Strategic Aggregation Designs

Harnessing the Promise of Social Networks for Business Operations

Passageways PowWOW Advanced User and Developer Conference

May 7-9, 2008Presented byRandy Karnes, CEO

Mutual Interests

It was only natural that CU*Answers would seek out a portal technology provider like Passageways for a partner based on our own evolution and current goals:– Build business networks that create

strategies, tactics, and activities across organizational boundaries

– Leverage the talent of the resulting business network for both our participating organizations and our participating professionals

– Leverage the opportunities of the resulting business network both as a solution provider and a vested aggregator

Fancy words and high falutin’ ideas for simply wanting to do more with our partners and increase our relevance to their business

plans and to their customers

Building Business Networks

Creating strategies, tactics, and activities across organizational

boundaries

Improving On Standalone Concepts

Organizations who network their capabilities can gain a competitive advantage

They need a network with 3 key components:– A technical “highway” that coordinates

transactions and interactions– Organized and rich content that is accessible

and actionable by all– Sufficient aggregation to create a formidable

market presence It all starts with the idea that a business will

leverage its commonalities with partners for everyone’s advantage

It’s simple: be more, do more, and appear larger than you could as a

standalone player

Amplifying Commonalities

The things that organizations share in common provide the spark for pursuing alliances and network solutions– Common vision and beliefs– Common vendors– Common tools– Common customers– Common goals

The relative importance of these commonalities to the success of their business plans creates the intensity and commitment to network solutions

Think about this User Group: you come together around some shared practices, but do you execute on those practices as a network,

or as standalone operators?

Point to Point

Hubs and NodesBusiness Networks Around a Common Vendor or Platform

Point to Point

What is the opportunity, and

where is it focused?

Hubs and NodesBusiness Networks Around a Common Vendor or Platform

A Hub

Hubs and NodesBusiness Networks Around a Common Vendor or Platform

A Hub

What is the opportunity, and

where is it focused?

Hubs and NodesBusiness Networks Around a Common Vendor or Platform

A Network

Hubs and NodesBusiness Networks Around a Common Vendor or Platform

A Network

What is the opportunity, and

where is it focused?

Hubs and NodesBusiness Networks Around a Common Vendor or Platform

Hubs and NodesBusiness Networks Around a Common Vendor or Platform

Which is bigger? The opportunity of one, or the opportunity of all?

A network multiplies the work of one into an opportunity for all of its participants

Harnessing the Promise of Social Networks

Around Business Operations

Ultimately, this network business design works when the environment (eco-system) creates the belief in the minds of its participants that their very participation in the network gives them a competitive advantage by– Helping them harvest the benefits of scale that

were previously beyond their reach– Surrounding them with accessible innovation

that is easily actioned at a lower cost– Magnifying their opportunities and creating

the potential for positive (though unspecified) new directions

Simply put: the business designer believes this is the place to be...this is my connection to the

crowd that will take me to the next level

Leveraging Talent

CU*Talent: Evolving on social

aggregation as a business strategy for getting the

most out of human resources

Rethinking Human Resources at the Organizational Level

“How many people work for you?”– What has changed that might influence how a CEO

in 1988 would answer that question, compared to a CEO in 2008? Networks and the mindset of employees who know how to use them

“How do you see the talents available to your organization?”– What has changed that might influence how a CEO

in 1988 would answer that question, compared to a CEO in 2008? Networks and the mindset of employees who know how to use them

So have networks and the mindset related to using networks for access to talent and people changed the way your organization thinks about human resources strategies and tactics?

Think about your personal contacts...they might add up to more talent than a large company in 1988

Rethinking Human Resources at a Personal Level

How will tomorrow’s employee react to classic career challenges?

They will bring their network to work with them every day– When the boss asks them to find a new solution to

a constant challenge...they will use their network– When they need an edge to get that next

promotion...they will use their network– When they need a new opportunity...they will use

their network So when employees bring their network to

work and truly understand the advantages they have at being adept in using networks, will your business plan leverage this new perspective?Think about your personal contacts...you have an

edge on someone who still works like they did in 1988

Rethinking Human Resources

Imagine the revolution in trying to get organizations with top-down control thinking to embrace social network concepts– Open environment with little governance– Easy, quick communications– Rich user identities (personalization, vanity,

etc.)– Reputation/ranking mechanisms– Cliques– New social network metrics (betweenness,

closeness, centrality, clustering coefficient, etc.)

How can we translate these ideas into winning business models?

CU*Talent

At CU*Answers, we are anticipating using our business network design to enhance both our participating organizations and their employees’ situations by leveraging a new mindset about HR and the collective talents of a network

Goals for CU*Talent– Connecting people – Creating opportunity – Sharing knowledge– Source of intellectual capital – Collaboration, collective exchange of ideas– Alternative resource allocation– Individualized career development– Potential for reduced people expenses

CU*Talent

We need to design a network that can capture the power of talent—no matter where it is in our network—to innovate, execute, and earn beyond anything we’ve ever seen

Build an expectation of leveraging both employees and their peers and contacts

Our Passageways partnership gives us the potential to design a unique environment for credit union professionals that will be compelling, contagious, and a place where they will want to do business

We plan to leverage the power of a single Intranet against the Intranets of a hundred organizations and

let 3,000 employees be visible to each other

CU*Talent Network

CU*Talent Network

CU*Talent Network

CU*Talent Network

Ideally, the community servers create an environment where employees inside a credit union are partnered with employees anywhere in the network

The community server represents a common environment, set of tools, and business concept that facilitate a shared activity – a ready-made eco-system to facilitate a new shared business– It will start with CU*Answers at the center of

new business initiatives– It will come to fruition when any participant

feels empowered to go into business or sell their talents throughout the networkIs your business read to extend services to

your peers? Are you digitally defined, connected, and ready to bring on your first

client?

CU*Talent Network: Peer to Peer Connectivity

Harnessing the Promise of Social Networks

Around People and Their Talents

Ultimately, this network business design works when the environment (eco-system) creates the belief in the minds of its participants that their very participation in the network gives them a competitive advantage by– Helping them harvest the benefits of scale that

were previously beyond their reach– Surrounding them with accessible innovation

that is easily actioned at a lower cost– Magnifying their opportunities and creating

the potential for positive (though unspecified) new directions

Simply put: employees and leaders believe this is the place to be...this is their connection to the

crowd that will take them to the next level

Leveraging Opportunity

Leveraging classic investments for new gains

We All Have the Same Problem

Every business designer builds networks within their organization (node) with the following focuses– Servicing the corporation– Servicing the employees– Servicing the customer– Servicing the partner

Classically, we’re taught to build these environments for ourselves, standalone and self-contained

If we are to take advantage of strategic aggregation designs, our organizations need to be ready to plug and play with network resources

By design, you must be seen by the market as a network-ready talent – a business ready to be at

the center of collaboration in this new marketplace

Are You Relevant to the Network’s Needs?

What role might you play in these classic network needs for potential partners?– Servicing the corporation– Servicing the employees– Servicing the customer– Servicing the partner

Do you have ideas to contribute? Process designs to contribute? Talent to contribute? Customer opportunity? Excess capacity? Connectivity?

Are you building a business ready to earn through network contribution and interaction?

We believe our partnership with Passageways and our projects related to business networks

and CU*Talent are designed around completing our resumé as a network catalyst

Building Rich IT Environments

Servicing the Corporation

Digitized corporate intelligence and business process content

Various software applications, but major component is the intranet

Servicing the Employees

Coordinating talent, administrative interactions, and a social culture

Various software applications, but major component is the intranet

Servicing the Customer

Communicating value, completing transactions, and interacting with the consumer marketplace

Dominated by core processing solutions and Internet connections to the marketplace

Servicing the Partner

Developing node-to-hub connectivity resources and creating an inside-out/ outside-in focus

Starts with an open business mindset and a toolbox full of XML, TCP/IP and other network-ready components

Building Rich IT Environments

Servicing the Corporation

Digitized corporate intelligence and business process content

CU*Answers and Passageways

Servicing the Employees

Coordinating talent, administrative interactions, and a social culture

CU*Answers and Passageways

Servicing the Customer

Communicating value, completing transactions, and interacting with the consumer marketplace

CU*Answers and It’s Me 247 online banking

Servicing the Partner

Developing node-to-hub connectivity resources and creating an inside-out/ outside-in focus

The inspired business architect...YOU

CU*Answers

Conclusion

We’re happy to be part of this new network – advanced users of Passageways

It is the next step in our working to harvest the potential of networks for CU*Answers and our partners

It’s easy to see the potential in collaboration; it’s easy to feel good about cooperation; it’s to see that something is going on with social networks and aggregation sites on the Internet

What can be hard is translating something that appears to be so easy into a competitive advantage for our industry

That takes work – and we’re dedicated to the effort