Imagine you’re in a cube farm, perhaps the 6x6’ grey type we’re all so familiar with.  You’re at the center of the first floor of a multi-story commercial building.  No windows, just a view of coworkers typing on their laptops and placing calls to check on the status of their projects.  It’s difficult to know what’s happening outside of your surrounding area. 

Your phone lights up as you receive a call.  “Why haven’t we launched the marketing campaign for our new xPhone?”, your boss exclaims breathlessly. 

“I don’t know…”, you retort, “I need to check on that".”

“What’s wrong with your department?”; she says, “why am I constantly worrying about your team? I want an update and I want it today… do not pass Go - get it done!”

Hours pass.  You’ve placed calls into the marketing agency and Sales Manager, emailed the creative team in India, and hosted an hour long meeting with your team asking for updates.  With the exception of India (they are sleeping), they all promise to give you detailed updates before 3pm. 

With each passing minute you become more and more worried about what your boss said.  “What’s wrong with your department,” continues to echo in your mind while you nervously prepare the framework for your update.  You’re not sure this will end well. 

Now imagine that you answered your boss with a simple, “Just click on the community project dashboard to see the updates.  In fact all of our project updates and content are there. You can even subscribe to future updates.”  That’s more or less what an Enterprise 2.0 solution can do – it facilitates collaboration.

I know it’s difficult to start a shiny new initiative.  Especially in a recession.  Yet, as we’ve seen with the work the Adoption 2.0 council has completed, there are tremendous ROI benefits to implementing an Enterprise 2.0 solution.

By championing the cause in your company, the benefits to the organization and yourself are numerous. 

Enterprise 2.0 Strategy Guide -  How to launch an E2.0 solution

Step Tool/Method Online ResourcesDetermine the pain you’re going to solve

Call a meeting with key stakeholders.  Outline the issues.  Create a short 10 slide PowerPoint deck explaining the pain points & solution. 

Start with this Enterprise 2.0 getting started guide I created just for you.

Document the current process and highlight the pain points

High level Visio-like diagram Try Gliffy online 

Estimate the cost of the current process and the potential ROI of an E2.0 solution

In terms of hours wasted, headcount redundancy, content redundancy, phone calls, etc. 

Modify this calculator by  Nucleus Research to help determine cost and ROI 

Determine the right team or Look for those with the greatest immediate pain  

division to pilot the solution and offer to find a solution. Source vendors Once the pain has been clearly identified, find

vendors that best meet your need. Start with this E2.0 online RFP template.  Feel free to modify and use.

Seek objective & independent advice

Find sites that provide objective advice about E2.0 solutions.  Also talk to vendor references.

A few we recommend:

ReadWriteEnterprise Collaboration 2.0 Future Changes ERP.com 

Select Vendor Scorecard the results in order to best choose. Start with this Enterprise 2.0 scorecard and modify it to suit your needs

Implement the Solution Working with vendor and pilot team, implement the solution.

Dion Hinchcliffe’s article on the subject is superb.  Ross Dawson provides a different view. Read both. 

Track the business benefits It’s very important you track the success of the project.  Be prepared to present the results to upper management.

See articles above

Market the results Ensure all internal stakeholders understand the success of the program.

 

Expand the pilot Once the pilot is successful, go enterprise wide. A good whitepaper on the subject by VersionOne and an article on the FastForward blog

The guide and tools are above are to get you started.    I am very interested to hear your comments as to additional helpful resources not mentioned above. 

Reposted from (http://www.seekomega.com)

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