Jacob Morgan's Blog, page 37

Friday Vendor Roundup: Socialtext, Lithium Technologies, Salesforce

Every Friday I’m going to attempt to summarize any relevant news in the future of work/collaboration space. I’ll provide the name of the vendor, a short summary of what the announcement or piece of news is with a link to the original, and finally a short POV. I can’t cover every single thing that comes out but I will do my best to provide as much relevant content as I can. If you have something you think I should include then please send it over and I will decide if it’s something I can add.

Socialtext releases version 6.0 Socialtext recently upgraded their platform to include several new enhancements and features.  The addition of video technology allows users to record, host, and share videos with each other (among a few other things).  The activity stream was also update to show a preview of any content that is shared in the feed.  Search functionality was also updated with auto complete and term suggestions to help users find information.  Finally, some cosmetic changes were also done to some layouts and the people and groups directories.

Link to announcement (with video walk-through)

My POV Some great additions here.  Most of the features should be expected from most platforms but the video technology is something that many vendors still don’t offer (for some strange reason).  Ironically video conferencing and recordings are becoming very popular within organizations so I’m glad to see that Socialtext added this to their recent release.

Lithium raises another $50 million in preparation for IPO 

Some very exciting news from my friends over at Lithium Technologies today.  They raised another $50 million and are getting ready to become a publicly traded company.  They also hired former Yahoo! executive Tapan Bhat to be their new SVP and Chief Product Officer.

Link to announcement

My POV

Lithium has quite frankly been kicking ass lately.  They have an all-star executive team, recently moved into new offices in San Francisco to prepare for rapid growth, were ranked a visionary, leader, and major player in Gartner, Forrester, and IDC reports (respectively), and are now getting ready to become a public company.  On a side note I recently found out that Tapan Bhat is my friend’s cousin, which I learned during my birthday dinner, small world!  Anyway, back to the point.  As customer experience and engagement continues to be a major focus for business leaders around the world Lithium is in a perfect spot to dominate, and that is what they are doing.

Salesforce cuts 200 people and announces new file sync and share service called “files” 

After the ExactTarget acquisition SFDC says there was some overlap in roles and so they decided to trim those roles back.  Salesforce also announced that they are killing off Chatterbox (a Box-like feature for file sharing and storage).  Details on “files” are scarce and the new service should be launched in 2014 but you can expect mention of it at Dreamforce this year.

Link to announcement

Link to “files” announcement

My POV Nobody likes to hear about job cuts and it’s really unfortunate that 200 people had to be let go.  The overlap was due to the Radian6 acquisition that happened a few years ago and Buddy Media.  ExactTarget, Buddy Media, and Radian6 are a part of the new Marketing cloud.  However, the good news is that SFDC is providing as much support as possible for the 200 employees to help them get situated elsewhere.

Salesforce certainly has the resources and manpower to create a powerful Box-like platform but it sounds like this new direction is more of an integration with other existing platforms such as Box instead of a new product.  Either way the name “files” make it sound like it’s something from the 1980′s but that could just be the millennial in me talking.

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Don’t be Scared to Provide Feedback to Your Vendors

Many of the companies I work with and speak with are not always completely satisfied with the collaboration technologies that they deploy.  In fact I’d say it’s rare for a company to say that they are 100% happy with everything that the vendor offers.  The reality is that the words “perfection” and “technology” don’t really go that well together especially when considering that every company has different needs and expectations (as do individuals).  The key is to understand and expect that this will be the case.

Sometimes a feature doesn’t work the way they would like it to, perhaps an integration isn’t that smooth, or maybe the reporting and analytics isn’t providing the insight and data that they are expecting (this is actually a very common issue).  Most of the time what happens is…absolutely nothing.  The company goes on in frustration with the team complaining and moaning to each other about how the technology doesn’t meet all of their needs.

Organizations need to speak up and communicate with vendors to let them know where they are lacking and what can be done to fix any issues.  If reporting and analytics is an issue then pick up the phone and call the vendor and let them know what you need and see how they can work with you to provide that.  Simply staying quiet and swallowing the frustration isn’t going to help anyone.  Keep in mind that you are paying them not vice versa.

I’m not saying you need to be a jerk about it but there is nothing wrong with providing feedback to your technology vendor to let them know  what they need to improve on.  Don’t be scared to apply a little bit of pressure either, especially if you are working for a large or well known organization.  Oftentimes these vendors will do whatever they can to keep your business.

It’s hard to find the “perfect” technology solution which is why you need to look at these vendors as types of technology partners who are going to learn and grow with you.

The worst thing you can do is stay quiet.

 

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Friday Vendor Roundup: Clarizen, Badgeville, and Smartsheet

Every Friday I’m going to attempt to summarize any relevant news in the future of work/collaboration space. I’ll provide the name of the vendor, a short summary of what the announcement or piece of news is with a link to the original, and finally a short POV. I can’t cover every single thing that comes out but I will do my best to provide as much relevant content as I can. If you have something you think I should include then please send it over and I will decide if it’s something I can add.  Again, keep in mind this is weekly roundup so the news or announcements need to be from that week.

This week was relatively quiet most likely due to the long weekend coming up.  Here is the roundup for this week:

Clarizen releases Version 6 (client) 

Clarizen is an enterprise collaboration and project management vendor. A few days ago Clarizen released the newest version of their product which has a strong focus on social and collaborative capabilities. Key features include the ability to add hashtags to conversations and updates and the ability to tag people in relevant conversations. Clarizen also added drag and drop functionality for project management, a powerful new search engine, and the ability to more effectively collaborate on and share documents directly within the platform.

Link to announcement

My POV

The new release is fantastic.  As my business partner Connie mentioned, the big challenge with Clarizen in the past was that they were a great project management tool that lacked in social and collaborative capabilities.  While many of the existing enterprise collaboration vendors out there have been offering these new social and collaborative capabilities for a while now, what they have been lacking (and still lack) is a powerful project management solution to help bridge the social, work, and collaboration layers together.  Clarizen has now been able to bridge that gap because with this recent update they now not only offer a superior project management platform but they also have the capabilities of many of the leading enterprise collaboration vendors today.

Badgeville launches new behavior lab 

Badgeville is a technology platform which adds game concepts and mechanics to work environments (such as Jive, Yammer, and others) to make it more fun and engaging for employees to participate (i.e. badges, leaderboards, status, etc).  Today Badgeville is launching a center of excellence for behavior management solutions.  The goal of this new lab is to focus on: research and innovation, solutions methodology, and solutions templates.

Link to announcement

My POV

When I first heard about this I immediately thought of Pavlov’s dogs except instead of dogs we are using humans.  It’s certainly valuable for organizations to understand employee behavior but a part of me things it’s a bit strange to use game mechanics and concepts to manipulate employees in doing things that we want them to do.  I’m sure the new lab isn’t just going to be about that though (or at least I hope it won’t).  I’d like to this this center of excellence extended to go beyond just looking at workplace behavior and game mechanics to looking at what employees actually value from a broader perspective.  For example do employees care more about money or doing something they are passionate about?  I’m curious to read about some of the research and findings that come out of this.

Smartsheet adds Dropbox and Zapier access 

Smartsheet is an enterprise collaboration with an emphasis on document collaboration and information management. Today Smartsheet announced an integration with Dropbox so that customers can easily attach and share files from Dropbox inside of Smartsheet.  They also announced a connection with Zapier which is a marketplace for connecting various apps together.  The Zapier addition means that Smartsheet can now be connected to hundreds of other applications through a third party.

Link to announcement 

My POV 

Smartsheet is a much smaller vendor but I like the approach they are taking, especially the Zapier addition.  This widely opens up their ecosystem to hundreds of other vendors.  To be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if Smartsheet was acquired by a larger vendor in the next year or so.

 

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It’s Crunch Time for the Future of Work

Within the next 2 years millennials (ages 18-35) will make up the majority of the workforce.  As I mentioned on Facebook page, these (myself included) are people who don’t know what it’s like to not have social and collaborative tools to get work done. We search on Google, share comments on Twitter, post pictures on Instagram, connect with friends on Facebook, share our location on Foursquare, write our ideas in blogs, post reviews on Yelp, and build our resumes on Linkedin. We don’t know what it’s like to use a legacy intranet, to get 150 emails a day, work in a cubicle, and to not be able to easily connect with and engage with people and information. Yet for some reason this is exactly how organizations are set up today.

Most organizations are “pointing” 180 degrees away from the future workforce, and it’s a scary thing.  In other words it’s as if someone is telling all these companies what they need to do to prepare for the future and they are literally saying, “nah we’ll do the exact opposite and see what happens.”

Some companies have already been working on adapting their organizations for the past few years, but many have not.  Those companies should really be feeling a sense of urgency right about now.

If your organization is still stuck using legacy technologies and approaches to getting work done what do you think will happen when millennials join your organization? In fact, why would they want to join your organization at all?  They wouldn’t.  This means that as the baby boomers retire and as knowledge and experience literally walks out your front that you don’t have an attractive enough proposition to replace those employees with new top talent.

Most organizations today are still working the same way they did 20, 30, and 50 years ago. It’s time to adapt quickly, or you can leave things the way they are and see what happens…

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Friday Vendor Roundup: Avectra, Moxie Software, Box, Alfresco, and Citrix

Every Friday I’m going to attempt to summarize any relevant news in the future of work/collaboration space. I’ll provide the name of the vendor, a short summary of what the announcement or piece of news is with a link to the original, and finally a short POV. I can’t cover every single thing that comes out but I will do my best to provide as much relevant content as I can. If you have something you think I should include then please send it over and I will decide if it’s something I can add.  Again, keep in mind this is weekly roundup so the news or announcements need to be from that week. Here is the roundup for this week:

Avectra acquired by Abila

Avectra is a former client of ours and they offered a great platform for customer and membership management as well as employee collaboration.  They had a strong focus on the non-profit space as did Abila which acquired them.

My POV

I think it’s a great move for both companies.  I think Avectra needed more resources to grow their customer base and improve their product and Abila needed a powerful membership and community management software to allow non-profits to better engage with donors and members.  Both companies have a strong focus in the non-profit area so the acquisition makes sense.  I’m actually very curious to see what Abila will do with the Avectra product over the next year.

Link to announcement 

Box targeting smaller businesses 

Box recently announced two things, the first is that they are doubling the amount of storage space (from 5 to 10 gigs) for personal accounts.  The second is a new “starter package” for smaller businesses which offers 100 gigs of storage for 1-10 people starting at just $5/month.

My POV

Box has been all over the place recently, and I mean that in good way.  It really feels as though Aaron Levie and Box want to take over the world and just dominate every corner of the industry.  This move is great for the company as it helps fight competition from other cloud providers such as Dropbox who already have a very strong grip on the individual and small business market. Their price point is fantastic and 100 gigs is certainly a good amount of storage for a “starter package.”  Not only that but it helps build their prospect funnel to help move companies from the basic package to more expensive packages once they use up their 100 gigs.

Link to announcement 

Moxie Software adds live document editor and IOS app

Moxie customers can now edit Microsoft documents within the activity stream of “collaboration spaces,” previously the document would have to be downloaded, edited, and the re-uploaded to the platform.  Now users can edit it directly within the application.  Moxie also released their IOS app for their “collaboration spaces” product.

My POV

While the new features are certainly a good thing they are merely adding things to allow them to catch up to other vendors who have offered live editing features and IOS app for quite some time already.  Their “collaboration spaces” product hasn’t been out for that long but what they have now is still lacking when compared to what other vendors are offering.  However, Moxie does allow you to use their product for free which is definitely a plus.

Link to announcement

Alfresco updates their UI

Alfresco made some changes to look and feel of their product based on customer feedback.  They trimmed back their navigation bar and added advanced search capabilities.

My POV

I haven’t seen their product in a little while but the last time I did, it was a bit of a cluttered mess.  Their recent changes really allow for some breathing room which is a good thing.  Having a product which is intuitive and easy to use is a big help for employee adoption.   When the product is cluttered and overwhelming employees tend to not use it so this recent update is definitely welcomed.

Link to announcement 

Citrix (client) announces over 100 committed apps to their enterprise mobile ecosystem 

The title pretty much says everything you need to know.  There are now over 100 apps in the mobile enterprise ecosystem that companies can chose from, called Worx, with many more on the way.

My POV

Citrix is doing a great job of helping empower the mobile worker which is a huge factor when thinking about the future of work.  As Citrix points in their announcement there’s a lot that goes into making a mobile app enterprise ready so to have 100 enterprise ready mobile apps is a huge milestone (and it’s growing quickly!).  As we see more organizations empowering their employees to work from whenever and wherever these mobile app ecosystems are going to play an ever increasing crucial role.

Link to announcement 

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Introducing TheFutureWorkplace.com

For the past few months Connie and I have been working on a few big things.  This new site is one of them.  Jmorganmarketing.com and Socialbusinessadvisor.com will now be pointing here to TheFutureWorkplace.com.  As you can undoubtedly tell, this site is very different than its predecessors and there’s good reason for that.  Over the past year or so I distanced myself from the whole “social business” meme and have begun focusing much more on “the future of work” which is exactly what I want this site to be about.

There are a few key things to point out about this new site.

Even the though the content of the site won’t really be changing I wanted to focus on breaking it up into three distinct areas: strategy, culture, and technology (there will also be a “more” section which will have some other less primary categories).  You will the icons representing each one of these areas next to each blog post and on the top of the website.  This will make it easy for readers to consume the content on the site.  I am also going have “featured posts” for each one of these topics, which you can find in the sidebar.  Here I will include what I believe to be the most important or crucial articles on these respective topics.

I also wanted to make the content more consumable so in addition to including the usual social icons for each blog I’m also making it easier for the posts to be printed, emailed, or viewed on a kindle device.  The site has also been optimized for mobile.  All of this means that the content can be consumed on any device and easily shared with anyone, even if it’s printed on a sheet of paper. The email newsletter is also more prominently featured.

The next major thing is the focus on three key area which are prominent on the homepage: working together, speaking at events and conferences, and my book.  I wanted to make it very easy for visitors to explore potential ways for us to collaborate and I think this does the job nicely.

Other things include:

Complete new look, feel, brand, and design
Inclusion of my Forbes column in the sidebar
Featured a few recent resources in the sidebar

I’m very excited for the new site.  There might be a few bugs that show up over the next few days so if you see anything that doesn’t work properly or looks a bit wonky then please let me know so that I can get it fixed ASAP.  Thanks for reading and for your continued support, it’s very much appreciated!

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Collaboration Delivers on Value But Where’s the Money?

When organizations deploy collaborative technologies and strategies to connect and engage their people and information they see all sorts of benefits. These include improved access to people and information, reduced travel costs, opportunity identification, issue resolution, employee engagement, improved employee retention, reduction in content duplication, and a host of other things. So, theoretically there should be a lot of money that is being either made or saved as a result right?  Yet how come we don’t see these numbers reflected on financial statements?  Is there a “collaboration revenue generated” or “money saved as a result of collaboration” section?  Of course not.  So then what is happening to the value that collaborative technologies and strategies are generating?

There are two possibilities.  The first is that collaboration is just a giant scam forcing organizations to purchase technology and invest in strategies that really don’t do anything.  The second is that we have a hard time translating intangible assets to tangible dollars.

At the end of the day the collaborative technologies and strategies that organizations are investing in are focusing on intangible assets, which are information, connection, accessibility, and engagement.  There are plenty of research reports from analyst firms which adamantly state that organizations are making or saving a lot of money, but how many organizations are actually showing this in their financial statements?

Dealing with intangible assets isn’t new, companies have had to this for many years around intellectual property such as patents. However, the big difference now is that we are dealing with massive amounts of intangible assets across our organizations.  Trying to value one good idea or piece of feedback is hard enough, try doing it with thousands on a regular basis.

In the book Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes,” Bob Kaplan and David Norton note:

“None of these intangible assets has value that can be measured separately or independently. The value of these intangible assets derives from their ability to help the organization implement its strategy… Intangible assets such as knowledge and technology seldom have a direct impact on financial outcomes such as increased revenues, lowered costs, and higher profits. Improvements in intangible assets affect financial outcomes through chains of cause-and-effect relationships.”

So even though an organization knows that the time it takes to solve a customer issue is reduced, that employees are spending less time dealing with email, that it’s easier to access people and information, or that the rate of innovation is increasing; they still are having a very difficult time translating this into dollars and cents that show up on a financial statement.

Consider this comment that Marc Strohlein left on my blog a while ago:

“The concern over ROI is a passing phase as we move from hierarchical command control organization structures to network organizations. The concerns and risks associated with emergent social technologies have little to do with the technologies–they have much more to do with management and culture.  My first IT job, back in the early 1980′s, was reviewing applications from employees who wanted PCs and had to submit a business case with an ROI estimate. That concern passed and “this too shall pass.” 

Imagine having to make a “business case with an ROI estimate” to get a computer.  Going forward organizations are going to continue to realize that what is generated as a result of collaborative technologies and strategies isn’t ROI based it’s value based. It’s a way to allow the organization to continually implement its strategy.  There isn’t a single business leader that I have spoken to or worked with who doesn’t realize the value created by connecting people and information anytime, anywhere, and on any device.

So where is the money going?  It usually gets absorbed by the organization and becomes “a part of the sauce.”

Curious to hear your take on this, leave a comment with your thoughts below.

Collaboration Delivers on Value But Where’s the Money?

When organizations deploy collaborative technologies and strategies to connect and engage their people and information they see all sorts of benefits. These include improved access to people and information, reduced travel costs, opportunity identification, issue resolution, employee engagement, improved employee retention, reduction in content duplication, and a host of other things. So, theoretically there should be a lot of money that is being either made or saved as a result right?  Yet how come we don’t see these numbers reflected on financial statements?  Is there a “collaboration revenue generated” or “money saved as a result of collaboration” section?  Of course not.  So then what is happening to the value that collaborative technologies and strategies are generating?

There are two possibilities.  The first is that collaboration is just a giant scam forcing organizations to purchase technology and invest in strategies that really don’t do anything.  The second is that we have a hard time translating intangible assets to tangible dollars.

At the end of the day the collaborative technologies and strategies that organizations are investing in are focusing on intangible assets, which are information, connection, accessibility, and engagement.  There are plenty of research reports from analyst firms which adamantly state that organizations are making or saving a lot of money, but how many organizations are actually showing this in their financial statements?

Dealing with intangible assets isn’t new, companies have had to this for many years around intellectual property such as patents. However, the big difference now is that we are dealing with massive amounts of intangible assets across our organizations.  Trying to value one good idea or piece of feedback is hard enough, try doing it with thousands on a regular basis.

In the book Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes,” Bob Kaplan and David Norton note:

“None of these intangible assets has value that can be measured separately or independently. The value of these intangible assets derives from their ability to help the organization implement its strategy… Intangible assets such as knowledge and technology seldom have a direct impact on financial outcomes such as increased revenues, lowered costs, and higher profits. Improvements in intangible assets affect financial outcomes through chains of cause-and-effect relationships.”

So even though an organization knows that the time it takes to solve a customer issue is reduced, that employees are spending less time dealing with email, that it’s easier to access people and information, or that the rate of innovation is increasing; they still are having a very difficult time translating this into dollars and cents that show up on a financial statement.

Consider this comment that Marc Strohlein left on my blog a while ago:

“The concern over ROI is a passing phase as we move from hierarchical command control organization structures to network organizations. The concerns and risks associated with emergent social technologies have little to do with the technologies–they have much more to do with management and culture.  My first IT job, back in the early 1980′s, was reviewing applications from employees who wanted PCs and had to submit a business case with an ROI estimate. That concern passed and “this too shall pass.” 

Imagine having to make a “business case with an ROI estimate” to get a computer.  Going forward organizations are going to continue to realize that what is generated as a result of collaborative technologies and strategies isn’t ROI based it’s value based. It’s a way to allow the organization to continually implement its strategy.  There isn’t a single business leader that I have spoken to or worked with who doesn’t realize the value created by connecting people and information anytime, anywhere, and on any device.

So where is the money going?  It usually gets absorbed by the organization and becomes “a part of the sauce.”

Curious to hear your take on this, leave a comment with your thoughts below.

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The Future of Work Report: A Collaborative Effort

This is a guest post from Connie Chan, my business partner, Principal, and co-founder of Chess Media Group.

Chess Media Group conducted a global research study in May 2013, surveying over 600 employees who currently use social and collaboration technology tools, to understand how these tools affect their ability to work efficiently and flexibly, as well as to understand the impact of the Bring-Your-Own-Device movement and flexible work arrangements. The report offers a look at the findings, as well as provides supporting data and Chess Media Group’s point of view on the results.

The key highlights of this report confirm that many organizations are recognizing and acknowledging the shift in how business is taking place, and are adapting to the trends in how people want to work. Although the report yielded much insight around the future of work, there are three key insights which stand out and should be given special attention by business leaders seeking to evolve their organizations.

Three insights on the Future of Work are:

Collaboration is promoting stronger growth and creating more effective workers.
Bring-Your-Own-Device is here to stay.
Flexible work arrangements are no longer employee perks but a business strategy.

There are few simple things that business leaders and decision makers can do to prepare their organizations for the Future of Work:

Collaboration Initiatives

The executive team must act as role models
Take a comprehensive view of how people work and build a deep understanding of their collaborative software requirements

BYOD Initiatives

Be clear on which devices are supported.
Collaboratively create a BYOD policy.

Flexible Work Arrangements

Provide workers, current and future with the flexibility to do their jobs the best ways they can.
Put policies in place to allow the use of flexwork while managing and maintaining the flow of business.

More key recommendations can be found in the report.

Delivering flexible work arrangements supported by collaboration technologies and BYOD policies will create the foundation for the future of work and allow a company to remain competitive.

Acknowledgements

The future of work research report would not be possible without the support and collaboration of vendor and media partners.  They also understand that stakeholders within an industry need to do their part to educate and provide organizations with the possibilities available to them.  Our collaborators on this project are:

Atlassian is most known for their Jira product for project and issue tracking, and their confluence product which is designed for employee collaboration.  Confluence features everything from a robust wiki editor to task management to mobile access and a robust ecosystem for third party apps.  Connect with Atlassian on Twitter.

Central Desktop created a cloud product called SocialBridge which has features such as document and project management, mobile apps, workspaces, integration with third party apps, and much more.  Customers include companies such as the American Red Cross, Career Builder, and WD-40.  Connect with Central Desktop on Twitter.

Citrix offers a variety of products in the enterprise collaboration space and you may recall that they acquired Podio not too long ago which offers everything from CRM to lead management to meeting planning to social collaboration.  Citrix is probably most known for their GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar products.  Connect with Citrix on Twitter.

Moxie Software actually made headlines recently when they announced they were giving their product away for free.  Their positioning is specifically geared around allowing employees to leverage the collective intelligence of employees to help customers.  Moxie has the ability to create both internal and external communities.  Connect with Moxie Software on Twitter.

Media Partners

CMSWire.com is a popular web magazine published by Simpler Media Group, Inc. Founded in 2003, it publishes daily news, analysis, interviews and best practices focused on Customer Experience Management, Digital Marketing, Social Business and Enterprise Information Management.  Connect with CMSWire.com on Twitter.

CustomerThink is a global online community of business leaders striving to create profitable customer-centric enterprises. Each month, the site reaches over 200,000 subscribers and visitors from 200 countries via email, RSS, LinkedIn and Twitter. CustomerThink currently serves over 80,000 visitors per month. This is the place to learn about every facet of customer-centric business management in articles, blogs, interviews, and news. Connect with CustomerThink on Twitter.

Download a free copy of The Future of Work. Reshaping the Workplace Today.  Building for Tomorrow.

 

 

The Future of Work Report: A Collaborative Effort

This is a guest post from Connie Chan, my business partner, Principal, and co-founder of Chess Media Group.

Chess Media Group conducted a global research study in May 2013, surveying over 600 employees who currently use social and collaboration technology tools, to understand how these tools affect their ability to work efficiently and flexibly, as well as to understand the impact of the Bring-Your-Own-Device movement and flexible work arrangements. The report offers a look at the findings, as well as provides supporting data and Chess Media Group’s point of view on the results.

The key highlights of this report confirm that many organizations are recognizing and acknowledging the shift in how business is taking place, and are adapting to the trends in how people want to work. Although the report yielded much insight around the future of work, there are three key insights which stand out and should be given special attention by business leaders seeking to evolve their organizations.

Three insights on the Future of Work are:

Collaboration is promoting stronger growth and creating more effective workers.
Bring-Your-Own-Device is here to stay.
Flexible work arrangements are no longer employee perks but a business strategy.

There are few simple things that business leaders and decision makers can do to prepare their organizations for the Future of Work:

Collaboration Initiatives

The executive team must act as role models
Take a comprehensive view of how people work and build a deep understanding of their collaborative software requirements

BYOD Initiatives

Be clear on which devices are supported.
Collaboratively create a BYOD policy.

Flexible Work Arrangements

Provide workers, current and future with the flexibility to do their jobs the best ways they can.
Put policies in place to allow the use of flexwork while managing and maintaining the flow of business.

More key recommendations can be found in the report.

Delivering flexible work arrangements supported by collaboration technologies and BYOD policies will create the foundation for the future of work and allow a company to remain competitive.

Acknowledgements

The future of work research report would not be possible without the support and collaboration of vendor and media partners.  They also understand that stakeholders within an industry need to do their part to educate and provide organizations with the possibilities available to them.  Our collaborators on this project are:

Atlassian is most known for their Jira product for project and issue tracking, and their confluence product which is designed for employee collaboration.  Confluence features everything from a robust wiki editor to task management to mobile access and a robust ecosystem for third party apps.  Connect with Atlassian on Twitter.

Central Desktop created a cloud product called SocialBridge which has features such as document and project management, mobile apps, workspaces, integration with third party apps, and much more.  Customers include companies such as the American Red Cross, Career Builder, and WD-40.  Connect with Central Desktop on Twitter.

Citrix offers a variety of products in the enterprise collaboration space and you may recall that they acquired Podio not too long ago which offers everything from CRM to lead management to meeting planning to social collaboration.  Citrix is probably most known for their GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar products.  Connect with Citrix on Twitter.

Moxie Software actually made headlines recently when they announced they were giving their product away for free.  Their positioning is specifically geared around allowing employees to leverage the collective intelligence of employees to help customers.  Moxie has the ability to create both internal and external communities.  Connect with Moxie Software on Twitter.

Media Partners

CMSWire.com is a popular web magazine published by Simpler Media Group, Inc. Founded in 2003, it publishes daily news, analysis, interviews and best practices focused on Customer Experience Management, Digital Marketing, Social Business and Enterprise Information Management.  Connect with CMSWire.com on Twitter.

CustomerThink is a global online community of business leaders striving to create profitable customer-centric enterprises. Each month, the site reaches over 200,000 subscribers and visitors from 200 countries via email, RSS, LinkedIn and Twitter. CustomerThink currently serves over 80,000 visitors per month. This is the place to learn about every facet of customer-centric business management in articles, blogs, interviews, and news. Connect with CustomerThink on Twitter.

Download a free copy of The Future of Work. Reshaping the Workplace Today.  Building for Tomorrow.

 

 

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