Boosting IT Productivity Through Social Computing

By Bill Ives
Expert Author
Article Date: 2010-07-09

IT is sometimes portrayed as the bad guy or the obstacle in the enterprise 2.0 space as some times they attempt to block or curtail social media activities. Forrester's Nigel Fenwick presents a nice twist to this view by offering research on how social computing can boost IT productivity. I saw Nigel at the recent Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston so it is nice to get a review copy of this report.

I really liked the report's summary. It concluded that their "survey of social media users indicates that IT staff increase productivity by adapting Social Computing to their role. CIOs should enthusiastically embrace social media as a means for boosting IT productivity while also giving IT staff the experience needed to support Social Computing initiatives across the enterprise."

Drilling down they found that 70% of IT staff respondents were positive about the productivity gains from social media while the rest were mostly neutral. I think that IT has a great opportunity to get out in front of the enterprise 2.0 wave and play a leadership role rather than being overrun. Nigel seem to agree with this as the report suggested that IT leaders can tap the early social media adopters in their ranks to help educate the IT team on fitting social media into work.

The survey also found that 80% of respondents believe social media has a positive impact on innovation, and 78% believe it will also have a positive impact on customer service. There are many use cases already out there on both counts. Social media can support c increased collaboration that fuels innovation. The report suggested that CIOs should actively encourage IT staff to participate in internal communities to both ask questions and provide answers.

A recent IBM study found that employees were more likely to ask questions on internal social media and use these channels to promote their expertise by answering questions in a public manner. The Forrester reports backs this up as 92% percent of IT employees cite social media as helpful in getting answers to their questions, and 85% reported that social media is helpful for letting others know how they can help them.

There is much more detail in the report and I found it helpful. Amongst the conclusions is the suggestion that CIOs should encourage their staff to experiment and share their findings with others.

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About the Author:
Dr. Bill Ives is an independent consultant and writer who has worked with Fortune 100 companies in business uses of emerging technologies for over 20 years. For several years he led the Knowledge Management Practice for a large consulting firm.. Now he primarily helps companies with their business blogs. He is also the VP of Social Media and blogger for TVissimo, a new TV schedule search engine. Prior to consulting, Dr. Ives was a Research Associate at Harvard University exploring the effects of media on cognition. He obtained his Ph. D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Toronto. Bill can be reached at his blog: Portals and KM. He also writes for the FastForward blog and the AppGap blog.