Thoughts on Palo Alto Network's Report, "An Analysis of End User Application Trends in the Enterprise"

Recently Palo Alto Networks released the fall edition of their Application Usage and Risk Report: An Analysis of End User Application Trends in the Enterprise. There are definitely some interesting findings within the report, and I wanted to highlight some of the more noteworthy ones from the perspective of NewsGator, particularly NewsGator Social Sites for Microsoft SharePoint.

For instance the report finds that 91% of organizations they polled were using SharePoint, up dramatically from the 37% of organizations who reported using SharePoint in the spring 2009 version of their report.  (In addition, their analysis shows a "staggering" 48% year-over-year growth in the market share of SharePoint.) 

In addition, the study confirms the observation that employees are increasingly becoming (more) active contributors.  In particular, the analysis shows that employees were "significantly more active in their blogging and posting activity" compared to the spring 2009 analysis. They also found significant increases in "total session activity" and "total bandwidth consumed" by these contribution activities. Their conclusion, which is one we fully agree with at NewsGator, is that "the dramatic increase in blog/wiki activity fully supports one of the key tenets around Enterprise 2.0 applications, which is that users, consumers and contributors are often the same person." 

Another finding in the report is that "SharePoint is being deployed by management, in a top down manner" despite the fact that Gartner reports that some 30% of SharePoint deployments are actually “rogue, meaning that end-users or business groups saw a need to be more collaborative and deployed a tool that they had at their disposal."  

What's most interesting, and perhaps important, is that, according to Palo Alto Networks, two recent surveys -- the McKinsey Report on Web 2.0 & a report by AIIM -- show that respondents are reporting measurable benefits from the use of these types of collaboration tools.  More specifically, McKinsey found that 69% of companies surveyed have noted enhanced "innovation, more effective marketing, more rapid access to information, lower costs and higher revenues" and that respondents "saw an increased ability to share ideas, more rapid access to knowledge experts, and a reduction in costs for travel operations and communications."  Likewise, AIIM's report showed that more than 50% of those surveyed "consider the use of Enterprise 2.0 applications to be important or very important" citing the three most important benefits being "knowledge sharing," "information gathering," and "improved efficiency/speed" at work. 

No doubt, the results on Palo Alto Network's fall 2009 report, as well as two other reports they cite, show that Enterprise 2.0 collaboration tools are not only seeing a dramatic increase in usage since earlier in the year, but that companies and employees are seeing concrete and wide-ranging benefits from the use of these tools.  All of this confirms that the social networking and collaboration tools in NewsGator Social Sites can bring measurable benefits to the day-to-day operations of enterprises.  

You can access the full Palo Alto Networks fall report here.

Upcoming Webinar: Implementing Enterprise 2.0: Practical Steps to Creating Business Value

Implementing Enterprise 2.0 technologies and approaches can be a key driver of competitiveness and profitability.  However, since Enterprise 2.0 sits at the nexus of technology and organizational culture, there can be no one-size-fits-all approach.

Key success factors include analyzing which Enterprise 2.0 approaches are most relevant to your organization, establishing effective governance process and policies, creating a timeline for initiatives, and supporting user adoption though internal 'champions.'

NewsGator will host a free webinar on Wednesday, November 18 at 2pm ET, where Ross Dawson, author of the proclaimed book Implementing Enterprise 2.0 and Chairman of Advanced Human Technologies, will provide detailed insights into the process of successfully implementing Enterprise 2.0, drawing on real-life case studies and featuring extensive content from his book.  Christy Schoon, Director of Business Consulting with NewsGator, will supply examples and best practices to help encourage user adoption.

This webinar will cover:

• How to apply the Enterprise 2.0 Implementation Framework to develop your own strategy and action plan
• Identifying key risks and benefits, and the process of establishing Enterprise 2.0 governance and policies 
• Making it happen: building a business case, getting buy-in, setting up pilots, and user adoption 
• Building a culture of collaboration and innovation and creating the enterprise of the future  

As a bonus, six complementary copies of Implementing Enterprise 2.0 will be drawn for attendees of the webinar!

For information on this webinar, and to register, click here.  

NewsGator Launches New ‘Everyday Enterprise 2.0’ Blog

Today NewsGator launched a new blog -- called "Everyday Enterprise 2.0."  Because Enterprise 2.0 is often derided as a buzzword enveloped in ivory-tower abstractions that confuse as much as enlighten, NewsGator today launched a new blog from the trenches of Enterprise 2.0 – yes, there are trenches – called “Everyday Enterprise 2.0,” authored by Christy Schoon, the company’s director of Enterprise 2.0 consulting. Read it at http://blogs.newsgator.com/everyday_enterprise_20/.

As Christy explains, “I work with real businesses every day that use Enterprise 2.0 to generate concrete results. My customers don’t want to argue about what Enterprise 2.0 is, whether it’s the right term, or whether it even exists. They want to know how other companies have succeeded, what they themselves can do to achieve the same benefits, and most importantly, how to do it. So I’m going to write in plain English about everyday Enterprise 2.0 from my own on-the-ground perspective working with living, breathing social computing champions at Fortune 500 companies.”

While Everyday Enterprise 2.0’s first and second posts are: “Why this blog?” and “Pimp my site," upcoming posts will focus on:

• Training 2.0
• Proofs of concept 
• Insights from the upcoming Enterprise 2.0 Conference 
• Community manager preparation 
• The notion of "adoption for adoption's sake"  
• ...and more  

Christy tells us she also welcomes comments and links to other practical resources so that the blog can become a community for sharing real-world enterprise social computing experiences among peers.

So, visit the Everyday Enterprise 2.0 blog here, and you can also read the full press release here.

NewsGator Named to Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 List

I'm pleased to report that NewsGator has been named to Deloitte's 2009 Technology Fast 500 list.  Citing our 5-year revenue growth of over 2,000%, Deloitte ranks NewsGator as being among the 80 fastest growing technology companies in the United States.

We're honored and excited to have our impressive revenue growth be acknowledged by Deloitte, and believe it speaks to the continued resonance of our enterprise social computing solutions within the marketplace.  A special thanks to NewsGator's customers and employees for helping us to achieve this milestone!

You can read Deloitte's entire report here.

NewsGator & speakTECH Announce Social Computing Strategic Partnership

Today Microsoft Gold Certified Partners NewsGator and speakTECH announce a strategic partnership to provide social computing solutions on the Microsoft SharePoint platform. 

speakTECH's proven track record in social computing SharePoint implementations provides a great complement to NewsGator's enhanced social computing and Enterprise RSS applications (such as Social Sites 3.0) for SharePoint. The combined solutions and delivery expertise of these companies will further provide organizations with the ability to collaborate on an enterprise-wide level and engage end users with riveting design and dynamic content.

Jean-Claude Monney, Chief Solution Strategy Officer for speakTECH, explains that "NewsGator is the leader in social computing products for SharePoint, and we are excited to offer these capabilities to our customers."  He goes on to say that "NewsGator Social Sites, RSS Readers, Widget Services, and mobile applications are among the best in their class and will help us to increase the business value for our clients."

We welcome our partnership with speakTECH and value the design and implementation expertise that they will offer our customers.

Social Sites 3.0 Harnesses "Social" to Drive New Business Performance in SharePoint 2010

Enterprise social computing is fast becoming a new operating system for business as NewsGator vividly demonstrates this week by unveiling its Social Sites 3.0 enterprise social computing application in action on the upcoming release of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

There should be no doubt that the combination of SharePoint Server 2010 and Social Sites will improve business performance for companies seeking better ways to collaborate, innovate and manage enterprise intelligence.  Indeed, as we speak, attendees of the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009 in Las Vegas are getting a hands-on first look at these capabilities.

As Brian Kellner, NewsGator's Vice President of Products, explains, "times have changed, and busineses are realizing they need to support the way people actually perfer to interact.  Enterprise 2.0 is the new operating system for businesses, and with SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft has dramatically improved its already powerful collaboration platform.  This gives NewsGator an even more robust foundation for its advanced Enterprise 2.0 capabilities to meet the unique needs of its customers."

Demos at Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009 are highlighting Social Sites' micro-blogging, activity streaming, and rich mobile access capabilities. NewsGator's roadmap for SharePoint Server 2010's general availability includes more high-value social applications that are increasingly requested by customers, such as:

• social mentoring
• video training
• personnel recruiting
• alumni networks
• Facebook/LinkedIn bridging
• intelligent filtering
• alerting on activity streams
• activity roll-up reporting

As Jeff Teper, Corporate Vice President, Office Business Platform at Microsoft explains, "Social Sites extends the new usability, navigation and collaboration features in SharePoint Server 2010 to help power more productive and profitable work throughout enterprises.

If you happen to be at the Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas this week, visit NewsGator in booth 401 to see a demonstration of Social Sites 3.0 on SharePoint 2010.

Also, you can read the entire press release here.

Upcoming Webinar: Social Networking Changing Business Top to Bottom

On Wednesday, October 28, at 1pm ET, NewsGator will be hosting a webinar, "Social Networking Changing Business Top to Bottom" with Industry Analyst Rob Koplowitz for Forrester. 

Social networking is driving fundamental shifts in how people interact in both the consumer and the enterprise environment.  Featured guest Rob Koplowitz, Principal Analyst of Forrester Research, interviewed trend setting companies engaged in enterprise social networking to better understand how social networking is affecting their company.  

Rob's research covers not only how companies are using social networks to improve collaboration, knowledge management and drive innovation, but, also, how social networking will impact the entire organization from top to bottom; he notes that "traditional" ROI measurements may not always apply or be the best measurement of success.

Please join Rob and NewsGator as they discuss:

• The shift in Web 2.0 conversations
• Use case examples of how social networking changes companies
• How SharePoint can be used to deliver social networking at your company
• Question & answer session

Who should view this webinar?

• Executives & Line of Business Owners
• Information & Knowledge Management Professionals
• Corporate Communications Professionals
• IT Professionals
• Enterprise/IT Architects
• Anyone Tasked with Evaluating, Recommending, or Designing Enterprise 2.0 & Social Computing Strategies

You can register for this free October 28th webinar here.

NewsGator Platinum Partner Program Leverages Best Enterprise Social Computing Minds to Ensure Enterprise 2.0 Adoption Success

NewsGator is announcing today the NewsGator Platinum Partner Program, which is an initiative to help large organizations obtain rapid, significant and sustainable business results from enterprise social computing.

Addressing rapidly escalating demand, the NewsGator Platinum Partner Program brings to bear the expertise and approaches of key global leaders with proven track records of driving adoption and results in enterprise accounts.

The NewsGator Platinum Partner Program will include partners for two categories of service:

• Strategic Consulting: These partners will help customers conceptualize and design Enterprise 2.0 initiatives, define use cases, suggest technology approaches, ensure adoption and optimize performance.
• Implementation: These partners will handle technical implementation such as user interface development, system integration and workflow.

The first wave of partners associated with this program will be named shortly.

As NewsGator President and CEO, J.B. Holston, explains, "organizations are increasingly realizing that social computing has dramatically changed the way information is exchanged and that they need to fully exploit this enormous potential in business.  We're assembling the world's most capable Enterprise 2.0 service partners to ensure that organizations' strategies, technologies and tools are fully aligned with their business goals. We will understand customers' needs, then bring in partners when and where they can help."

Read the entire press release -- with a lot more information -- here.

SharePoint Integration: The Chickens and The Pig

Lately I’ve been hearing more social computing vendors talk about integration with Microsoft SharePoint.  That’s not surprising.  Based on my chats with analysts, it looks like at least half of the large enterprises out there have picked SharePoint as a corporate standard.  And I regularly run across companies who have not declared SharePoint as a standard, but who have tens of thousands of active SharePoint users.  So, it’s natural for other social computing vendors to want to be able to be “checked off” when customers ask about SharePoint Integration.

But what does it really mean when someone says they are “integrated”?   Agile development has a nice analogy to explain why it’s different to be a developer than, for example, a product manager or marketing person:   “With respect to breakfast, the chicken is involved in the outcome, but the pig is committed.”   Indeed, product managers (chickens) are invested in the outcome, but developers (pigs) REALLY need to make things happen!

The same is true of social computing vendors claiming to be fully integrated with SharePoint.  Several chickens exist in the market.  They make (to borrow from Gartner’s Jeff Mann) “fig leaf” levels of commitment.  Typically, users can see some data from one place in the other place, but the intent is for users to do basically all their work in the third-party platform.  Not with NewsGator Social Sites, however; users don’t ever leave SharePoint.  Profiles, communities, content, even idea creation are all happening in SharePoint.  Social Sites is the pig of SharePoint integration approaches.  Yes, I just equated my product to a pig.  But in a good way – to show our commitment. 

Let’s take it one level deeper to see why being the pig is a good thing.  After working with a lot of companies and use cases, we’ve built a simple model for enterprise social computing.  Below you can see four major elements: profiles, connections, content and activity.

All of the “chicken” approaches put the profile someplace outside SharePoint.  So the question becomes, what happens to the information in the SharePoint profile?  What do you do with all the SharePoint behaviors like People Search?  Anyone who works with corporate systems knows that having more places to keep the same information means more complexity and more work.  Also, what about privacy settings? (More on this below.)  Social Sites uses the SharePoint Profile and actually adds information to it that is indexed for search.

On the other hand, the “chicken” approaches all have their “friend” information stored somewhere else.  So if I add someone as my colleague in SharePoint, is that information just lost or ignored?  Social Sites uses the colleague relationship in SharePoint.  We also add Communities where people can join together around a project, area of interest, functional area, or avocation just by clicking a link in SharePoint.

Storing content remains one of the most dominant use cases for SharePoint.  While the “chicken systems” will typically surface views from one place or another, why should a user go to another system if they want to rate or tag a document in SharePoint?  And, more importantly, many of the “chickens” allow moving documents out of SharePoint into their system.  So now what happens with the security work set up in SharePoint?  Sometimes it’s up to the user to make a judgment call and sometimes it depends on configuring the appropriate business rules.  Ask your favorite IT security person how comfortable they feel with either user choice or having to maintain security rules in two places.

Lastly, the aggregation of activity is a primary value of all the social computing vendors.  NewsGator Social Sites captures activity from across all of SharePoint.  Whether your colleagues are dropping documents onto a My Site or writing a blog post on a team site, whether someone you’ve never met is creating an idea in your favorite community or bookmarking a cool web page on a topic you care about, Social Sites captures all of this data.  And it captures data from beyond SharePoint as well.  When I use Twitter, my colleagues see my updates.  I can email a status update from anywhere.  NewsGator Social Sites provides API’s for other systems to read and update events as well.  I’m not saying some of the “chicken systems” don’t have good activity updates, but none of them cover the breadth and depth of SharePoint updates and none of them are so intimately integrated with SharePoint privacy and security settings. 

So that brings us to the last major concept of social computing which isn’t shown – privacy and security.  SharePoint already has privacy scope controls.  It has a sophisticated security model.  Because Social Sites is built-in to SharePoint, it leverages those concepts directly.  At the end of the day, any “chicken” approaches have to maintain some separate system for these settings and do their best not to break anything that has been established in SharePoint.

NewsGator has invested a tremendous amount of effort in integrating with SharePoint over the last few years, and, hopefully, the examples above help make the value of that integration more clear.  If nothing else, just remember everyone is else is a chicken and NewsGator Social Sites is a pig.  We’re committed.

 

NewsGator Launches Social Sites 3.0

Today NewsGator announces the general availability of the newest version of its enterprise social computing platform, Social Sites 3.0; this latest version includes new features for tracking colleagues’ status, streamlining cross-community knowledge-sharing, and discovering in-house subject matter experts. Built into Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, these features help NewsGator Social Sites transform content, activity, and connections into valuable social knowledge for business.

In addition, the new microblogging feature in Social Sites 3.0 lets users post short, quick Twitter-style status updates to their colleagues. These updates serve as a way to report urgent developments, train colleagues on the fly, identify helpful experts, chronicle off-site conferences, mentor/get mentored, float new ideas, build morale and otherwise harness the value of “weak ties.”

NewsGator Social Sites 3.0 also includes two other breakthrough social computing capabilities to organize valuable content and leverage reputation in large organizations:

• Socialpedia – This self-assembling, Wikipedia-style knowledge base pulls from wikis across SharePoint. Socialpedia enhances Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007’s wiki experience, with AJAX editing, tagging, rating, automated table of contents creation, custom wiki tags, and more, creating a single knowledge repository with distributed ownership.

• Knowledge Explorer – Visualize internal experts clustered around concepts with this graphical expertise map. When users click on a topic in a tag cloud, the map appears with experts arranged according to their automatically calculated expertise ratings. Knowledge Explorer takes advantage of the rich media features in Microsoft Silverlight, the software for rich web experiences.

You can learn more about Social Sites 3.0, and its brand new features, here.