The topic of Twitter and the Enterprise is popping up yet again, as well it should - Twitter as a "feature" is ideal for quick and concise communication, it's the water cooler, coffee corner and lunch room all at once and more reliable than any IM, conference call or meeting.
On any given day you are very likely to find proof of the use of Twitter, just yesterday Coté tweeted "Biz use of Twitter number n+1: just used Twitter to figure out if I should take a briefing or not. Feedback suggested I should." again more proof that Twitter is being used for real reasons and not just telling everybody when you are going to the bathroom.
But how does this relate to the Enterprise? Now I work in the Enterprise, I work for SAP and my job revolves around my ability to effectively communicate and collaborate with our own customers and partners.
I've used many tools over the years to achieve this: IM, email, Skype (VOIP), telephone, etc. and for over a year now I've been using Twitter. I've also found it to be more effective in terms of broad and direct communication than any other tool I've used. Now if all the 2000+ folks from my address book would use it I'd be able to dump email even more than I already have. I'm also not alone in my thinking on Twitter, both Dick and Sam have blogged recently about Twitter and the Enterprise.
Before I get to far into the idea of Twitter and the Enterprise or what the two of them are thinking let me get a little bit closer to what Twitter means to me.
Based on my Tweetcloud you can see some prominent words such as "Think", "thanks", "time", "cool", "people" and "community". Alone they my not mean much but as a whole they describe some of the key elements of what I do on a daily basis. I talk to people, I keep my finger on the pulse so when those people in my community need or want something I am able to respond as quickly as possible. This is what I do as a Community Evangelist, but it doesn't stop there. Working for a company that provides a platform when most people still remember the pure application days means I have an challenge of building awareness around that platform. That platform is a very powerful one and very flexible and for the past 6 months or so I've been finding ways of showing it in connection with popular apps currently out there right now like Twitter.
I've also been fascinated with this type of communication so much so that I've done what I think folks like Sam are asking about.
"While even the esteemed Twitterari enjoy efficient, rich communication through their social network, those same people often turn around and are stuck sending old-fart email around their company. Their social network consists of the few people they know on their email mailing list. There’s no internal Twitter-like communication. But, hypothetically, your company could be a kick-butt social computer, too. You’re all on the same basic mission and actually a social network by definition."
(Via Go Big Always - Twitter: A two-way social computer?.)
You can read more about it
here and
here. Basically I've taken the idea of a Twitter client one step further.
What I've done internally pulls and pushes to Twitter as well as to the internal environment. Thus ensuring no isolation and also bridging the gap safely between the environments.
"I think it also critical to see twitter not as an isolated tool but part of corporate IT infrastructure with other forms of collaboration. In this environment, the transition from the twitter-like system to a wiki or some other tool would be interesting to explore. The conversations that happen in the twitter-like systems are useful but what happens based on these conversations is more important."
(Via Tapping into the Cornucopia: Twitter usage in corporate settings.)
A feature currently being worked on takes this idea of bridging a step further by linking "groups", the internal tool I'm developing has built in groups as well as channels and even channels within groups. basically multiple instances would be able to link their groups to each other (both private and public ones) and enable to the conversations to carry on beyond borders. If anything Twitter has taught those in the Enterprise that walled gardens and barriers to communication are what need to change.
It's the cultural change, a change to the corporate DNA that needs to happen, without that change all the cool new shiny objects remain just that and nothing more but as more and more people begin to realize the value of the open communication the more useful these new communication methods become.
Disclaimer: This tool was of my own creation and so far has garnered adoption but is not yet an official project.
Technorati Tags:
collaboration, community, Enterprise, Enterprise Irregulars, sap, twitter, enterpriseirregulars, richarch hirsch, sam lawerance, michael cote
