Social Computing — Good or Bad for Business?

Clearly, social media sites and social computing are improving collaboration among employees, clients and vendors around the globe, but sometimes with mixed results. So, is social computing a productivity tool or a work distraction?

Early adopters of social computing technologies have seen improvements in collaboration among employees and clients. The following are lessons they learned along the way:

* Start with a business problem. Employees use tools that help them work smarter and ignore tools that don’t add value. Before installing social software, identify the business problem to be solved and build from there.

* A new way of working. Social computing can help organizations identify experienced resources, generate new ideas, and engage personnel in solving the most challenging problems. Done right, this has potential to reduce e-mails while increasing communication across organizational boundaries. A thriving social site requires resources dedicated to adding and linking fresh content, engaging and training participants, and monitoring problems.

* Use pilot projects. Practice rapid prototyping – deploy functionality quickly and continually improve rather than overdesign. Learn from users and evolve the technology and business processes.

* Understand motivation. Many heavy users of social media and collaboration environments are often more motivated by opportunities to extend their social connections and reputation than by traditional incentives and rewards. Engage these people early to create a collaborative environment that’s community-centric rather than product or organization-centric. This group represents the toughest critics and most enthusiastic promoters.

The bottom line: social computing can boost enterprise productivity, but remember that it’s about the people, not just the technology.

The Deloitte Debate examines these issues from the perspective of three key business sectors — life sciences, human capital and retail — providing observations and analysis on how, in particular, should function in this new environment.

Life Sciences: Social networking provides a win-win. Patients have access to valuable information and drug companies have real-world patient feedback that allows them to finish drug trials more quickly and effectively.

Talent: While social computing can help create a more collaborative, transparent culture, don’t dive in without a smart plan that’s integrated with your overall talent strategy. Most importantly, if human resources and leadership work together to embed social tools and a culture of collaboration, the organization’s people will contribute to improving productivity, innovation, and growth.

Retail: Organizations that leverage their employee networks as competitive assets have an advantage in the battle for consumer mind-share.

To view Deloitte’s points and counterpoints on how social computing, please go to http://www.deloitte.com/us/debates/socialcomputing>