Km | Bertrand Duperrin's Notepad

Social networks : are companies looking for the ROI or something else

January 29, 2009 By Bertrand DUPERRIN 2 Comments

Whatever people may say, it’s still the hot issue of enterprise social networks. Considering ools that that are not processing tools strictly speaking, benefits have to be found on the new way of doing things they make possible rather than in the tools themselves that are only enablers. As I wrote here, benefits are not on the cloud but in the operational reality.

This said, the answer is still hard to be found.

So we may follow Forrester :

I found the list of direct and undirect benefits very exhaustive and clear. But is that enough ? No. If we can explain, for example, how intangible assets contribute to value creation, we cannot explain in which measure. Let’s consider the CISCO case. Chambers can give a backed up by figures ROI in terms of capacity to drive projects and in financial terms, but I’m not sure that when the decision was made had any figure he was automatically sure he would reach.

Giving problem solving a framework

June 12, 2008 By Bertrand DUPERRIN Leave a Comment

Since today collaboration means solving problems together, it’s important companies provide their employees with a problem solving framework.

Why not a methodology or a process ?

In fact both are needed but the most important lack is about the framework.

There are high level issues where problem solving needs a strong methodology, a dedicated taskforce (that’s what I saw I Bell Canada for example). What doesn’t prelude crowdsourcing.

In the other hand, in people’s day to day job, it not necessary to build and heavy and expensive system, but to provide people with a framework which will make it possible for people to find by themselves.

The notion of framework is very important because since what people have to solve wasn’t predictable (if it was it wouldn’t have happen…), and if we want people to use a methodology (or even serendipity), the first thing to do is to make it possible, and provide them with what’s necessary : raw materials, tools and methodoly. And the possibility to use them !

Creating a corporate memory is about telling stories

April 27, 2008 By Bertrand DUPERRIN Leave a Comment

I really believe conversations are key to capturing tacit knowledge, best practices, all those things that are parts of the individual’s patrimony and can only be captured an harnessed by stimulating individual memories through conversations, since they are the most accessible form of knowledge.

Hence the necessity to provide the organization with tools that make those open discussions and their stimulation possible, just as their capitalization.

Most often, when I talk about conversations it’s about best practices, knowledge transfer, everything that can suport the business function and I think there’s nothing more to say on this point, but this note from Scott Monty made me think of another dimension that would really fit with the idea of “corporate memories”, going beyond pure business to adress corporate culture purposes. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Innovation, Knowledge & Information management, Management & HR Tagged With: best practices, corporate culture, km, knowledge-management, storytelling

People are more likely to share information if they know why

March 29, 2008 By Bertrand DUPERRIN 2 Comments

Companies know their performance depends more and more on their ability to use information. But information that’s not harnessed can’t be used.

There are two kinds of information : company generated information that’s harnessed (even if people within the organization don’t know where to find it), and employee generated information that remains informal and is only known from its owner and some few people around him, because it’s not harnessed at the organization scale.

Harnessing this informal information is one of enterprises 2.0′s purposes. As said in this Gartner’s post, this kind of information exists and is available as flows, contrary to what people used to know, that is more about stocks. That’s quite destabilizing because the liquidity of this information, the fact it’s owned by employees, and the fact that employees share it and make it available for the whole organization only if they want is the exact opposite of everything that’s been known till then. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Enterprise 2.0 & Social Business, Intranets and digital workplace, Knowledge & Information management, Management & HR Tagged With: business, Enterprise 2.0, information-system, km, km 2.0, knowledge, knowledge-management, participation

Using internal blogs as a management tool

July 14, 2006 By Bertrand DUPERRIN 1 Comment

collaboration Internal blogs are not a new thing. But, most often, they’re the consequence of isolated initiatives, someone who once says “a blog would be a good thing to manage this project”. Since they’re not a part of a strategic vision and they don’t bring as added value as they could.

Let’s see how internal blogs can improve management.

Consider, as a basic premise, that every employee in your company has a blog. An internal blog, that’s important because what’s said on blog is a private and confidential as what you can put on an intranet. Another significant thing is that it’s not a collective blog or a project manager’s blog where you can comment either…it’s an internal blogging platform…you’ll understand later why this point is so important to me. In this situation, and due to a professionnal context, we’d rather say notepad instead of blog…
So let your employees blog (or write on their notepad), about their job, their win, their best practices, their ideas…and think about what it can bring to the company. [Read more...]