My quest for real-world business applications for Social Networking resulted in a great deal of interesting feedback sent straight to my email account, vs. postings to this blog.  I assume that these commentators are seeking confidentiality for their businesses.  I will respect those wishes in this recap by only mentioning activities and technologies, but not specifically citing any named companies.

My initial take on things, based upon the responses I've received, is that many businesses are flirting with social networking, but few are diving headlong into it.  This, of course, is not surprising.  One import disclosure--many (but certainly not all) of the companies on my distribution list are industrial manufacturers.  It's possible that the demographics of this group does not lend itself to being early adopters of social networking applications.

Here's a brief synopsis of the feedback I've received: 

• Peer-to-peer collaboration--Several people responded that they are deploying various forms of collaboration as an initial foray into social networking, particularly for knowledge sharing, training and development.  Google Groups seems to be a popular collaboration technology at some companies while others are either deploying their own solutions or in the process of deploying a solution using off-the-shelf products.  LogicBay's own collaboration tool is being used by several of the respondents. 
• Lotus Connections, an IBM product, is being used to roll out a significant first step into business social networking solution for one well known manufacturing company this month.  As more information becomes available on this program I'll keep you posted.  Another company has begun testing a true social networking solution using LogicBay's own "Social Now" product embedded within our Performance Center.
• Many companies are engaged in an "active monitoring" stage.  They feel their audience is not yet ready but may be soon.

Of all the respondents, only one company is ready to launch a true social networking solution that moves beyond collaboration.  I will try to follow their progress and keep you posted on their success as it unfolds.

Thanks to all who participated.  Let me know if any of you have additional thoughts on this subject.

Greetings all, and hello from the Caribbean!  I've received quite a few responses from my request for information on if...and how...you are using social networking for business applications.  Most came as emails to me, however, rather than posts in the comments section of this blog.  So, in an effort to share these with you I'll be posting a blog with a compilation of these responses as soon as I'm back from my vacation in two weeks.

Thanks to all of you for your contributions!

Warm and sunny regards!

Help me out if you can.  I've been struggling to sort out the potential of social networking for business.  What will it look like?  How will it be used effectively?  I'm talking about web 2.0 tools that move beyond email, instant messaging, bulletin boards and threaded discussions.  I'm speaking of the next generation of web Tools that include social networking, crowd sourcing and more.   I'm talking about what may be, according to the latest McKinsey Quarterly Report,  "the latest wave in corporate technology adoption." 1 

McKinsey clearly believes that Web 2.0 is a powerful force and their report is worth reading.  It can be read (and a .pdf can be downloaded) at McKinsey's site.  

The article makes this rather provocative and bold statement:  "Some historical perspective is useful. Web 2.0, the latest wave in corporate technology adoptions, could have a more far-reaching organizational impact than technologies adopted in the 1990s-such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and supply chain management (Exhibit 1). The latest Web tools have a strong bottom-up element and engage a broad base of workers. They also demand a mind-set different from that of earlier IT programs, which were instituted primarily by edicts from senior managers."1

And why not?  Within all of our companies and extended value chains there lies an immense volume of untapped intellectual capacity and knowledge.  I believe that some of these tools may hold the potential to uncover and apply that untapped wealth.

In the McKinsey article they are addressing five areas of web 2.0 technology:

1. 1. Wikis, commenting, shared workspaces
2. 2. Blogs, podcasts, videocasts, peer to peer
3. 3.Prediction markets, information markets, polling
4. 4. Tagging, social bookmarking/filtering, user tracking, ratings, RSS
5. 5. Social networking, network mapping

Of the above five, #'s 1, 2, & 4 have already gained considerable traction in the corporate space.  #4 is of interest to this blog because the power of "crowd sourcing" is very intriguing and very nascent.  If any of you used this year's version of TurboTax you'll see that they've employed crowd sourcing as a way of providing answers to user questions.  #5, however, is social networking and network mapping, which to me...and to this blog...is the most intriguing because of its phenomenal growth in the personal market space.

Wikipedia says: "A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others."  It's a subject that's gaining an incredible amount of buzz right now.  But does anybody really have this figured out?  Does it even make sense?   Can it help improve sales, drive down costs and increase customer satisfaction?  Will most businesses even want to risk deploying it?  After all, many companies  frown on their employees even surfing the web!  Clearly they're not ready to allow them to social network on company time.  And time wasting concerns are just part of it.  Other hurdles include...

• Confidentiality, privacy and related legal issues
• The cost of forming, monitoring and sustaining these groups
• The risk of loosing control of knowledge
• The risk of loosing control of corporate focus
• And much more.

Never-the-less, I think most of us will agree that some forms of social networking are now being adopted by many businesses and more will follow.  After, all, we're all looking for strategic advantages and the extraordinary growth of social networking on the consumer side is just too big of a phenomenon to ignore.  

But which forms will take root...and how?  Nobody seems to have a definitive answer to this, but I do know people who are giving it a pretty good shot.  Check out this article called "Twitter: Building Businesses Tweet by Tweet" in BusinessWeek. Another interesting treatment is featured in a blog entitled "Is Twitter Right for Your Company? 3 Things to Ask"  

And, as promised, at the end of this blog I'll give you a link to a document that does a better job than most at presenting real-world business examples of how you might apply it.

But first, let me tell you how LogicBay is applying social networking:  We're beginning to move beyond peer-to-peer collaboration and instant messaging within our Performance Center technology.  This year we're introducing a "Virtual Event Center" widget.  This widget allows our customers to move an entire event  (or meeting) or some portion thereof, online.  This includes pre-event preparation and momentum building, the actual event itself in a virtual format, and post-event maintenance and follow-up.  The purpose is to reduce and in some cases eliminate offsite meeting and event costs and to maximize the ROI of all events, whether they are completely online or a hybrid utilizing online pre-event, brick and mortar event, and online post-event activities.  To make this solution even more effective we're evaluating adding a social networking environment tied to the event.  This will allow the participants to review each other's profile, interact online and set-up meetings to maximize their investment at the actual event.

We're also investigating its use with instructor-led training to facilitate student-instructor interactions and better prepare students for the actual class.

We're interested in your thoughts on this.  Please feel free to provide your comments.

Now, I promised you I'd share a document written by somebody that I believe has a pretty good handle on social networking for business.  I'm going to provide you a link to a document he wrote that I found to be an excellent springboard of thought on this subject.  His name is Christopher Carfi and the document is entitled: "Social Networking for Businesses & Associations".   It's available at no charge and without registration. Go ahead and download it.  I promise you'll find it interesting.  Then, please comment below on what you're thinking and/or doing regarding social networking at your business.  I want to start a dialogue that will benefit everyone.

1. Six ways to make Web 2.0 work

Web 2.0 tools present a vast array of opportunities-for companies that know how to use them.

FEBRUARY 2009 • Michael Chui, Andy Miller, and Roger P. Roberts

Source: Business Technology Office

Does any new program have a chance of getting budget approval in 2009?  Unfortunately, the odds are against it, especially if the ROI isn't immediate. It doesn't matter if your new program will improve quality, drive future sales, increase customer satisfaction, and cure cancer, chances are it's DOA unless there's immediate ROI and very low risk.

2009 is not the year to introduce programs with anything but immediate financial benefits.  Unless you work in one of those very fortunate market sectors that's experiencing life among the ruins, and I haven't seen many of those, you're going to face almost insurmountable challenges when bringing a new program for budget approval. 

Here are the only two ways I know of to position a new program for budget approval in 2009:

1) Position it as a replacment for an existing solution that's currently costing more to operate than the one you are promoting.  It also helps if it is a better solution than the one its replacing. In other words, you're offering a solution that will do more for less, thus reducing current expenses while improving results.  Remember, improving results will not be enough alone to sell your program to your budget committee.

1. 2) Position it as a solution that fills a gap and provides a competitive advantage, almost immediate sales lift, and offers no risk.  In this scenario your vendor is usually bearing the financial risk and is rewarded by taking a share of the increased revenue.

I suggest that unless you have a program that fits either or both of the above models you should consider it DOA.  In other words...a career limiting move.

And now a word from our sponsor: Here at LogicBay we've re-engineered our solutions to meet these unique market conditions.  We've created a financial model where a company can train, manage and develop their channel more effectively than ever before, for less money and at no risk.  Our system replaces ineffective LMS's, cumbersome content management systems and outdated marketing & communication solutions.  And, it does more for less. 

Good luck!

Many companies are attempting to use portal technology to pull together applications they've created to train, develop and manage their distribution channel. These applications may include learning management systems, content libraries, Web 2.0 technologies, incentive/motivation programs and much more. While the intention is good-i.e. give the channel a single point of access to the various resources you provide to them, the inherent limitations of portal technology make this an ill-conceived approach.

The problem is that the portal's principle strength is its primary weakness: It pulls together legacy technologies purchased from various vendors into a single point of access for a target audience. It's often referred to as a "mash-up" in the IT vernacular-and for good reason-because that's what it looks like to the people who are trying to use it from within your distribution channel!

It's a bit like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube after it's been spilled on the counter-it's a messy job and seldom successful. The problem is that most, if not all, of the applications that exist under the portal front end are aging legacy technologies developed by disparate vendors. And, as such, each employs its own unique conventions for the graphic user interface, navigation, information architecture, branding and much more. For the user, being effective within this environment is daunting. If the user is from a distribution channel where they are, at best, an occasional user, it's a deal breaker. You will quickly loose them and your channel's readiness to sell and support your product will suffer.

The same issues rear their ugly head on the administration side. Each of the portal's legacy technologies is managed by its own unique, and oftentimes complex, administrative interface, including the portal, itself. This makes it impossible for any one person to successfully administer and support these environments-which adds cost and fosters an undesirable "silo" culture.

We have found that there are two critical characteristics of providing an effective channel training, development and management solution for your channel partners. First, the solution must be easy-to-use, and this means it must be tightly integrated-all core technologies, including learning management, marketing communications, formal and informal training, motivation and measurement must share the same interface, taxonomy, information architecture and navigation conventions-both for the user and for the administrator(s). Second, it must be audience-smart. It must know who logged in, what role they play for which channel partner, what part of the world they are in, etc., then filter and tailor content specifically for that person and his/her role. And not just at the home page level, but right down to the application level well beneath the home page. The user needs to think he/she is in one application. These two attributes are key components of LogicBay's Performance Center.

A portal, by its very nature, cannot deliver on these important usability attributes.

Bottom line-it's usually better to buy a shiny new tube of toothpaste with everything you need already inside, then to try and get old toothpaste back in the tube.

Over the recent past, we're seeing the backdrop of a tightening U.S. economy that are magnifying the sense of urgency to optimize the relationship between manufacturers and their dealers.  Dealers of course are also feeling the tightening economy.  As they do, they're looking for ways to do more with less; to sell as much product and services they can WHILE lowering the costs required to do so.  Some manufacturers are using these tight economic conditions as an opportunity to strengthen relationships with dealers, particularly those dealers that sell competitive brands.  Others are merely buckling down and doing nothing, hoping the storm will pass and things will get back to normal.

Here's one real example.  This manufacturer is focusing on facilitating online forums to help dealers share best practices in a non-competitive environment.  There are "ask-the-expert" forums where the manufacturer monitors discussion forums that are monitored by an expert from the manufacturer.  All kinds of topics are covered, from sales approaches, tips and tricks to technical support from product experts.  Another type of forum is a "peer-to-peer best practices" forum where sales staffs across dealerships in non-competitive regions are sharing tips and tricks.  This almost real-time, semi-structured collaborative environment is helping dealerships be more successful and profitable at relatively low cost and effort.  By facilitating this capability, the manufacturer is strengthening its brand loyalty among the dealers while seeing an increase in sales as well.

Collaboration between dealers happens naturally in unstructured ways - it's inevitable.  By proactively providing an easy to use, semi-structured environment, manufacturers can strengthen their relationships with their dealer networks by helping them be more profitable in tight economic times.  Accomplishing this also allows manufacturers to gain more brand loyalty for when the economy strengthens as well as simply sell more through their dealers in today's challenging selling environment.

Across many indirect channels, a majority of sales reps are struggling to meet their objectives.

This article identifies some of the main reasons why this is occurring.

Reason #1: Lack of development programs for entry level reps.

When I was entering the workforce in the late 80's, there were several companies in the IT industry that provided excellent sales development programs for entry level reps, which provided feeder programs for the rest of the industry..  They included companies such as Xerox, IBM, NCR, Pitney Bowes and many more. Though these companies still exist, they don't provide the level of sales training and development that they once did.

Reason #2: The sales game has shifted.

Up until the 1980's, most reps successfully sold feature, function and price. In the 90's, this shifted to "solution selling" where more responsibility for implementation, services and financing became part of the delivery. Today, most successful sales for new accounts, such as managed services, are made by guaranteeing the end result. This requires a different sales approach and involves a new set of decision-makers in the process. 

Most sales organizations are still selling in a "transactional" world. In the October 2007 issue of Selling Magazine, The Sales Executive Council produced some compelling  research;

• Nearly 60% of most sales forces are composed of core performing reps. (i.e. reps that fall in the middle performance quadrant of the sales force)
• High performing reps selling transactional products outperformed core performers by 59%.
• When selling complex solutions, high performing reps outperformed core performers by 189%.

Reason #3: Too much focus on "training" vs. "development"

According to a study conducted by Robert Brinkerhoff and Stephen Gill, "People who attend formal training never apply 80% - 90% of what they learn on the job - bulk is forgotten in a few days."  Looking back at reason #1 above, the reason why companies such as Xerox were so successful at producing top sales reps in their direct and indirect channels was due to the continuous development processes they had in place. It didn't start and end with formal training, but continued throughout daily routines.  With today's fast paced world, the need to develop sales reps has been overlooked by channel reseller owners and their sales managers.

Reason #4: Core performers struggle to integrate a good sales approach with key value propositions.

In fact, it is one of the main reasons why they are not top performers. This is an ability that can be developed, but too many manufacturers focus their sales training on product features instead of integrating them into a selling approach for their channel to take advantage of.  Furthermore, most manufacturers don't take a long-term approach; instead, they provide incentives for end results instead of behavior change. This may seem reasonable but they achieve little because they're overpaying top performers for something they're already doing. Where's the incentive?

Manufacturers have a golden opportunity to take advantage of this situation. They can gain the mindshare and loyalty at the street level that they've longed for by rethinking how they go to market with their channel. At LogicBay, we're helping many manufacturers develop their partner reps' skills to increase sales results by 1.5 - 3X, creating a win-win for both the manufacturer and the partner.

Dylan Charles, a guest writer for eWeek's Channel Insider, recently commented on some of the changing dynamics occurring in the computer reseller channel in an article titled, "Where did all of the VARs go?" He stated that:

1.  "According to a recent State of the Channel survey conducted jointly by Ziff Davis Enterprise, publisher of Channel Insider, and Crimson Consulting Group, a full two-thirds of solution providers' revenue is now coming from services..."
2. "As part of the movement away from a technology-centric strategy, solution providers are no longer selling only into the IT organization-today they target business decision makers first"
3. "Participants in the solution provider survey also indicated that among all of their company's business objectives, increasing new customer revenue was the most important. Yet, most admit that while technical acumen and services delivery are their company's strong points, marketing ranked last in the list." despite that fact that "...two-thirds of solution providers in the survey indicating that they generate more than half of their revenues from their top three customers"

While the article does a good job pointing out the problem, let's just say we disagree with how to solve it.  The article suggests that sales will increase if more leads are generated by marketing. While this might help, it typically doesn't move the needle. That's because the top 20% of sales reps in the channel will be able to close at least some of them. However, the real problem is sales execution for the other 80% of the reps.

Let's face it, as a manufacturer, there are two primary strategies for improving channel sales. One strategy is to increase the number of channel partners within a particular market and by leveraging the efforts of the top 20% of the resellers sales force, manufacturers will see a bump in sales. Dell's recent announcements and strategy are indicative of this proven approach.

The second strategy focuses on improving the sales execution and performance of existing channels. Barry Winer and Gerhard Gschwandiner point out a critical point in a their recent article "Winning Formula" in Selling Power Magazine (October 2007) where the core 60% of any sales force (including channels) represents the greatest opportunity for boosting sales performance. Most channel executives would agree, but the question is how? The answer is surprisingly simple, though a bit more difficult to execute in the channel....as Figure 1 below illustrates.

Figure 1:

Most manufacturers turn to "training" the channel to solve the problem. Sales, like most disciplines, is about developing and executing a repeatable process that can be measured and improved upon. Most manufacturers are trying to help there channel through product training tied to value propositions. Others have gone so far as to offer "sales process" training and tools from some of the leading companies in the field. However, core sales performers can not execute either one because of two key reasons. First, most core sales performers are not able to contextualize the link betwe      en value propositions and the sales process together. Therefore, the information, while understood in the training room, is not executed properly in the field by core performers.  Secondly, most sales managers in the channel (and direct for that matter) are not very good at coaching and developing reps in general. Most front line sales managers are top performing reps who were promoted to a position that requires additional and different skills than what made them successful as a rep.

To be successful, manufacturers must help their channels build go beyond training by developing sales cultures around a repeatable and measurable process. It's true that this is a boundary that has rarely been crossed in the past. However, there are leading manufacturers who are successfully achieving this and if you want to solve the problem of getting the channel to sell more, it makes sense that you fix the root cause first before wasting money on marketing and lead generation programs that will never be executed properly in the field.

Learning management systems are often applied in the channel to manage a channel development strategy.  This can be a mistake, and this posting will tell you why.

First, let's get on the same page as to what most of us are trying to achieve in the channel: We're trying to increase sales, drive down costs and improve customer satisfaction.  To succeed we need to optimize the performance of the sales, service and management teams in our channel.  This is a key point: our goal is to optimize performance.  Our goal isn't to provide training.  Although training is a component of our drive to optimize performance, it is by no means our end goal.

Now what are Learning Management Systems good at?  They're good at delivering training and not too much else.  As a result, to effectively drive performance improvement in the channel you will need a Performance Management System.  A Performance Management System is a system that not only manages the delivery of training but also manages the Four Pillars of Performance Improvement, including communications, education (of which training is a component), motivation and measurement.  Why? Because you cannot effectively optimize performance without delivering to all four pillars.  To learn more about Channel Performance Management Systems please see my posting entitled "The Enabling Technologies of Channel Performance Improvement."

At this point you may be wondering why learning management systems can often be effective on the employee side if they won't work effectively on the channel side of the business.  To answer this it's important to make a critical distinction between "reaching" captive employees and non-captive channel partners:

Employees can be reached effectively through a wide range of media, and therefore, a company is not dependent upon a single vehicle to drive the performance of their employees.  The components of the Four Pillars are often delivered through multiple media solutions such as company newsletters, email correspondence, meetings, multiple websites and much more.  Because employees are effectively a "captive" audience it is not unreasonable to expect them to deal with the myriad media solutions that, together, deliver the Four Pillars of Performance Improvement.  In fact, employees really have no choice but to accept that situation and find ways to make it work for them.  This is not to say, however, that they too wouldn't be better served by a Performance Management System vs. a Learning Management System.

On the channel side the front line customer-facing people, such as those in sales, service, parts and finance are often hard to reach.  And, more importantly, they are not inclined to invest a lot of effort into accessing your training and knowledge-based systems.  If it's not easy to access everything they need, when they need it, and from a single point of access, you will quickly loose them.  You basically have one shot at reaching them and that shot better deliver against all of the Four Pillars.  To deliver less will result in an under performing channel.

To read how a Performance Management System delivers on the Four Pillars of Performance Improvement please see my posting entitled "Contextual Performance Improvement--The Next Revolution."

In my last posting I spoke of how sales and service performance are optimized when learning and information are delivered in a "contextual" manner--in other words, when learning and knowledge are never more than just on click away from a person's work.  In this posting I will focus on the enabling technologies behind "Contextual Performance Improvement" (CPI).

Since our goal with CPI is to improve the performance of an individual in the channel, then it helps to understand the types of resources (knowledge and information) that we must deliver to the channel in order to optimize performance.  To do so we need look no further than the venerable "Four Pillars of Performance Improvement."  For this example I'm going to add a fifth pillar and that is one I will call "Alignment."  I've added Alignment because aligning the channel with corporate vision and goals is becoming not only critically important, but as you will see in this posting it's also becoming very possible even in an indirect channel.  In the graphic below I've used puzzle pieces to represent this performance-based methodology (note: click image to enlarge):

Now, let's flesh these out by adding the resources that make up the deliverables for each of the five pieces in this puzzle:

Communication

• News & Information: new product introductions, sales & service programs, corporate strategy & alignment, etc.
• Automatic Notifications: certification expirations, prescriptive learning, etc.
• Auto Calendaring: webinars, instructor-led training events, meetings reminders, etc.
• Upcoming Events: trade shows, webinars, etc.
• Alerts: shipment delays, recalls, etc.

Education

• Courseware & curricula: WBT/ILT/IDL
• Competencies: role-based competency maps and individual learning plans
• Performance Support: data books, pricing schedules, best practices, presentations, proposals, templates, videos, animations, etc.
• Collaboration: peer-to-peer, ask-the-expert and FAQ's.
• Knowledge Tansfer: expert systems, configurators, etc.

Motivation

• Certifications: sales & Service
• Incentives: sales, service, parts and finance programs
• Recognition: achievement and reward

Measurement

• Analytics: in multiple formats
• Metrics: by region, by role, etc.
• Reporting: user surveys, user transcripts, site usage, etc.
• And more

Alignment

• Corporate goals: sales goals, warranty cost reductions, customer satisfaction goals, etc.
• Strategic initiatives: value-based selling, product packaging, etc.
• Corporate marketing campaigns: sales, parts, finance and service campaigns

Now, let's take a quick look at the file formats that support these puzzle pieces.  Basically, whether you're applying CPI to sales, service, parts, finance, management, or just about any other target audience, virtually all of the common file formats most of us use just about everyday will need to be supported:

• HTML documents: such as websites, web-based training courses, hyperlinks, Webinars, etc.
• Animation formats: such as Flash files.
• PowerPoint documents: such as sales presentation, product slide decks, company presentations, training slide decks, etc.
• Word, Excel, Access and Acrobat files: such as product catalogs, spec sheets, pricing sheets, company information, company databases, etc.
• Graphic formats: such as .gif, .jpg, etc.
• Video formats: such as Windows Media and Apple Quicktime
• Special formats: such as those of certain online tools like product configurators, etc.
• And many more.

As you can now see, this is no simple task.  You may also surmise that none of the popular tools such as learning management systems, content management systems, portal technologies, or other popular off-the-shelf systems and tools will, on their own, support this solution.  In actuality, the system that properly supports CPI is a hybrid of the following:

1. Content Management
2. Learning Management
3. Collaboration & Communities of Practice
4. Incentive & Rewards Management
5. Portal Technologies

Introducing Channel Performance Management: The ideal solution is a system that extracts features from each of these systems, as they apply to the channel, and incorporates them into a single system that's affordable, easy-to-use and easy-to-support.

Fortunately, a new breed of technology is rising to meet this unique need.  This new technology is called a Channel Performance Management System.  A Channel Performance Management System leverages the best of each of these systems as they apply to the unique needs of the channel.  In so doing it deliberately discards the many features of these systems that have no value to channel management and only serve to add costs and complexity.  What you are left with is the perfect combination of features from content management, learning management, portal technologies, collaboration and motivation all rolled into a single, powerful system.

One-to-one Performance Improvement: Finally, one last important feature of a Performance Management System is that the system must be "audience smart".  In other words, it must be capable of delivering CPI in a "one-to-one" performance improvement interface.  For example, a dealer service technician in Beijing, China, should see only service-related content, only for products actually serviced in his/her region, and in Simplified Chinese.  Similarly, a dealer finance administrator in Seattle, Washington, should only see finance-related content, for finance programs sanctioned by that state and available in his/her region, and in English.  Without one-to-one CPI, usability and relevancy suffer and user rejection quickly follows.

Summary: In summary, a new breed of technology called a Channel Performance Management System is capable of delivering on the promise of 4th generation performance improvement, a.k.a. CPI.  These systems integrate the best functionality of existing solutions, are built upon a tried and true performance methodology and are capable of taking your channel to new levels of performance in all facets of a channel including sales, service, parts, finance and management.  To see a Channel Performance Management System in action please contact me and I will arrange a demonstration.