Does social computing really deliver significantly better business performance? Or is it merely a minor incremental improvement? While many cases have shown successful implementations of collaborative social media style applications in the workplace, the benefit of Enterprise 2.0 is still a hotly debated topic. While the core concept is the integration of Web 2.0 and social networking workflow models into business processes, there are still a wide range of interpretations and outcomes that make it difficult to hone in on measurable returns.

Here are ten issues that commonly arise when mixing business with social media…

1. Lack of social media literacy amongst workers.

2. A perception that social tools won’t work well in a particular industry.

3. Social software is still perceived as too risky to use for core business activities.

4. Can’t get enough senior executives engaged with social tools.

5. There is vapor lock between IT and the social computing initiative.

6. Need to prove ROI before there will be support for social software.

7. Security concerns are holding up pilot projects/adoption plans.

8. The needs around community management have come as a surprise.

9. Difficulties sustaining external engagement.

10. Struggling to survive due to unexpected success.

Source: Enterprise Web 2.0

Socialcast this Wednesday released an official developer API. After weeks of beta testing with select clients the API is now available for all Socialcast members. Socialcast is a real-time collaboration platform that allows companies to communicate and collaborate via activity streams where coworkers share text, files, images and links. Socialcast also allows for users to organize groups to share information with enterprise teams.

The Socialcast API allows developers to create applications through a robust set of operations to interact with activity streams. Socialcast also offers users a desktop client built off their API.

“Socialcast Founder and CEO Timothy Young mentioned that Socialcast aims to be a platform, and not a tool like Yammer, or Twitter,” says TechCrunch reporter Daniel Brusilovsky.

When viewing the Socialcast website I see this eWeek quote featured as the latest buzz, “Socialcast is like a secure Twitter for the Enterprise.”

What I’m going to take away from these contradicting statements is that Socialcast is working on developing and enhancing features to break away from the “enterprise Twitter” mold, however bases the platform on similar functionality.

Collaber on Web comes to market this week as an extension of the Collaber Desktop real-time collaboration software suite. Collaber allows users to share files, folders, tasks, events and track project activities through unified team workspaces. In addition to Web based access, new features include a multi-calendar view, improved HTML editing, keyboard shortcuts, advanced alerts, enhanced filters and the launch of an application store where developers can offer new tools built on the Collaber API.

Users can maintain a single Collaber account to access and manage their projects from the Web or desktop.

Source: Online PR News

Zoomerang this week delivers increased sharing and collaboration for businesses seeking efficient and effective solutions for managing online surveys. Zoomerang Enterprise offers the ability to build a library of complete survey questionnaires and results, robust search functions and a dashboard for collaborators to easily access and manage survey information. The centralized architecture allows disconnected employees and teams to come together and share survey results and templates to increase productivity.

This service is included at no additional cost with a Zoomerang Premium subscription.

Source: Zoomerang

The top story from the Googleplex this week is the announcement confirming Google Wave will be available to 100,000 testers this fall. The latest project lead by Google Maps developers Lars and Jens Rasmussen, Google Wave is an open source collaboration and communications platform that fuses conversations and documents in real-time.

Developers have already been getting their hands dirty in the Google Wave Sandbox with almost 6,000 active accounts. Google is working on filling an additional 20,000 account requests over the next month.

Leading up to the September 30th test launch Google will be working on increasing the stability, speed and usability of the Google Wave platform while expanding API features.

Source: Google Wave Developers Blog

The culture of organizations is the most common barrier to implementing collaborative Enterprise 2.0 technologies into businesses today. Employees are commonly set in their ways and introducing new applications and ideas can upset the daily workflow and create resistance. The good news is that there are proven ways to expedite cultural changes within companies.

To begin we must describe some general use cases in order to determine what type of results we can expect from Enterprise 2.0 initiatives. The first general use case is “experimental.” In this case we are relying on small test groups and company evangelists to move things forward. Our second is a “well-defined” use case, where someone in the company has signed off on the new social software.

Looking at “well-defined” use cases with senior management support we tend to have a range of options available to overcome company culture when introducing new applications.

Remove Alternatives – Simply remove the old software and require employees to use the new. This is the quickest way people will adapt. Sameer Patel’s case notes how a leading chip manufacturer gave workers 45 days to migrate their emails to new Wiki software before the email server was wiped clean.

Storytelling – New efficiencies and opportunities for growth are envisioned by senior management as they outline ideas for the workplace of tomorrow. “People need to have a sense of what the future looks like, so be very clear on that,” says BP’s Fiona MacLeod.

Incentives – Recognize and reward top contributors and celebrate breakthroughs and milestones. Social software participation can also be included in performance reviews as suggested by Andrew McAfee.

Executive Reminders – If upper management is making it very clear that this is the direction things are going, people tend to jump on the bus quickly. No one wants to risk losing their paycheck by ignoring company initiatives.

When in “experimental” stages many of the direct approaches to “well-defined” use cases are not available. Here are some tactics that are effective when experimenting with enterprise social networks…

Model Behavior – Project leaders and evangelists can influence usage by removing alternatives from their own routines. If the only way for fellow employees to communicate with these leaders is through the social software then more will have to adapt.

New Use Cases – By introducing various new cases where social business applications can be used, more employees will make connections and see benefits.

Senior Sponsor – After an initial test launch try to attract the attention of a senior manager to build support.

Measuring performance for “well-defined” use cases can be done by deciding whether the job set out to perform was accomplished. Also it can be benchmarked against the replaced processes. Measuring “experimental” usage is done by collecting wins. The cases where the software was helpful to an employee, turnaround time was increased, new information was found and new connections were made are all examples of wins.

Source: Social Computing Journal

This week Microsoft Office 2010 was released as a technical preview for testers. New collaboration features will be the highlight of Office 2010 applications. Unified and real-time communication products are proliferating throughout the market and Microsoft is hoping to keep pace, along with it’s strong grip on the business world.

Unified Communication – While working in Microsoft Office 2010 you will be able to keep track of which colleagues are online, working on a project, and available to chat or join a meeting.

Real-Time Document Collaboration & Co-Authoring Projects – Everyone knows emailing a document around the office for corrections and approvals can easily turn into a multitude of out-of-sync copies. New features in Office 2010 will allow you to see who is working on a specific document. Groups and permissions can be set to allow specific users to edit sections of a document.

Remote Access – Office files such as Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides stored in the cloud will be available remotely from smartphones or any Web-browser enabled device.

The ship date for Office 2010 can be expected around third quarter next year. Along with the full-featured suite, Microsoft will be offering a limited Web-based free version of Office 2010 where users can access documents via the browser, and not just Internet Explorer.

The latest from productivity application developers Zoho is Projects 2.0, an online project and team collaboration suite. On top of standard project management tools such as reports and scheduling, Zoho enhances it’s offering by integrating popular Web 2.0 features. Here is what you can expect to see in this release…

Project Planning through milestones, tasks, priorities, completion, dependencies and ownership, along with the ability to import from Microsoft Project.

Project Collaboration features include a Project Stream to track recent activities, User Status for Twitter-like status updates, Shared Project Calendar to stay up to date on upcoming deadlines and meetings, Project Wikis, and Centralized File Sharing with folders, tags, search and versioning. Integration with Zoho Office is also available for document creation and editing. Discussion features are enhanced by interactive forums and live chat.

Project Tracking is easy through the Project Dashboard which offers an at-a-glance view of project activity. Additional features include reports for visual evaluation of project progress and timesheet tools for tracking time spent on tasks.

A free version of Zoho Projects 2.0 is available for unlimited users working on a single project. Additional projects and increased storage require paid plans available from $12 – $80 per month.

An effort to give smartphones a more integral role in business communications will expand collaborative features for WebEx users. Announced at the Cisco Live conference this week, new features planned for the third quarter of next year include…

The availability of employee presence information while a smartphone is in use.

Speech-to-text voicemail while users are participating in a WebEx conference. This non-intrusive measure will allow users to carry on a text conversation and offers the ability to invite the sender into the conference.

Anchored connections in case a user loses mobile service while in a WebEx conference, which will allow easy re-connection when service is regained.

Additional features include the ability to visit a remote office and map your location via Wi-Fi, which will also allow detection of available resources such as meeting rooms and equipment.

WebEx introduced an iPhone app earlier this year. As these new initiatives continue to develop Cisco plans to upgrade these features and offer intuitive interfaces across multiple smartphone platforms.

Source: PC World

Intrigued by the concept of Enterprise 2.0? If your company is considering implementing Web 2.0 technologies as an innovative business solution, advancements are being made every day within enterprise collaboration and social networking applications. If you’re like most executives however, you are still on the fence or unsure how to approach these new technologies.

Business software and technology consultant Dion Hinchcliffe led a workshop at last week’s Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston. As part of his presentation, Hinchcliffe discussed the allocation of resources and expenses related to introducing 2.0 technologies within organizations. From his experiences, here is the breakdown…

Tools 15% – First understanding that Enterprise 2.0 is more about people than it is about software and hardware, the cost of acquiring business collaboration and/or social networking systems is potentially the smallest expenditure. Even though the cost of solutions can vary greatly, there are several other considerations in this plan.

Customization and Integration 25% – One size fits all would be ideal, but most companies have unique business processes and applications. Customizing the user experience to ensure smooth integration and transition will take some time and resources.

Community Management 25% – As we look towards the long term, serving the community of users will be instrumental. Through engagement, moderation and mentoring we will see greater adoption and participation throughout the organization.

IT Support 15% – Keeping all-systems-go requires a skilled IT team, as with most business technologies.

Project and Change Management 20% – Enhanced collaboration, communication and transparency creates several new dynamics that can be foreign to many traditional business organizations. The culture of many companies can easily create resistance to any Enterprise 2.0 initiative. Creating clear objectives, measuring results and making appropriate changes along the way will be key to progress and success.