Whats-SAP?

Hey there fellow bloggers and readers, this is my fourth entry into my blog and this week I thought I would talk about why companies have implemented blogs and if it actually enhanced or benefited the company.

There are many reasons as to why a company would start a Blog or Wiki, a few of the major reasons include establishing a two way communication between prospects and influencers IE. Buyers and sellers. Expand the companies reach and strengthen your brand. Or maybe the company simply just wants to extend its network, create relationships.

Blogs's and Wiki's are a mainstream source of news and information in the current day and age. Companies are now finally embracing enterprise 2.0 and integrating these types of tools into their business so that they can enhances their online identity and enhance the company itself. SAP is a company that developed its own Enterprise Resource Planning package or ERP package. The name of this service is, coincidentally, SAP which stands for System Applications and Products. This software service is mainly used in Data processing and has proven to be highly effective and is one of the top selling ERP packages to date.

SAP have their own website which has an abundance of information on it, such as training and courses to study SAP, service and support for SAP and a page about their industry and the strategies they used. Among browsing the website I spotted a community tab which intrigued me so I clicked on it. To my surprise SAP has a vast array of social media tools that they have integrated already into their website and company. For example there is a live twitter feed which constantly updating tweets from the company about updates to the product or just general things they want to mention. They have a Facebook, Youtube, Google+ and various other accounts for users and customers to follow. However the main highlight to their community page is their corporate blog. This blog is internally run within the website itself so users must go through the website to access the blog. The surprising thing is that this blog is very externally/community focused and has topics such as SAP business trends where they talk about IT strategies and business value and give insight on upcoming business trends. Their corporate Blog is a place for all SAP enthusiasts and potential customers and users alike to gather and get all the information they want on SAP and what their doing.

The blogs also have topics about how to improve ones business through financial integrity and decision making, so not only are SAP using their blog and other social media for marketing and sales, they are also connecting with the consumers and helping them achieve their own goals. If SAP did not make the decision to integrate these enterprise 2.0 tools then they would not have this many customers and probably wouldn't even have the title of one of the top selling ERP packages, the reason? they would have no way of connecting with customers or clients and because the Blogs act as a forum as well there would be no potential sharing of information, collaboration, users talking to users and employee's about how to improve SAP or where it should go next. However in saying this, because SAP is a IT service it immediately has the upper hand in the blogosphere because they know what their doing when it comes to technology and marketing, however I believe SAP mains marketing strategy that led to the most success was their Blog.

Relating back to the lecture you can clearly see that SAP has used multiple technology value levers, they have practically satisfied the entire column of marketing and sales which include, using social technologies for marketing, generating and fostering sales lead, and social commerce. Through the use of their Youtube and Facebook page they satisfy the user insights section.

Finally concluding here's today's question: Have any of you heard of or used SAP? if so what do you think of the product and or service? 

IMB's success story using Enterprise 2.0

Following closing with last weeks blog, this week I will attempt to investigate some organisations that have integrated Enterprise 2.0 and used some of the social technology levers to innovate and benefit their company.

I found one specific organisation that has a very interesting history with technology and the use of Enterprise 2.0. This company is IBM. Specifically, I will be examining how they used Enterprise 2.00 and social technology levers to leverage their position in marketing and sales and most importantly how they improved across their entire enterprise. 

To begin lets talk about who IBM is. IBM (International Business Machine) is a multinational technology and consulting corporation. They manufactures and markets computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. With over 420,000 employees in over 10 countries, IBM is one of the largest and most recognized companies in the world today. A company of that size needs to able to coordinate and collaborate, not only with other employees but with customers as well. They must be able to share business processes and respond to market demands. This is where Enterprise 2.0 was implemented and also using a few of the social technology levers this company became successful, however they were not always this successful. In the 90's IBM almost went bankrupt because back then they were one of a few in the industry, luckily though they had time to re-evaluate their processes and how they got things done.

So how exactly did they use Enterprise 2.0? they gave the power to their employees otherwise referred to as the IMBers. IMB does not have a corporate blog or twitter account or any kind of major social media account, corporately. However, their employees have over 80,000 blogs internally and externally, around 50,000 have Facebook and Twitter accounts. This was the companies strategy to let the employee's be the corporate blog or corporate twitter account, because the employee's would post publicly what was going on with the company, sales, answering questions asked by customers.

However IBM did not stop there. They had developed their own social media network within the organisation called SocialBlue which allows employee's to stay connected with one another.They also have a fully crowd sourced wiki which has all the information about the companies products. To top it off IBM holds about every 6 months an event called company"Jams" and in this event a few employees from different branches would come together to have a meeting and discuss how to innovate. Any ideas they had would be shared and talked about, these days IBM has thousands of employees attending, either over technology or in person.

So to wrap up, there are two main social technology value levers that are used here, published by McKinsey. The first is is the use of social technology to improve inter organisational collaboration and communication, the second is using social technologies for marketing communication/interaction.

Finally, the question, What do you think is the best way to improve marketing or sales using social media? 

The adoption of social tools in business (option 2)

In our current day and age a business cannot strive or even think about being successful without integrating some kind of technology or service into their business. There are not many businesses out there without an app for the customer to purchase for their phones or a Facebook page for them to follow. Businesses are realizing that social media and related tools must be incorporated into nearly every aspect of their business for them to achieve maximum results. This adaptation of social media and tools is more commonly known as enterprise 2.0.

In the lecture, there were some great examples of how companies used enterprise 2.0 and its principles to greatly benefit their company and connect with their customers. I got curious so decided to do some research on whether this was actually something companies were taking in and integrating into their business processes. As I surprisingly found out, yes! combining traditional marketing, selling and improvement strategies with social tools was very common withing most companies. To prove that this statement is correct I will provide some examples of companies which were hitting rock bottom but integrated enterprise 2.0 principles and gained significant status, benefits and profit.

Example 1: Martell Home Builders 

Martell Home Builders is a Atlantic Canadian custom home builder. In the past Martell Home Builder relied heavily on real estate agents to keep their business afloat and moving forward, and so because of this business was not very high or frequent. However, once they embraced enterprise 2.0 and social media, they were able to create a direct-to-consumer model where they were no longer reliant on the middle man to bring them business.

Martell started a blog with the focus being on their home buyers needs. With this strategy Martell was able to grab the attention of home buyers, and today about 86% of their leads come from consumers commenting on their blog. On their blog they have multiple icons showing tabs for Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, asking customers to follow them so that they can always stay up to date on what Martell is doing and the latest home designs.

Martell, using social media, has made home building a social experience with two crucial features. 1, Placing GPS tracking devices on the contractors car's so that customers can constantly be updated on where the contractor is when he/she is on the job. 2, creating a photo gallery of clients' homes being built, this is a great strategy for clients can see how their home is progressing through pictures and also share their excitement with friends and family through social media. This case study shows some of the core accordance's of social technology, such as Participation, Collective effort and transparency.

Example 2: Giantnerd 

Giantnerd is a company that sells outdoor equipment for outdoor activities such as biking or hiking. Giantnerd did not have much of a social presence at all before adopting social media and other tools, so their business was not flourishing as much as they would have hoped. However, their decision to integrate enterprise 2.0 into their business was a fine one indeed. Their emphasis has now turned into giving customers the most value while becoming friends with them at the same time.

They have created a social network within their website so that users can find each other talk about products and join groups, however the main incentive they give is that new members and long time members get special discounts that no normal customer has access to. Also they have incorporated a Facebook like button so that customers can like the Facebook page, they promise that anyone who follows the Facebook page will be given exclusive deals and promotions.

A huge aspect of their social media integration is Gaintnerd's Wiki. As you would expect it works very similar to wikipedia or any other wiki site. Users or potential customers can view all the different products they offer, including descriptions and photos and customers can edit the information making the experience interactive. Customers can also leave questions on the wiki page which will be answered by either an employee of Giantnerd or another customer who has the same product, providing reviews and tips for using them. This case study is a great example of Wikinomics business model's points 1 and 3, Peering and prosumers, as this business strategy allows the community to interact with each other and the company itself.

I leave you, my readers, with the following question: What companies have you known which began small and as soon as they embraced social media exploded into a thriving organisation?