Toward a More Connected CompanyConnecting Employees to Information and Each Other

to Increase Productivity and Build Engagement

Ethan YarbroughPresident & Co-Founder

@ethany

blog.allyis.com

ethany@allyis.com

What We’ll Cover

Our relationships with technology at home and at work: What are the differences Why the differences exist Impact of the differences on employee

experience Creating technology environments that meet

employee expectations Common workplace technology pains and

problems At a high level: How to apply technology to

address these problems Impacts on productivity and morale

The Truth Behind It All

“The only differentiator that matters is customer experience.” – Sean O’Driscoll, Ants Eye View

“Employee experience becomes customer experience” – Me

(and, as it turns out, Sir Richard Branson http://www.theleadershiphub.com/blogs/one-thing-i-learnt-last-week-richard-branson)

“Teens send an average of 6 texts per hour they’re awake.” - http://www.saltywaffle.com/did-twitter-kill-the-phone-call/

• "By (2011) Apple’s revenues from the iPhone and the iPad will more than double its revenues from the entire Macintosh product line.” – Newsweek, June 2010

• Twitter and Facebook are training us in “emergent awareness”

Our Changing Relationship With Technology

• Can your employees know whatever they need to know whenever they need to know it?

• What if your competitors’ employees can?

• 71% say it’s easier to find information on the open internet than on the companies’ own knowledge management systems(1)

• 25% of employee time spent searching for people or information(2)

• 10% of salaries are spent on searches for information that is never found(3)

“Our Intranet is the first place I look for information and the last place I find it.”

Our Changing Relationship With Technology

At Home: Not Knowing the Answer = Obsolete

At Work:Not Knowing the Answer = Epidemic

What is your communication environment like?

Attention is a scarce resource / Increasing burden on employees to know what information they are looking for and how to find it / New technology helps content find people

What is your communication environment like?

Attention is a scarce resource / Increasing burden on employees to know what information they are looking for and how to find it / New technology helps content find people

ProfileType

1

Go

ProfileType

2

Go

ProfileType

3

Go

Example: • Social Content Discovery• Corporate Newsletter Site

Profile Type 3• Users with same profile type downloaded this content

• Users with the same profile added this content

• Newest updates

• Most commented on

Connect With Profile 3 Users

• Name• Recent updates

• Name• Recent updates

• Name• Recent updates

It’s the Amazon.com approach to business content delivery

Value grows as people carry out individual actions

Users just do what they would normally do, the system monitors and gets progressively more useful

Reduces time to content discovery The system learns the user

Example: • Bootstrapping a Social Network• HP Watercooler

• Inferred key words• Cross referenced against employee directory• Suggests connections based on content similarity• Unconscious development of relevant network• Exposed key words list enables at-a-glance analysis of company trends, activity and focus

Approach to Information Discovery: BROWSE

• Line of Business solutions • Ad hoc development

• Disconnected, invisible to each other • High redundancy rate

• Serve immediate needs, cause long-term problems

This is limiting. And limiting is disempowering.

Typical Business Information Environment

Approach to Information Discovery: SEARCH, ALERT, RSS and EMERGENCE

Anytime Access = Empowerment

Enterprise Software Platform

Mobile and Remote

Team Sites Layer

Integrated Business Information Environment

Social Is a Dirty Word?

Don’t interpret “Social” as Facebook, and Twitter and YouTube or frivolous pursuits.

“Social” just means using a state of connectedness to derive co-created value and that has direct application to your work environment.

60% Percent of the workday

the average information worker spends

being social in pursuit of goals

– Dion Hinchcliffe, Dachis Group

Enterprise Software Platforms

• SharePoint• Jive• IBM Lotus Notes• Infosys• Cisco• SAP• SocialText• Leverage Software• ThoughtFarmer• Drupal

Fully integrated, single install, multiple configuration

Socially Enabled is Now the Norm

A nervous system for your company

Impacts on Productivity and Morale

4850 Emails generated during 3 month project

Reduced to 250 using a wiki

50% Percentage of all projects within budget

Increased to 70% using a wiki

7.5 Average number of days for new team members to be productive

Reduced to 1.5 days using a wiki and information management platform

7% Percent more productiveEmployees with extensive digital networks are than their Less-connected colleagues

Sources: Doculabs, MIT

Impacts on Productivity and Morale

Enhanced team-work Improved knowledge sharing Reduced time and effort to find information Better version control

Better decision-making environment

High correlation between decision effectiveness and engagement (Bain & Co.)

Reduced costs of operation Talent retention

Your Technology Strategy Starts With People

Who is your audience? What is their relationship with technology? How do they consume information?

Can you create communication environments that incorporate their established habits?

Design as though anyone who knows anything is leaving tomorrow.

Thank You!