online collaboration - what’s up in singapore?

/37 ISS Seminar: SOCIAL MEDIA (Re)CONNECTIONS V – 24 June 2015

Online Collaboration

© 2015 National University of Singapore. All Rights Reserved.

What’s up in Singapore? By Chia Han-Leon Lecturer, Enterprise Social Business, Institute of Systems Science National University of Singapore Statistics/charts by Jonathan Daniel Chan and Peter Carl Jentsch

University of Waterloo

1


Survey on Online Internal Collaboration Practices in Organizations

Survey conducted in Q2/Q3 2014. Purpose was to: • Review state of collaboration use in Singapore. • Research for Online Collaboration Course/Training.

© 2015 National University of Singapore. All Rights Reserved. 2


Modelled after older surveys by AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management), Aberdeen, IBM, etc.

AIIM Industry Watch Paper: Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0 (2009)

Aberdeen Group: Enterprise Social Collaboration (2012)

AIIM Industry Watch Paper: Social in the Flow (2014)



Survey Sample Size: 410 respondents

Comprising ISS short course participants, seminar attendees, and other visitors from professional fields.



On to selected results……



About the respondents’ organizations

B2C, 16%

Others, 15%

Government, 25%

B2B/C, 25%

B2B, 19%

Sample Size: 410



Respondents came from these industries:

14.9% Infocomm 12.5% Finance and Insurance 10% Defence, Safety and

Security

8.3% Engineering 4.3% Manufacturing 4.1% Education 6% Info and Media



Does your organization use the following tools?

Winner: Sharepoint. 263 respondents say their organization uses it.

Chatter 7%

Confluence 9%

Connections 4%

Google Apps for Business

12%

Jive 2%

Sharepoint/ Yammer

54%

Others 12%

Sample Size: 410



OK, but when an organization says it “uses” the tool, does that mean its employees “use” the tool?

And are they effectively used?



Many companies (242) do “encourage” and “use” collaboration platforms.



Many companies (212) believe collaboration platforms are used and effectively so. But now a number of respondents are unsure (101).



What features do you see used in your organization?



Most often used, not surprisingly the winner by far:

Sharing / Storage / Document “repositories”

F I L E S

Are these really “collaborative”? Maybe more “functional”….



Task Management, Calendar, Online Meetings, Chat

In second place:

(co)OPERATIONS

Getting there, great benefits, though still not complete.



COLLABORATIVE CONTENT

Collaborative Authoring, Discussions

In third(?) place:



Then there are the rarely used…

Blogging Link-sharing Social Networking Activity Feeds (Collaborative authoring) (Discussion)

“ (SOCIAL) CRUCIBLE*” features

*“a place or situation in which different elements interact to produce something new.”



Food for thought: how is collaboration like without the social or serendipitous element?


Photo by Robert Scoble/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)


• Commercial companies are a little more active. • Everyone’s really addicted to files. • Knowledge sharing is still under-appreciated.



All this suggests that….. Companies are collaborating, but not in the most up-to-date sense. Not at full potential.

Using limited and/or old features. With a bias for operational features.


Photo: Minnesota State Capitol Woodworkers Toolbox, circa 1900. Minnesota Historical Society


Parts + tech + GPS + driver + roads + purpose + cargo + “etiquette”+ etc =

FUNCTION VS FEATURE

Functions do not collaboration make

+ ≠ lorry You want functions to combine into features.


You also need social behaviours to catalyse the culture.

©Nissan


But there is still anxiety over “SOCIAL” Social benefits of collaboration are unmeasurable, therefore often brushed aside as having no value. Examples: • Social goodwill/camaraderie. • “Didn’t hire you for this” expertise. • Serendipity.

Most acceptable “social” is chat.



Beyond that, companies prefer the “brick-and-mortar” collaboration features that relate to

*Maybe not so secret.

But secretly*, companies still want the Magic Potion

OPERATIONS


…. of Productivity, Innovation, Employee Satisfaction, Teamwork, Knowledge Retention, etc. and of course “Collaboration”.


How do you see your organization’s investments* into collaboration tools in the next 12 months?

Don't Know,

28%

None, 19.6%

Yes but not a

priority 28%

Yes , 11.5%

YES! Top

Priority 1.6%

*platforms, manpower, budget, training.


Half-glass full, half-glass empty…


Most Commonly Perceived Benefits of using Collaboration

Greater knowledge sharing 54% Better communication 52% Better cooperation between depts 51% Higher productivity 34% Better relationships between staff 18% Improved management 15% Better customer service 9% Reduce costs 7%

Sample Size: 410


/37 ISS Seminar: SOCIAL MEDIA (Re)CONNECTIONS V – 24 June 2015 © 2015 National University of Singapore. All Rights Reserved. 25

….. But I thought you said you are not interested in knowledge sharing? Perceived benefit ≠ actual implementation


So what do we have to do to get collaboration going?



Platform-wise, we need to have ALL KEY FEATURES OF COLLABORATION

• Task Management • Discussion/Conversation • Collaborative Authoring (co-editing) • Searchable Information/Knowledge Retention • Rich Profiles/Social Networking • Thought Leadership • Knowledge Discovery and Sharing



In general, the neglected features are:

• Rich Profiles / Social Networking • Thought Leadership • Knowledge Discovery and Sharing


WHY?


Security

45%

Lack of Participation

30% Lack of

Champion/Expertise

20%

No Clear Benefit

18%

Lack of Management

Support

18%

Lack of Strategy/

Plan

18%

Un-conducive Company

Culture

18%

Governance/ Policy

22%

Top 3 biggest barriers to using collaboration tools:



The biggest barrier is ATTITUDE

“If we can’t measure it, we won’t use it.”

Online “Social” Collaboration platforms are often the victims of

“If it’s not secure, it’s

a risk.”

“If it’s social, we won’t allow it.”


©SPF


But everyday we allow email, online

chat, smartphones…

It just boils down to habit.



• Email demands too much of your time. • Email is not designed for collaboration

or sharing. • Knowledge gets trapped in your inbox. • Email is anti-social.



http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy (July 2012)

“We find that social technologies… have the potential to raise the productivity of high-skill knowledge workers …by 20 to 25 percent”…. with an estimated $900 billion to $1.3 trillion in value that could be unlocked by social technologies.


http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy�


Why is online collaboration like weight loss?


Because there is no secret to it. All the classic advice is true. It’s just a matter of changing habits. Online collaboration is an open secret to solving productivity problems.


Thanks for listening!

@leonchia sg.linkedin.com/in/leonchia/ [email protected]


online collaboration - what’s up in singapore?

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