Sean R. Nicholson

About a year ago, I had a conversation with a then SocialMediaphobe who tried to convince me that social media was a fad that had no future in the workplace. His argument was that Facebook was too personal and Twitter too truncated to ever offer any value to business culture. I tried to convince him that, like all emerging technologies, social media was still finding its place in the workplace, but it was slowly, almost imperceptibly changing the way we communicate. His response was to try to dissuade me by saying “it’s just a bunch of people talking about what they ate for breakfast.”

As I look back the amazing strides social media has taken in the last year, even I’m amazed. The importance of short, meaningful messages tugged at my heartstrings as major news outlets like CNN and MSNBC relied on Tweets from survivors of the tragic earthquake in Haiti to keep us informed. YouTube has become the second largest search engine in the world (arguably the largest content engine), and Facebook continues to grow at astonishing rates, becoming one of the largest photo repositories on the Web.

Yet, somehow….corporate executives continue to ignore social media like it’s going to go away. These social media ostriches often argue that Social Media is a “B to C” (business to consumer) activity, meaning that businesses can only use it to market directly to consumers. They argue that companies selling “B to B” (business to business) can’t effectively leverage social media, because it’s the wrong market and businesses don’t pay attention to social media.

Little do they understand that businesses are not faceless organisms that make decisions without human input. On the contrary, business decisions are influenced by people and made by people, making “B to B” marketing almost irrelevant in a world where social media dominates the conversation. Executives need to understand that consumers of all type rely on product advice gained from other consumers, and the value of marketing Web sites that expound on the value of their product is diminishing. Need more convincing? Take a look at the Answers section of LinkedIn and you’ll find thousands of professionals (working for businesses) asking for recommendations on ECM, CRM, Intranet, and back office software. Yes…they even ask for advice on what blogging and social media platforms to use.

A shining example of a “B to B” corporate executive leveraging social media is Carolyn Douglas, the CEO of Intranet Connections. Her passion about Intranets, collaboration, best practices, and social media are evident in her blogs and tweets. Her thought leadership in the Intranet industry influences her peers, colleagues and customers on a daily basis. She demonstrates that although her business is technically “B to B”, her social media communication is aimed at interacting with people.

Great examples of executive leadership can be found in the “B to C” markets, as well. Just look at leaders like Marc Cenedella of TheLadders.com or Bill Marriot of Marriot Hotels. Each has established a meaningful blog and/or twitter presence that educates the public on topics ranging from interviewing tips to downtown revitalization efforts. Both activities are ancillary to their business, but provide meaning to their readers. The effect of the trust they earn from their readers is often carried over to the brand the represent.

And product marketing is just the tip of the iceberg when looking for social media opportunity. The value of collaborative activities inside your organization can justify an investment relatively quickly. You see, your employees are people, and people like to share. They share their stories, experiences, and knowledge. They talk around the water cooler, at the coffee pot, and at their cubes. At work, they feel valued and important when another employee is able to use a past experience to solve a problem. They get frustrated when they discover that the knowledge in their head could have been useful to another employee in a previous experience.  It’s the age-old knowledge management problem. How do you get the knowledge out of your employees heads and into a media that can be shared and leveraged by other employees?

The answer is social media. Give your employees and platform and they will share. Sure, they’ll share personal information, too…but mixed in with stories about their weekends, cats, and World of Warcraft are valuable nuggets of corporate knowledge that can help you solve problems, produce new products, and deliver a higher level of customer and employee satisfaction. It’s up to you to find ways to filter or segment that information to uncover that which is valuable to your business, but once you do…you’ve unlocked the potential of your employees.

In summary, social media is not about people eating oatmeal. Well…actually it is. But it’s also about people solving problems and people serving customers and people buying products. Social media is about your employees and your customers. It’s about your friends and colleagues. It’s about what they want, and what they want to offer. It’s a valuable tool that will provide insight to markets, products, and ways of doing business that you probably never thought about.  It’s up to you to get involved and show leadership. Good luck!

P.S. I’d love to hear from Execs who have taken the plunge and how your efforts are proceeding. Feel free to comment or email using our contact form.

Sean R. Nicholson

Continuing with my posts on great Twitter resources, this is a followup to my 99 Great Internal Comms Resources,  99 Great Intranet Resources and 99 Great ECM Resources posts. Below is a link to my list of 99+ great SharePoint Resources on Twitter. If you’re looking for the folks who tweet about SharePoint as an Intranet platform, ECM solution, and a collaboration tool…these are your folks! Pay careful attention and you may see folks who are also providing links to some valuable SharePoint alternatives, as well.

Sean’s list of 99+ Great SharePoint resources on Twitter

Know someone that I missed from the list? Definitely let me know. Shameless self-promotion is also allowed if you think you should be included, just make sure your tweets back up your request.

You can check out the list below, and feel free to leave a comment if there’s anyone else I should add.

Sean R. Nicholson

Imagine, for a moment, that you have accepted a new position as a corporate executive tasked with figuring our how to make your company work better, faster, cheaper.

Along with the details of your position, you have been informed that you have access to a wealth of competitive intelligence, product experience, and innovative thinking at your fingertips. Sounds like a recipe for success, right?But what if you had no means of capturing, storing, and retrieving that information? Bad situation.

It’s likely, however, that it would be easy to justify an investment in a tool that would allow you to leverage the information. But what many execs don’t realize is that they actually have the potential for this exact type of information at their disposal…if they were to invest in a social Intranet platform.

Classic Talent Management Systems vs. Social Intranet

For years, Intranet and HR professionals have been working to implement successful “Talent Management systems” with very little measurable success. The difficulty with legacy Talent Management systems is they required manual updates of employee history, competencies, training, and certifications and they rarely provide the employee with an opportunity to share their experience.

One of the  biggest shortcomings of these systems was the method used to capture and maintain the information. The process of updating employee records usually occurred (if at all) once a year during the employee annual review process. Managers would discuss employee competencies at the review and either update the system themselves or ask the employee to provide the updates. Unfortunately, a once-a-year update doesn’t provide the timely information required to operate a business and since the system was rarely referenced to identify subject matter experts, employees had no motivation to keep them up to date. As a result, these Talent Management systems quickly became outdated and useless and future investment in these types of tools were difficult to justify.

As Social Intranets are becoming more commonplace, however, a unique phenomena is occurring. Employees are sharing their previous experiences, subject knowledge, and expertise with fellow employees, management, and executives each day, providing a huge resource for internal knowledge that changes by the day, hour, and minute.

The Engagement Experience

To see how Social Intranets can play the valuable role of a Talent Management system, imagine a situation where a Sally Sales, a Sales Executive, creates a post on the Intranet forum asking:

Sally Sales: I am traveling to SmithCo Enterprises tomorrow to show them a demo of the latest version of our ERP  software. Does anyone have information about their culture, personnel, etc…that they can share?

Sam Support, a customer support rep – a role that isn’t traditionally engaged by Sales for input – posts back stating:

Sam Support: FYI, I used to work at SmithCo and you need to be aware that they are wary of “vaporware”. Be prepared to show the software in action and provide them with references of other customers who are using the latest version.  Also, I worked as a contractor with the team that implemented their existing BigCO ERP system and they have some serious limitations that need to be addressed relating to the accurate matching of POs, receipts, and invoices. If you can show how well we address that requirement, it will go a long way.

Able Accountant, an invoicing specialist chimes in with another post stating:

Able Accountant: I have used both our new version and the BigCO system they are using and the difference is night and day. Our automatic invoicing abilities are significantly better than BigCO and our implementation timeline averages 12 months, where BigCO’s implementation at my previous company took 36 months and was almost $1M over budget.

…and the conversation goes on.

While this type of dialog obviously helps the Sales Exec know how to refine their sales pitch, approach their prospect, and hopefully win the deal, there is a secondary benefit that is occurring behind the scenes. Employees are identifying what they know, where they have worked, what skills they hold, and whether they can be leveraged as subject matter experts on a specific product or topic.

As a result, the next time any Sales Executive is selling to SmithCo or any company where BigCo is implemented, a simple search of the Intranet for the terms “SmithCo” or “BigCo” will identify Sally Sales, Sam Support, and Able Accountant as resources that have information and experiences with the BigCo product. This is the exact result that Talent Management systems have sought to accomplish for years.

Through this one interaction, employees have reported to the company that they have valuable competitive information and the fact that they respond to posts like these frequently keeps their information up-to-date. While neither Sam or Able were hired into a position specific to tackling BigCo as a competitor, the fact that they both have and shared previous work experience potentially helped the company make a sale.

As the newest executive looking to improve processes and drive revenue through employee productivity, you now have a gold mine waiting to be tapped.

Sean R. Nicholson

Okay…I have to admit that I find these types of tweets mildly humorous:

or

It’s not that I find the pain of employees funny, but the shortsightedness of companies in their efforts to ignore new technologies always makes me wonder what they are thinking. Over the course of my career, I have worked for companies ranging from small boutique shops all the way up to Fortune 500 and 100 companies and my experience has been that the bigger the shop, the more resistant to new technologies the decision-makers are.

Case In Point – Email & Internet Access, And A Fortune 100 Company

Flashback to 1996, when I was working for an up and coming division of a Fortune 500 company. I had a pretty heated argument with my Manager because I had requested external email access and Internet access, both of which required Vice-President approval. I was in the initial  stages of a company-wide asset audit and need to email third-party vendors. I was spending so much time on the phone with them going over spreadsheets on the phone that I need to be able to send email back and forth. But no….this particular company was nervous about email, Internet access, and how much time employees would spend wasting their time if everyone was able to email and/or surf the Web.

Flash forward to 2009, when every company realizes that email and Internet access are key tools for most back-office employees in the company to do their job. This same company issues laptops, email, and wireless access to all of their employees. Hmmm…slight change in position, eh?

What Generates The Resistance To New Technologies?

It would be easy to chalk this type of resistance up to age, but I think that would be short-sighted. I have found plenty of “more experienced” (the PC term for older) Directors and Execs that are interested in leveraging new technologies. I have also found plenty of younger (and not necessarily “less experienced”) folks who still tell me that they “just don’t get it” or that “social media is just about people posting high school photos or talking about what they had for breakfast”. Based on these experiences, I’ll attribute the failure to embrace these new mediums as either lack of education or fear of change. Some folks just don’t like the idea of trying something new. Instead, they’ll let everyone else try it and, if it works for others, they’ll give it a shot. Others, just haven’t had that light bulb moment when they realize the value. Now, don’t get me wrong, not everyone needs to be on the bleeding edge…but I firmly believe that organizational decision makers should strive to be on the cutting edge in order to stay ahead of their competition.

Every time I hear of companies blocking Blogging Sites, Facebook, Twitter, and other Social Media sites, it makes me wonder what curmudgeon or poorly informed leader is calling the shots and what experience drove them to make the decision. Obviously, these folks don’t realize that a new generation of workers is entering the workplace and expecting to leverage tools like text messaging, Twitter, blogs, and Facebook. Why not just sit them in front of a typewriter and say “be productive”.

Messages like the following make me wonder just what IT Manager or Director made the sweeping decision that there can be no useful information in blogs, so let’s throw the baby out with the bathwater and block blog access:

Okay, okay…so I admit that by making sweeping statements like that, I’m being a bit hypocritical since I don’t know why this particular company blocked the blog, but my point is that there are too many stories of companies making sweeping IT and HR policies banning social media, instead of embracing it or encouraging their employees to use it responsibly.

What the executives at these companies are failing to realize is that more and more of their employees are reading and contributing to the Websphere via blogs, microblogs, forums, etc… and they are often shaping their decisions at work based on the most up-to-date analysis that they get from these interactions. In addition, by allowing their employees to position themselves as thought leaders and expand their sphere of influence, they could enhance their organizations position in the market, have happier employees, and maybe…even open up some new markets that might not existed without Social Media. Just look at Zappos as an example. An online shoe retailer that has blown the door off marketing and expanding their sales opportunities  and customer support through the use of Twitter.

In short, by ignoring new technologies like Social Media and Social Networking, companies are not only burying their proverbial heads, but are actively engaging in hypocrisy regarding their messages to employees.

My Five Hypocrisies Of Blocking Social Networking Sites

1) Smoke breaks are okay, but blog breaks, tweet breaks, and Facebook breaks aren’t

Just to be up front, I am a non-smoker. My goal, here, isn’t to throw stones at smokers, but to point out that employers allow employees to take breaks from work so they can breath toxic fumes into their lungs, so I’m not quite sure why employers would have a problem with an employee updating their Facebook status or reading the tweets/blogs of their favorite netizens. Short breaks during the work day energize employees and give them a break from their daily duties. Sometimes, employees use those breaks to learn something new that actually might relate to their job or the industry.

Even if they’re not learning, maybe their taking time to catch up with a friend or family member. I’d be curious if those same employers would prohibit employees from reading a book or calling their family on their break. Seems a bit illogical, right? Catching up on Facebook or reading a few tweets can be just as energizing to an employee as a phone call, a good read, or for those who prefer, a smoke.

2) Make good quality decisions using competitive information, but don’t leverage your online networks or intelligence tools

Imagine being in touch with news about your company, customers, or markets before the news breaks. There have been quite a few situations where folks on Twitter have reported news before the local or national news outlets. Earthquakes, plane crashes, even (ironically) the closing of the Rocky Mountain News are all news items that are being scooped by Twitter before being reported in traditional media.

As more news and events are reported first via social media, employees who have access and actively monitoring social media sites are going to be able to react more quickly. If employees don’t have access to these sources, they’ll be two steps behind their competitors.

3) Be a happy employee, but don’t be a social employee

Everyone wants to enjoy their job and, for some employees being social is part of being happy. Not just around in the break room or at the coffee pot with employees that they see every day, but also being social with peers and thought leaders in their particular line of work. Each day, I enjoy reading the updates of employees that I currently work with, as well as previous co-workers and even employees at competing companies. Many of these interactions broaden my understanding of the industry that I work in and eventually will come back to benefit my employer.

By blocking social media sites, employers are limiting their employees ability to collaborate with others in their industry. There is a lot of good information being traded through blogs, tweets, and forums. Each of these venues allows employees to learn more, share their perspective, and grow as an employee, all without a single dollar being added to your training budget.

4) Be creative and innovative, just use the antiquated tools we have given you

Often employers challenge their employees to find new ways to do things better, faster, and cheaper. In some cases, you don’t have to invent the tool that makes the change, you just need to determine how to make it work for you. Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile or the assembly line, he just figured out an innovative way to combine the two to redefine the industry.

Now, imagine two companies. One allows access to Social Media sites to its employees and the other does not. Company A has a marketing department that has come up with new ways to announce product launches using Twitter and Facebook and, in doing so, has increased product awareness by 5% over the last year. In addition, their product support team has begun interacting with customers in a whole new way using Twitter, Facebook groups/discussions, and LinkedIn discussions to identify suggested enhancements to their products and help resolve customer issues. In doing so, they have impacted customer satisfaction and increased recurring sales by 2% globally.

Company B, on the other hand, has blocked employee access to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and their leaders are scratching their collective heads trying to figure out why Company A is beating them to the sales opportunities and stealing their customers.

5) You are an adult and a professional, but no Facebook for you!

There are two excuses I hear most frequently when it comes to the reasoning behind blocking social media sites. The first is the protection of Intellectual Property or organizational intelligence and the second is that employees will just “waste company time”.

When it comes to protecting intellectual property, if a company is seriously using this as an excuse then they better have confiscated all cell phones and digital cameras from the workplace and ensure that all laptops are heavily encrypted in case they get lost or stolen. One company that I am aware of that blocks access to some social media sites also allowed their entire employee list, along with Social Security Numbers, to be transmitted via an unprotected MS Excel spreadsheet over email. The problem, here, wasn’t that the employee was trying to harm the company, but that they didn’t understand that doing so exposed the company to risk. The answer isn’t to remove their access to Excel or email, but to better educate the employee on the proper method of protecting corporate information.

In response to the “wasting time” argument, there are really two approaches. First, let your employees have a little fun. Let them explore new information, personal or professional. Teach them to use social media responsibly…just as you did with email. If you do, they will continue to grow as employees and professionals. Second, if they’re wasting excessive time on Twitter or Facebook, they were probably wasting excessive time on something else before social media came along. The way to address it is to remind them that they are employees of the company and, while some Internet usage is allowed, if it interferes with their duties, it might become an issue.

So to those of you who work for these Social Media Ostriches that choose to ignore the opportunities being presented and stick their heads in the sand by blocking your access…my condolences. I count my blessings each day that I work for a company that not only embraces Social Media, but actively works to develop its employees as thought leaders and encourages them to blog, tweet, and Facebook in a responsible manner.

To the Executives of the Social Media Ostriches…I’d shoot some snarky remark at you, but you couldn’t read it anyway, because this blog and my tweets are probably blocked from your network.

Sean R. Nicholson

Each day, it seems that more and more folks are dipping their toes into the world of Social Networking by creating Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, and LinkedIn accounts. And each day, we’re entertained with stories of folks who get “Facebook fired”, shoot off an improper Tweet that lands them in hot water, or  and share confidential information on their personal blog. Recently, Helen A.S. Popkin wrote an excellent article for MSNBC.com called “Twitter gets you fired in 140 characters or less” which details some of the follies of folks who have overstepped the boundaries from responsible social networking into, well…just TMI.

Unfortunately, these types of activities are fodder for the cannons of reactionary corporate zealots who use these follies as examples of why companies can never allow employees to blog, tweet, or otherwise engage in social networking on company time or about any company activities. In fear of expensive litigation, disciplining employees,  or losing valuable corporate information they would rather conjure up hard line policies stating that no employee may engage in these activities using corporate resources during work hours. As if these policies are actually going to stop employees from updating Facebook or slipping in a periodic tweet from their Blackberry.

Flashback To The 90s…When The World Wide Web Was The Target Of Corporate Policies

I remember a time in the late 90s when I was working for a major Telecom company that required VP approval to have access to the Web at any PC. The company was so worried about employees wasting time surfing the Web that they turned a blind eye to the fact that it could be used as a powerful research tool.  In addition, the corporate policy on computer usage clearly stated that those found in violation of the Internet policies (meaning using it without VP approval) could be subject to discipline and/or terminated. Fired…for surfing the Web.

Unfortunately, those of us that were around during these times also remember why these draconian policies were in place. Come on…you remember the dolt in the cube next to you who just couldn’t resist sharing that latest chain email (remember the Nieman Marcus Cookie?) or  risque photos (a polite term for porn) using the “Reply to All” button. These folks were the reasons that the rest of us were under house arrest when it came to Internet access. They surfaced the dark side of the Web, driving the need for restrictive policies.

Luckily companies have evolved and removed or relaxed these types of restrictions and often encourage their employees to use the Web as a powerful research tool. Some have even moved some their primary business applications to “Software As A Service” (SaaS) applications like SalesForce.com. So instead of playing “duck and cover” and shielding their employees from the dangers of the Web, they’re realizing that, while minor infractions to corporate policies my occur, the benefits of using the Web as a tool far outweigh the risks.

Fast Forward To 2009, As Companies Wrestle With Social Networking Policies

So how do companies deal with social networking without repeating history and sticking their heads in the proverbial sand? The first step is to recognize that these activities are not going to go away. They’re not a fad, and they can be just as useful business tools and the Web has become.  To ignore these tools or discourage employees from using them would be just as narrow minded as pulling the Ethernet cables from the backs of their computers ala the 90s.

Employee Collaboration Fuels New Opportunity

The second step is to understand the tools. All too often I hear folks who say things like “Twitter…I just don’t get it.” Yet these very folks have either never created a Twitter account or have never spent time researching the whys and hows of Twitter and how it has worked for others. Instead, they scratch their head and shake their fist at a new, strange technology. By learning about the successes of others, we can all identify new uses within our workplaces for new technology. Feel like you’re out of touch, get yourself a Social Media mentor, as suggested in the ChristyWeb.com article “Do you have a social media mentor?”

The third step in embracing social networking tools is to guide your employees on their usage. Note that I didn’t say “Discourage Their Use” or “Mandate against their usage” or even “Tell them how to use them”. I very clearly said “guide your employees”. Let them know that their knowledge is valuable and that they are encouraged to share their thoughts and views, as long as it doesn’t violate the existing privacy policies, NDA agreements, or Intellectual Property agreements that are in place.  Remind them that sharing information on the Web in any form can be perilous and that they should consider whether they would want their boss, spouse, or mother reading or seeing their online exploits. Often, a simple reminder of good judgment can have as powerful of an effect as a harsh corporate policy.  Yes, you are going to have the dopes who just can’t seem to keep their “inside voice” from leaking out to tweets and Facebook updates and you’ll even have the odd photo or video that stirs up an HR hornets nest, but the reality is…those same individuals would probably be in HR jail even if Facebook never existed.

The other 98% of your employees will explore the technologies and some will find useful ways to grow your organization. Maybe they’ll find ways to enhance collaboration, present themselves to others as a leader in their field, or maybe even find new products or customers. The reality is, they will find new uses and opportunities when given the chance.

What’s the alternative? Write a complex policy banning them from social media activities that is both unrealistic and unproductive.And what fun is that??

For the record, I am blessed to work for a company that has chosen to embrace Web 2.0 and encourages their employees to find new, innovative ways to blog, tweet, and explore the value of emerging technologies. The result is engaged employees who think about new technologies and think twice before they hit the ‘Submit’ button.

Have thoughts or comments? I always appreciate feedback and constructive criticism through comments.

Sean R. Nicholson

A few years ago, I was in charge of an RFP for a Fortune 500 company to select an Intranet portal application and portal content management system. Thinking about the requirements for that portal and how they would change in this age of social networking got me thinking about how the requirements would change if I were to conduct that same RFP today.

Portal Requirements in 2005

Back in the “olden days” of horizontal portal requirements (you know…a few years ago),  the top requirements for our enterprise portal were as follows:

1. Enterprise scalability, with current requirements at 25,000 end-users, but scaling to 100,000 with additional hardware and licenses.
2. Easy to use, graphical user interface that allows end users to view targeted content and easily navigate to pages within the portal using  either an organizational or functional page taxonomy.
3. Provide portal administrators with the ability to secure content to groups, organizations, and individuals.
4. Provide a WYSIWYG rich text editing interface that allows users to create and edit content, based on their permissions and group membership.
5. Provide a single search interface that allows users to search for content that is target to their account based on assigned permissions
6. Provide a workflow tool that allows content to be reviewed and approved prior to publication
7. Provide a customizable portlet or widget-based interface that allows end-users to customize their experience.
8. Provide portal administrators with a flexible design and administration interface that allows administrators to create page templates that standardize on some page elements (e.g. header, navigation, mandatory portlets).
9. Provide functionality to interface with an enterprise Identity Management Solution.
10. Provide analytical reporting that details usage activity, content quantity, and hyperlink status (e.g. number and location of broken links)
11. The ability to integrate with existing enterprise applications such as the document management system, time reporting system, and expense management system using a Services Oriented Architecture.

Like I said, these were the high level requirements that we looked at. We actually had more than 300 specific technical and functional requirements, but these hit the major functionality we were looking for.

As you can see, though, these portal requirements are based on an “information-push” concept, where a core group of individuals (maybe 50-75 for the entire corporation) create all of the content and push it out to the masses. While we did have requirements for collaborative items like forums, they were listed as optional and we weren’t quite sure whether we wanted to allow end-users to start creating content on their own in a forum environment. Pretty much typical information control tactics that are present (even today) in many large organizations.

Changes To The Portal Requirements In 2009

While many of these requirements would still hold true, an information portal in today’s culture would definitely focus more on collaboration and content management than the pushing information out to the masses. Based on my experiences with some of the popular social networking platforms, my top requirements for the same sized organization would probably look more like this:

1. Enterprise scalability, with current requirements at 25,000 end-users, but scaling to 100,000 with additional hardware and licenses.
2. Easy to use, graphical user interface that allows end users to view targeted content and easily navigate to pages within the portal using  either an organizational or functional page taxonomy.
3. Provide portal administrators with the ability to secure content to groups, organizations, and individuals.
4. Provide both a rich-text content management system that allows portal administrators to deliver content and a WIKI environment that allows end-user to create their own page content
5. Provide a single search interface that allows users to search for content that is target to their account based on assigned permissions
6. Provide content creators (both in the CMS and WIKI environments) the ability to review content additions and comments if they choose to enable the feature.
7. Provide a customizable portlet or widget-based interface that allows end-users to customize their experience.
8. Provide portal administrators with a flexible design and administration interface that allows administrators to create page templates that standardize on some page elements (e.g. header, navigation, mandatory portlets).
9. Provide functionality to interface with an enterprise Identity Management Solution.
10. Provide analytical reporting that details usage activity, content quantity, and hyperlink status (e.g. number and location of broken links)
11. Provide the ability to integrate with existing enterprise applications such as the document management system, time reporting system, and expense management system using a Services Oriented Architecture.
12. Provide end-users with the ability to create custom application and information widgets that can be shared across the enterprise.
13. Allow users to easily share updates with others on their work through personal status updates
14. Allow users to create and manage groups/networks that can collaborate through a WIKI interface or a discussion forum interface. Users should be able to store and review documents as attachments within these groups. Users should be able to collaborate and version these documents and the applications should maintain an audit trail.
15. Allow users to create custom events and invite users and groups to those events. Individual and group events should roll up to a common corporate calendar that displays events to users based on their permissions and group memberships.
16. Allow users to share digital media including photos, audio files, and video files. Users should be able to collaborate and version these files and the application should maintain an audit trail.

So What Just Happened? Those Don’t Sound Like Portal Requirements!

Basically, in the process of writing those new requirements, I changed my RFP from being one focused on a portal, to one focused on an Enterprise Content Management system. Not an ECM as we know it today (which are primarily focused on Web/Intranet content management, document management, and digital asset management), but to an ECM platform that requires the following:

• A customizable presentation layer (the portal)
• A flexible content management system (traditional WYSIWYG content management and collaborative WIKI)
• The ability for end-users to create application mashups
• A lightweight document management system
• Social networking capabilities through collaborative groups/networks
• A lightweight digital asset management system
• Enterprise search functionality

Previously, ECM players such as Stellent, Documentum, and OpenText have not offered a portal interface to their products. Instead, they focused on their ability to interface with portal such as WebCenter Interaction (formerly AquaLogic User Interaction (formerly Plumtree)), IBM WebSphere, Microsoft SharePoint, and Vignette portal.

As a result, some of those solutions are being gobbled up by the portal players in hopes of creating the true Enterprise Content Management System of the future. Some of the portal players, like Vignette and Microsoft have anticipated the merging of portal and CMS, and have opportunities to add social networking to their platforms. In the end, the days of offering a standalone portal are probably long gone and we’ll soon see the horizontal portal players roll into the ECM magic quadrant.

Thoughts or comments? I’m always open to additions and constructive criticism in you comments.