50 percent of large businesses will have implemented an enterprise social collaboration (ESC) network; and 30 percent of these will be considered as crucial as email and telephones are today. The enterprise social software market is expected to grow from $4.77 billion in 2014 to $8.14 billion in 2019. This represents a compound annual growth (CAGR) of 11.3 percent by 2019 (Markets and Markets). Where company branches used to function individually, now all departments and teams are aware of what each other is doing, and can work together to accomplish goals more efficiently.

“Forward-thinking CIOs should educate themselves and fellow senior leaders on how the social media landscape functions outside of their company”

As the millennial generation continues permeating the workforce, CIOs will be forced to consider the pros of cons of integrating ESC solutions to better suit the mode of communication this population is accustomed to using. Smart CIOs who are ahead of the curve have already embraced it for these reasons:

Engage Employees: ESC platforms help employers engage a workforce of millennials who thrive on and expect social media to be part of their office lives; and rely on mobile initiatives accessed from anywhere, at any time, across devices.

Worry Less: ESC tools have integrated security and governance features to prevent breaches. For example, administrators can easily access and control rights, ensuring only the right people have access to the right information.

Eliminate Hassle: Modern ESC tools eliminate installation processes, maintenance and support costs. ESC solutions are scalable and easily customized; and with cloud-based and hosted solutions, they minimize the inconvenience of continuous upgrades.

Manage Mail: Because ESC platforms allow for communication to be broken down by topics, sub topics, groups, departments and more, company-wide communication is quickly streamlined and organized, helping maintain overflowing in boxes.

Solve Issues: ESC tools provide a central, organized hub for company communication and a comprehensive knowledge base for easy document management; and they integrate with current business applications and systems, such as HRIS, CRM, Leave Management System and more for easy adoption.

Because social media continues to become a more integral part of employees’ daily lives, implementing ESC tools is a logical step to improving engagement and communication within an organization. Forward thinking CIOs should educate themselves and fellow senior leaders on how the social media landscape functions outside of their company in order to determine how it can be best leveraged as an enterprise tool. Without taking advantage of this new wave of communication, the C-suite is cheating itself out of increased productivity and the opportunity to tap into employee ideas and talents.

The time to go social is now. The business landscape will continue to change into a more collaborative, social atmosphere—and those who do not change with the trends will find their company left behind.(As told to Derek James