The 2.0 Day of Reckoning
Thursday: September 27, 2007 12:34 PM
If I were to ever leave AT&T and start a consultant company, one of my first questions to executive management would be to ask “Do you really want to succeed in the Collaboration and Social Software Area?” Ok, I wouldn’t last very long in the consultant business by asking real world questions but when has reality ever come into play. At some point, you will be faced with this question. For example, many programs will start with some left over equipment and open source software. Other groups might grab the WSS (Sharepoint) components that come with the SQL license which is basically free (Ok, a sunk cost). When the business picks up on these tools, your ability to have friendly customers who understand downtime goes out the window. When these tools become integrated into the day-to-day processes of the business, you must have reliability, performance, and fail over capabilities. The game will change and management needs to be prepared.
This question not only applies to the hardware and software environment but it also applies to processes and standards put into place by various other groups. IT, Legal, and Records Management will put up barriers in your deployment. They don’t mean to hold up progress but it’s natural for them to gravitate toward rules and regulations. For example, suppose that we had five different environments or tools. Each of them have a different engagement process and the owning organization will want to keep their own process in place. Although, the customer would be better served with a single process where the functionality and features drive toward the right environment, legacy organizations will block this effort. Another example is that the document management group will soon be knocking on your door since you allow people to attach documents to weblogs and wiki posts. They will argue that the source of record must be the document management system not the collaborative environment. Personally, we have had no fewer than three different groups approach us with this argument (read attack on the business model). Remember, success is like blood in the water. The sharks will emerge; it’s just a matter of time.
The point is that real and hard decisions will need to be made by people in leadership positions. They will have to answer the question “Are we in this for the long run, or not”.
If I were to ever leave AT&T and start a consultant company, one of my first questions to executive management would be to ask “Do you really want to succeed in the Collaboration and Social Software Area?” Ok, I wouldn’t last very long in the consultant business by asking real world questions but when has reality ever come into play. At some point, you will be faced with this question. For example, many programs will start with some left over equipment and open source software. Other groups might grab the WSS (Sharepoint) components that come with the SQL license which is basically free (Ok, a sunk cost). When the business picks up on these tools, your ability to have friendly customers who understand downtime goes out the window. When these tools become integrated into the day-to-day processes of the business, you must have reliability, performance, and fail over capabilities. The game will change and management needs to be prepared.
This question not only applies to the hardware and software environment but it also applies to processes and standards put into place by various other groups. IT, Legal, and Records Management will put up barriers in your deployment. They don’t mean to hold up progress but it’s natural for them to gravitate toward rules and regulations. For example, suppose that we had five different environments or tools. Each of them have a different engagement process and the owning organization will want to keep their own process in place. Although, the customer would be better served with a single process where the functionality and features drive toward the right environment, legacy organizations will block this effort. Another example is that the document management group will soon be knocking on your door since you allow people to attach documents to weblogs and wiki posts. They will argue that the source of record must be the document management system not the collaborative environment. Personally, we have had no fewer than three different groups approach us with this argument (read attack on the business model). Remember, success is like blood in the water. The sharks will emerge; it’s just a matter of time.
The point is that real and hard decisions will need to be made by people in leadership positions. They will have to answer the question “Are we in this for the long run, or not”.
Comments (1)
Sounds like a bad day at the office. Our projects are starting to encounter similar issues; politics, organisational structure, home vs work contrast, etc. Web2.0 certainly is different from Enterprise2.0. It's at times like these that I like to remember that the challenges associated with change management are nothing new.
"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things; because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and luke-warm defenders in those who may do well under the new" - Machiavelli 1532
Posted by: Ben Gardner on September 27, 2007 16:44