Maturity Model; Het Nieuwe Werken en Social Media. Het Business Model bepaalt de mate waarin

In veel organisaties is het Nieuwe Werken inmiddels gemeengoed, waardoor medewerkers op een andere manier met elkaar samenwerken. Vaak op locaties naar keuze en veelal ondersteund door een scala aan digitale hulpmiddelen waaronder Social Media. Die manier van samenwerken heeft zijn invloed op het middelen beslag van arbeid op een organisatie (minder m2, minder kilometers, meer ICT netwerk, meer security) Het lijkt namelijk voor de hand te liggen dat er een parallelliteit bestaat tussen het externe-, en het interne gebruik van Social Media.

Dit schema legt een verband te tussen deze twee kanten van Social Media en de manier waarop ze zich onderling verhouden door een analyse te maken van het bijbehorende business model (Zie mijn blogpost over Social Media en businessmodellen), “De relatie is belangrijker dan het product”. De manier waarop dit zich in de organisatie manifesteert en de belangrijkste business driver, het centrale thema waaromheen alle faciliteiten worden georganiseerd.

IPR = Intellectual Property Right
ARPU = Average Rete per User
CLV = Customer Lifetime Value
ENV = Extended Network Value

Klantrelaties hebben sinds de intrede van Social Media in marketing en Customer Care een andere dynamiek gekregen. De relatie is op zijn minst intensiever en directer, maar wat zijn nou de gevolgen van deze verandering in klantrelaties voor de interne organisatie en de te hanteren business modellen en client-engagement modellen. Klanten worden namelijk meer en meer onderdeel van de organisatie.

Voor beide omgevingen kunnen we een maturity / groeimodel gebruiken – zoals het schema hierboven - om te bepalen waar een organisatie staat en wat haalbare doelen zijn om naar een naast hoger niveau te groeien. Het schema geeft 4 maturity stappen v oor de klantrelatie, de organisatie die nodig is om die relatie te onderhouden en de manier waarop we in de organisatie moeten samenwerken om dat te realiseren.
In bovenstaand schema houd dat in;
1. IPR - Transactiegericht
2. ARPU - Altijd verbonden (any time, any place, any device)
3. CLV - Social Frontoffices, webcare, customer monitoring, NPS
4. ENV - Sociale Processen, connected oranisatie

De gebruikte technieken / platformen houden een gelijke tred met dit maturity niveau voor inzet van social media zowel intern als extern.
1. Impuls communicatie
2. Intranet for all,
3. Activiteit georiënteerd (Kennisdeling)
4. Taak gebaseerd (Centrale KPI meting)
De analyse van het gewenste ambitie niveau is af te leiden uit de gewenste klantrelatie en de daar uit voortvloeiend de gewenste interne manier van samenwerken.

Voor de interne organisatie moeten we voor ieder niveau kijken hoe we infra, security, employee betrokkenheid, management cultuur, organisatie, etc. organiseren, omdat de customer service op ieder niveau andere eisen stelt aan de manier waarop collega’s samenwerken en kennis delen;
1. Faciliteiten (Systeemlaag)
2. Way of Working
3. Cultuur en waarden
4. Stakeholders

Portals

“Share off mind, share off experience are key. A trusted relationship is necessary, even in business portals”

Internet, Intranet, Extranet, Website, Portal? What is what actually? Different names for the same thing?

The difference between these terms is the focus of the owner. The technology is basically the same.

The Internet is the public environment where anybody can go and find info, contacts, bargains, etc.

An Intranet is a network structure in the same fashion as the internet with focus on company personnel only and has exactly the same functionality as the internet. Access is regulated with login facilities. The contents is always company related

An Extranet is focused on a companies customers. Access to the extranet is granted in exchange for contact information or subscription. The contents is company and service related.

A Website is a company’s presence on the Internet. Websites have evolved from static information provision to customers into dynamic points of sale directly connecting to internal business processes. This differentiated websites and the term Portal was introduced.

A Portal is something that gives access to …, is the only entrance to… and therefore allows only privileged access. It is the only access to all relevant resources. In case of an internal Portal this means that the portal gives access to all business processes, all applications, all employees, but only to those with the right privilege. A portal can be directed outward, to the customer’s side, or inward, to the employee side. I will treat these two types of portals as one.

por·tal (pôr'tl, pōr'-) Pronunciation Key n.
A doorway, entrance, or gate, especially one that is large and imposing.
An entrance or a means of entrance: the local library, a portal of knowledge.
The portal vein.
A website considered as an entry point to other websites, often by being or providing access to a search engine.

It is well known that the doctor’s children are usually ill as the shoemaker’s children wear the most worn shoes. Companies that excel in organizing their external processes and communication have to realize that this excellence has to be met with internal processes that facilitate service workers to intervene in those external processes.

There is a strange thing to companies. They are very interested in creating a relationship resulting in transactions. But when transactions fail, they tend to look a way or at least create thresholds with the aim to slow reclamation processes. In the Netherlands companies offer new customers a 0800 number to be able contact them. This number range is free of charge for the caller – because: future customer - . Once you are a customer, there is only one means of communications left. 0900 numbers costing between €0,10 and € 0.90 per minute. Cost for usage of the mobile phone is not included. In fact companies earn money by messing up.

The basic reason for this behaviour is the cost element of after sales service. To many people involved, outsourced call centre facilities causes high cost and loss of quality and involvement.

We have seen this in recent rapidly growing markets like web-hosting, mobile telephony etc. Fast in sales, slow in service!

Other types of companies will have to deal with these problems as soon as they start extending their processes outside the company’s borders for the simple reason that the company is no longer able to decide when a business process is to start. Customers will start the process. Resulting in unpredictable use of resources. To regulate this companies throw up thresholds minimizing effort but maximizing customer frustration.

The answer to this is a different way of designing business processes. Processes have always been designed by ICT specialists who were aware of the limitations of their machinery and software. Introduction of internet type technologies have opened a new range of possibilities to design and manage business processes.

As the outside world of individuals is slowly but steadily organizing itself in social networks, interest groups, ideology communities etc. Companies have to counter this by servicing the individuals in a manner that creates respect, or run the risk to be nailed to the wall by consumers in the same fashion someone can get world famous in 24 hours. Chat rooms, bulletin boards etc. There is a strong need for a long term strategy regarding redesign of business processes.

Portal Technology is readily available and proven technology, yet companies use it to share knowledge and call it a knowledge management environment. In fact it could be the mirror image of what is happening in the outside world. Faster information in the outside world requires faster and better information in business processes.

Digitals relationships between companies and their customers require adequate management tools. Not only standard CRM and ERP type solutions, but also Customer Self Care type solutions outbound AND inbound. Showing all relevant information at any point in time to anyone authorized.

This requires two basic conditions;
1. A central identification and authorization mechanism is in place.
2. All company resources are connected.

This implies that the portal is the employee’s window to the company and its customer’s. Business processes will be redesigned on this level creating a 3 tier process structure. People are allowed to work together in different settings. From simple production tasks to complex project teamrooms where all project info and resources are combined.

Companies will in the end have to manage their new digital environment consisting of three main areas of interest.

1. External portal with processes and interactivity
2. Internal portal with processes and information
3. Networked data structures

Only the third area is a typical technology issue. The first two are a combination of communication, commerce, organization and ICT. It is evident that new ways of managing these areas create a new challenge to companies. There will be a strong change in governance. Both decision making and project management need a different approach. Multi discipline projects ask for different ways to manage knowledge and skills. The old concept of project or process owner seizes to exist

All major companies in the world have a portal installed, still far from complete or effective but still.

Forrester stated three relevant issues to portals

1. “The portal becomes as essential as e-mail and telephony.”
2. “The allure of new features, combined with lessons learned (…) is an irresistible opportunity to give portals a second or third shot.”
3. “Ambitious firms extend portals to partners and customers.”

The first statement has all ready been proven true. Sales of portal technology is at the moment the fastest growing sector in software sales.

The second will prove itself shortly. When introducing new concepts like for instance VoIP (.. or rather Internet Telephony), no intensive implementation projects are needed. Simply add the function to the portal and it is available to all users.

Portals come in all sizes and shapes and they are not easy to compare. An easy way to categorize them is the ambition level in the portal.

Ambition levels

In recent studies of business cases we found three levels of ambition;
1. Function based, providing (personalized) information.
2. Activity based, providing (personalized) knowledge and communication facilities.
3. Task based, providing (personalized) guidance and prioritization.
Ultimately aligning activities with business objectives and goals.

A portal consists of a number of generic business functions – aside from identity management and authorization – that enable users to work with the resources or processes.

o Communication tools like mail, instant messaging, video conference, meeting maker, etc.
o Collaboration tools like, document sharing, discussion platform, knowledge finder etc.
o Content management systems using push and pull mechanisms supplying news and information.

o Clippings, RSS, Press Releases etc.
o Workflow management processing tasks, documents, etc.
o Personal space
o Business Intelligence
o Web-services
o Knowledge Management Facilities

Employees or customers will create their own way off working with these new environments. Many companies allow departments and individuals to create their own space and presence within the portal. New ways of exchanging information new way of planning a career, new ways of managing activities will arise from these portals.

There are all ready excellent examples in the area of open-source” collaboration. On the Geneva Car Show showed a new model of an environmental friendly vehicle was presented, entirely designed in an open portal environment by technicians and scientists all over the world.

In a large infrastructural project I have worked in myself teamrooms with project planning facilities, instant messaging and document sharing, resulting in perfect collaboration.

Portals have a lot of benefits coming with them. We already identified the ease of introduction of new technologies. Portals glue everything together thus creating a standardization of infrastructure, communications etc. The technology also enables benefits of a non financial character;
1. Save time, More time for value added activities like strategy development and innovation
2. Create flexibility. Easily implement new technologies. Portal platform can be used by internal AND external stakeholders at the same time.

3. Share Knowledge and

4. Increase productivity by implementing simple workflows, and give users their own digital space to have them come back regularly and work with the portal through natural motivation.
5. Improve decision making by creating best practices, business cases and benchmarks etc.

The financial benefits will differ per situation. Standard financial benefits how ever lie with standardization activities. The infrastructure (both hard and software) and supporting processes can be standardized easily. Simple cost saving can come from P&O processes like declarations, trips administration, easier communication facilities. Faster access to information, and so on.

The burden off legacy systems

All companies, large and small have a legacy of old systems. These systems are often of a design incapable of dealing with real-time processes the customer wants in interactive environments.

Getting your legacy systems web based is normally far to costly

Circumvention of legacy systems with a portal type layer is the only strategy that incorporates two ingredient for future success.

1. Modern interfaces for customers and customer service workers.
2. No des investment and loss of knowledge by forced replacement of legacy systems.

It is necessary to draw up a business case showing at least actual cost and predicted cost cuttings. Use this to evaluate final results and you will notice that portals make companies better.

Cases

Recently I initiated a program to realise an internal portal for an international media company. We researched best practices and came up with many interesting cases. They all showed the same pattern. Only from reorganising support processes an internal portal can be financed. ROI period lies regularly under 1 year. The real benefits in the area of knowledge management and flexible re-styling of business processes are difficult to calculate because many benefits are of a quality nature, so these cases may com in handy.


Summary

Means : Portal technology is the fastest growing ICT market world wide and this is only the beginning. Without portal technology companies are just not agile enough to keep u the pace of rapid changes in technology

Message : The single point of entry must be clear about what it stands for. It will be – in fact – your shop window, behind which your entire product catalogue will be available.

Media : Portals need to be tuned to portable devices and tuned to the context. Geographical context is key. “Sat-nav” suppliers have a great future.

Communities

“Share of mind, share of experience are key. A trusted relationship is necessary, even in business portals”

Introduction

What are communities and why are they successful. Initiatives like Second Life and YouTube have surprised the internet world after its rapid rise and fall at the turn of the century. Back in 1998 I defined communication concepts around community thinking, too early.

Below I will combine community thinking and the use of media and message to explain the success of these initiatives.

Communities

A community is a group (of consumers or businesses) with a common interest in a certain subject, common (predictable) behaviour and therefore common (predictable) needs of information, communication, products, entertainment and/or education etc. By defining communities, building a (virtual) environment for them in which they feel comfortable and in which their information and communication needs are satisfied. Thus inviting them to participate in a natural way as part of their day-to-day lives.

Advantages over the traditional ways of communication can be realized with these target audiences. Information will be welcomed instead of abominated. Within the communities all media can be used in the optimal multimedia mix designed for the specific purpose. Also referred to as media cascading.

The general idea is to build communities for these target groups and facilitate these communities with the desired information and communication infrastructure. The result of this, as we see it, is the creation of a commercial environment which otherwise would have been left unexploited.

Content

Content is used to serve several purposes but differs from community to community. It always attracts and holds target audiences. A constantly monitored tailor-made system has to be used to measure the effect of the content provided. Basically content is generated by community members.

The media and tools used need to be tuned to the need for different characteristics like; frequency, pace, situation, context, contact intention, state of mind, etc. This can be seen as the new way of publishing, which is basically reversing the way in which publishing takes place nowadays. I earlier referred to this topic as “the publisher’s dilemma”.

Media Cascading

The use of different media to get THE MESSAGE across is not very new, but it is rarely used in an effective coherent approach. To resolve the main issue for the Internet, “predictable traffic”;
The media cascade is used in four basic steps (4 step communication program):
1. Draw attention
2. Interest and hold attention
3. Transact and deliver
4. Personalize and relate
For every specific situation a tailor-made cascade can be designed.

It is evident that every type of communication is based on these four steps. Even the exchange of opinions follows this concept. The main reason is that there has to be a basis of trust, a relationship must be established before a transaction can take place, before an opinion is accepted and/or countered.

It is also evident that the use of forced exposure is a necessity to start up the communication process. In step one, “broad band” media will be used to draw as much attention as possible. (E.g. TV, Radio, Newspaper, Billboard). A conversion of interested individuals towards the chosen relationship medium – where the permission marketing is executed - is necessary. This could either be DM, Internet or even paper coupons, depending on the chosen concept. Optimizing this conversion can be done through integrated concepts that go beyond basic marketing techniques.

Community concept thinking and the target group approach.

One could argue that the community concept thinking is nothing new at all. Many target groups exist and many target groups are subject to information providing and market communication activities. For example ANWB and KNVB (two of the largest associations of individuals in The Netherlands) could be defined as communities, the first one of bicyclists and car owners, the second one of soccer players. And although they have certain basic characteristics of communities as defined earlier in this plan, still they are no digital communities. The reasons why not are;
· They are not treated as a community; the members do not feel as community members; there is not enough affinity and dedication;
· There is no infrastructural binding of the members: the special interest magazine, the website etc. are not part of a larger integrated infrastructure; they are bits and pieces;
· There is hardly any information available of the members of the community: their preferences, their desires, their circumstances, their needs;
· The infrastructure in the “community” is far from complete: databases are missing, a dedicated television channel is missing, content providers are missing;
· The marketing approach to this audience is still group oriented versus individual thinking as part of a common interest group.
Though the mentioned groups could form a basis for a community, the community structure, thinking and approach is yet far from present.

The new economy community is different from old economy communities. The most important differences are;

Successful communities are to be clear about the following topics;




Reversing the marketing approach

In order to make communities successful it is essential to totally reverse marketing principles. Consumers will only participate in a commercial transaction with their explicit permission. Once the permission is granted a relation of trust and participation can develop.

Trends in the market

Trends in the market communication business are:
· An overkill of advertisement activity in general and on TV in particular;
· An upcoming resistance against direct mail and direct approach by telephone;
· Market oriented thinking makes way for individual oriented thinking;
· Transaction oriented thinking makes way for relation oriented thinking;
· Individualization of the society: the target group thinking is being replaced by target individual thinking;
· Mass customization
· Cocooning: getting the world into the homes rather than going out into the world.
Community thinking exactly fits in these trends.

These trends are facilitated by the ever-increasing possibilities of ICT-driven media and Internet in particular. The real world is more and more replaced or taken over by virtual worlds.

The advantages of the community concept are:
· Increased trusted relationships (not loyalty – if you want loyalty, buy a dog!!)
· Positive approach by customers on receipt of (desired) information;
· Reduction of waste in market communication and advertisement activities;
· Reduction of market communication costs.

Communities as I see it can create a revolution in market communication thinking and market communication approach. It will at the same time contribute to a more efficient society and create a new business of community building and content building.

The schema below illustrates the shift in communication, companies will use in order to be competitive. “The community is the company”.

The basic model is to give away value first and go for commercial results once a relationship is made. Behind these communities concession models are exploited - amongst others. The value of the relationship is rarely based on company names, but on the contents and intensity of the community.

The size of the market for communities is hard to estimate since a lot of revenue streams are invisible to the outside world, as well as which parties hold concessions within the communities.

There are much more successful internet communities active in all shapes and sizes. Whether they value by fun like YouTube or value by transaction like Marktplaats or eBay or even referral like Google and news portals. Two things really stand out.

1. Their value is based on the kind and number of their relationships.
2. None of them have been started by traditional companies and/or marketers.

Could it be a blind spot in market approach?

Self organization

Self organisation is a popular topic among ICT people. We have in fact been “self-organising” our society since the dawn of man. From family into village into tribe into nation into the global village world.

In general self organisation means that a group of “individuals” create a way of co-habitation / communication among themselves that allow them to work together based on a set of mutual interests and rules. This includes language, value systems (e.g. religion), decision making, value transfer (money) and entertainment. In our modern society an extra element is added to the way we work together, computers. They help us communicate, structure information, make appointments, meet in chat or video session. In one word it allows us to collaborate without physical limitations.

Society will re-organize itself with the aid of computer networks. New and different social networks will arise. In my youth everything happened in the real world. To make friends or better to maintain friendships you had to meet in person. This limits the total number of social connectors one can deal with. In this digital age people meet on the net without moving physically. My oldest daughter’s social network is at least three times my network at the same age. They contact through SMS, phone, chat boxes and exchange info through profile sites on the internet. News travel fast in a social network

Intelligent matching software will enhance the role the network is playing in the social environment. Matching of contexts, preferences and relationships. They will constantly and automatically evaluate the value of a match (or relationship). You’ll have to realize the different specialisms computers have. They can – for instance - negotiate a thousand times per minute. I myself will call someone maybe once every hour if it is really important. Great in logistics and scheduling!

Many social networks arise with the introduction of Web 2.0. Just Google around and you’ll find many of them.

Summary

Means : Web 2.0 application technology allows for single page websites where individuals can form groups around topics. The applications behind this will rapidly develop into multi functional environments replacing the functionality of PC’s and standard office software. The market for PC applications will shrink fast. Microsoft biggest thread.

Message : Companies and individuals will be drawn to the most attractive offering they can find. It is there that they will listen.

Media : Media have to address the user’s individual drivers and context. Interaction is the main ingredient to meet this goal. Traditional media will rapidly loose their grip on these developments.