In the last post I asked a (rhetorical) question about case studies for social computing software. I had a quick look around to answer my own question, and in fact I found quite a few of them. Most case studies are from knowledge-heavy industries/functions, but you can get a decent view on which functions you can get business benefit in:
- Idea management (collecting ideas on process innovation, product innovation)
- Idea crowdsourcing (Dell)
- Customer forums
- Knowledge sharing / management: Rio Tinto,
- Collaborative planning, forecasting & replenishment: Aerochain
- Customer outreach
- Customer communities - Nike, Avon
- Understanding customers (social networking analytics)
- Viral marketing: Quicksilver
An important point is that these tools need to be used in to enrich/enhance/change existing business processes rather than as a standalone technical solution. As Sameer Patel puts it, “… data, and intelligence normally buried in closed process centric activity and systems were pushed into people centric social realms for improvement, only then to be put back into process systems in their newer highly optimized forms.” A brilliant example of how this could work is German Fidor Bank.
Sources: Beyond enthusiasm, CIMA Report on e2.0, Sameer Patel: Why Process Barfs on Social, Rio Tinto videos on Communities of Practice and Denis Howlett’s Glimpse to the Future.
