Social Business Portals can raise Productivity by 20% to 25%

The web 2.0 hype which started with the usage of social media software, is more and more being adopted by companies.
Some years ago, Andrew McAffee recognized the potential of wikis, forums and blogs in the business context and coined the expression of the „Enterprise 2.0“.

Besides the scientific debate, consulting companies such as McKinsey (2012) and Deloitte (2011) became interested in this field and started to publish articles and studies. Those two firms identified the following benefits when applying social media technologies in enterprises:

1. Identify expertise, match talent to task
2. Facilitate cross-boundary communication & conversation
3. Harness distributed knowledge – Use social technologies to distribute business processes
4. Preserve institutional memory
5. Derive customer insight
6. Leverage social to forecast and monitor
7. Use social technologies for marketing communication and social commerce

According to McKinsey (2012), companies can raise their productivity by 20% to 25% through social technologies, provided they become fully networked. Previously used “One to One” media such as e-mails or phone calls are more and more being replaced by “One to Many” channels such as forums, blogs and group calls.

Questions to the community:

• Does your personal experience match with the benefits of social technologies identified by Deloitte and McKinsey?
• Which additional benefits exist in your opinion when implementing social technologies in your business?

Sources:

Deloitte (2011). Social software for business performance – The missing link in social software: Measurable business performance improvements. Retrieved August 15, 2012.

McKinsey (2012). The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies. Retrieved August 15, 2012.