Insight

Social CRM: Ground Zero for Enterprise 2.0 in 2010

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:11:24 GMT

Dion Hinchcliffe in a recent article in ZDNet discusses - What if customers were often the best people to help other customers? That’s the basic premise of an emerging class of enterprise software usually referred to these days as “Social CRM” and which I covered in some detail late last year.

Full article - Social CRM

Twenty Companies to Watch in 2010

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:46:44 GMT

A recent article by CIO Magazine places Jive Software in it's "20 companies to watch in 2010"

Using Technology to Improve Workforce Collaboration

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:37:59 GMT

By James Manyika, Kara Sprague and Lareina Yee - McKinsey&Company

Knowledge workers fuel innovation and growth, yet the nature of knowledge work remains poorly understood—as do the ways to improve its effectiveness. The heart of what knowledge workers do on the job is collaborate, which in the broadest terms means they interact to solve problems, serve customers, engage with partners, and nurture new ideas.

Full Article

Squeezing Web Sites Onto Cellphones (Mobiles)

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:19:42 GMT

Businesses Try to Shift Online Communities, Consumer Forums to Places Tailored for Wireless Users

by Roger Cheng - WSJ

How Web 2.0 is changing the way we work: An interview with MIT’s Andrew McAfee

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:25:09 GMT

The November McKinsey Quarterly interviews Andrew McAfee.

New Study: How Communication Drives Performance

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:44:52 GMT

Harvard Business Publishing's John Baldoni provides an insight into a communications survey by Watson Wyatt -

According to Watson Wyatt's newest communication survey for 2009/2010, companies that are effective communicators "have the courage to talk about what employees want to hear," "redefine the employment deal based on changing business conditions," and have "the discipline to plan effectively and measure their progress effectively."

The study also shows that companies that communicate effectively had a 47% higher return to shareholders over a five-year period (mid-2004 to mid-2009).- The full article.

Enterprise 2.0 - Andrew McAfee

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:47:27 GMT

Noted scholar, blogger and Twitterer Andrew MCafee has just released his first book "Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges" .

A recent interview provides a very good insight into the contents and direction of this much anticipated book.

E2.0 Conference - San Francisco - Nov 2-5 2009

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:56:17 GMT

An interview with Andrew McAfee and Oliver Marks.

Did You Know 3.0 - Official Video 2009

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:56:21 GMT

How to Keep Your Best Executives

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:07:15 GMT

The key: Make it easier for them to leave

By ELIZABETH CRAIG, JOHN R. KIMBERLY AND PETER CHEESE

Determined to retain your most talented executives? Well, here's some counterintuitive advice: The best way to keep them from leaving is to prepare them to do just that. - Wall Street Journal

LZT Releases Skype for Voice Server

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:32:45 GMT

Level Zero Technologies is pleased to announce the release of Skype integration for it’s Voice Server® VOIP platform.

This new functionality allows seamless, bi-directional, integration between the Voice Server® and the Skype community including low cost PSTN access and free calling to more than 400 million registered Skype users worldwide.

Features include:

Make Skype-to-Skype calls.
Receive calls with online numbers (SkypeIn).
Make world-wide PSTN calls to landline and mobile phones (SkypeOut).
Make and receive multiple concurrent Skype calls from the same Skype account.
DTMF support for incoming and outgoing calls.
Read Skype profile fields from incoming calls.
Set and retrieve online status.
Set privacy settings.
Handle incoming Skype calls using Voice Server® applications such as voicemail, ACD, MeetMe conferencing, etc.
Simultaneous access from both SIP software clients and the Skype desktop client.
Save money:

o Free calling to more than 400 million Skype registered users worldwide directly from your Voice Server®.

o Great rates for worldwide inbound calling DIDs via online numbers (SkypeIn).

o Make world-wide PSTN calls to landline and mobile phones (SkypeOut).
Please note: Skype for Business subscription prices do not apply.

Add a click-to-call button to your website or email so customers can quickly contact you.
Allows customers to call via a local online number.
Perfect for the remote employee as the office is one click away with free calling.

Note: This will be a standard feature for all new projects and can be retrofitted for existing installations.

To find about more about Voice Server® or any of our other real time collaboration and communication solutions, please visit our website at www.lzt.com.au or call us in

Perth 9467 4999 • Sydney 8022 8411 • Melbourne 9948 4033 • Brisbane 3503 6733

Hhh

Jive Software Secures $12M in Series B Funding to Accelerate Growth

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:33:58 GMT

Social Business Software leader Jive Software announced a new round of funding today.

Here is the press release:

Funding To Drive Global Expansion and Rapid Innovation

Portland, OR - October 20, 2009

Company News

Jive, the Social Business Software leader, today announced that it has received $12 million from Sequoia Capital in its Series B round of funding. Sequoia also funded Jive's Series A round of funding in August 2007.
Jive will use the proceeds to increase its product footprint through new innovation and product development, expand its partner ecosystem, grow its sales and customer support teams, and to further capitalize on its market momentum.
In Q3 2009, Jive further expanded its market momentum with more than 100% revenue growth as compared to Q3 2008 -- Jive's fourth straight quarter of record revenue growth -- and the company maintained its financial profitability.
The funding comes in the wake of the company's most significant period of innovation and growth since its inception in 2001.
- During the first nine months of 2009, Jive added a number of large enterprise customers, including Cricket Wireless, Experian, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Lufthansa, McAfee, the National Journal Group's 3121, Premier Farnell, Swiss Re, and Toshiba American Business Solutions.
- Jive delivered several new products in 2009. In just the past 30 days, Jive has announced Jive Market Engagement, a new solution that combines the power of social media monitoring with Social Business Software, and Jive Connects, a series of modules that will enable organizations to surface content and activities from almost any content management system (CMS) inside Jive Social Business Software (SBS).

Commentary

"Enterprises want to accelerate collaboration efforts by embracing Social Business Software. The vast majority of employees have already been exposed to social software through the consumer experience, dramatically improving the rate of adoption," said Jim Goetz, Partner, Sequoia Capital. "With Jive's experienced management team, visionary product strategy and customer success, it is poised to lead the corporate opportunity and to transform how work gets done in the global enterprise."
"Jive Software has been keenly focused on changing the way enterprises look at collaboration, networking and community building to drive better business results - and we're ready to take it to the next level," said Dave Hersh, CEO of Jive Software. "Sequoia has been an ideal partner to guide us on a solid course to execute on our market opportunities and to provide us the resources to build for future growth."

CubeTree Video Presentation

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:35:22 GMT

Web 2.0’s Power Curves

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:24:40 GMT

Article from Mckinsey by Jacques Bughin, Director Brussels Office

Web 2.0 technologies improve interactions with employees, customers, and suppliers at some companies more than at others. An outside study titled “Power Law of Enterprise 2.0” analyzed data from earlier McKinsey Web 2.0 surveys to gain a better understanding of the factors that contribute most significantly to the successful use of these technologies.

The findings demonstrate that success follows a “power curve distribution”—in other words, a small group of users accounts for the largest portion of the gains. According to our research, the 20 percent of users reporting the greatest satisfaction received 80 percent of the benefits. Drilling a bit deeper, we found that this 20 percent included 68 percent of the companies reporting the highest adoption rates for a range of Web 2.0 tools, 58 percent of the companies where use by employees was most widespread, and 82 percent of the respondents who claimed the highest levels of satisfaction from Web 2.0 use at their companies.

To improve our understanding of some underlying factors leading to these companies’ success, we first created an index of Web 2.0 performance, combining the previously mentioned variables: adoption, breadth of employee use, and satisfaction. A score of 100 percent represents the highest performance level possible across the three components. We then analyzed how these scores correlated with three company characteristics: the competitive environment (using industry type as a proxy), company features (the size and location of operations), and the extent to which the company actively managed Web 2.0. These three factors explained two-thirds of the companies’ scores.

Furthermore, while all of the factors are slightly correlated with one another—for example, there are more high-tech companies in the United States than in South America—each factor by itself explains much of why companies achieved their performance scores. Management capabilities ranked highest at 54 percent, meaning that good management is more than half of the battle in ensuring satisfaction with Web 2.0, a high rate of adoption, and widespread use of the tools. The competitive environment explained 28 percent, size and location 17 percent. Parsing these results even further, we found that three aspects of management were particularly critical to superior performance: a lack of internal barriers to Web 2.0, a culture favoring open collaboration (a factor confirmed in the 2009 survey), and early adoption of Web 2.0 technologies. The high-tech and telecom industries had higher scores than manufacturing, while companies with sales of less than $1 billion or those located in the United States were more likely to have relatively high performance scores than larger companies located elsewhere.

While the evidence suggests that focused management improves Web 2.0 performance, there’s still a way to go before users become as satisfied with these technologies as they are with others. The top 20 percent of companies reached a performance score of only 35 percent (the score increased to 44 percent in the 2009 survey). When the same score methodology is applied to technologies that corporations had previously adopted, Web 2.0’s score is below the 57 percent for traditional corporate IT services, such as e-mail, and the 80 percent for mobile-communications services.

You need a Social Media Policy - Special Offer

admin.lzt-csc.lzt.com.au — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:54:31 GMT

Social Media Audits

Social Media Polices and Usage

Social Media Marketing

Social Media services such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and YouTube have become common place on our personal computers over the past several years. These and other services such as LinkedIn, Delicious and Technorati are now appearing (or some might say “invading”) our work desktops as more employees bring the social aspects of their lives to the office.

Some Statistics:

Social networks and blogs are the 4th most popular online activities, including beating personal email. 67% of global users visit member communities and 10% of all time spent on the internet is on social media sites.
If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populated place in the world. This means it easily beats the likes of Brazil, Russia and Japan in terms of size.
80% of US companies use, (or are planning to use), LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees during the course of this year. The site has just celebrated reaching its 45-millionth membership.
Around 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week during campaigns, with 39% using it for 10 or more hours per week.
It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The internet took four years to reach 50 million people... In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users.
Wikipedia currently has more than 13 million articles in more than 260 different languages. The site attracts over 60 million unique users a month and it’s often hotly debated that the information it contains is more reliable than any printed Encyclopaedia.
The most recent figure of blogs being indexed by Technorati currently stands at 133 million. The same report into the Blogosphere also revealed that on average, 900,000 blog posts are created within a single 24-hour period.
YouTube is likely to serve over 75 billion video streams to around 375 million unique visitors during this year.
The online bookmarking service, Delicious, has more than five million users and over 150 million unique bookmarked URLs.
Since April this year, Twitter has been receiving around 20 million unique visitors to the site each month.
Formed in 2004, Flickr now hosts more than 3.6 billion user images.
Universal McCann reports that 77% of all active internet users regularly read blogs.

So should we fear what is happening or plan to make the best use of this opportunity?

Well it is going to depend on what type of business or organisation that you have and how you go about managing access to these new social media services.

Let us help you understand what social media is all about with our range of services that will:

• Audit your current social media use

• Assist in the establishment of social media policies and usage practices

• Determine if social media can provide a suitable marketing and communications channel for your business or organisation

Services start from a low $375.00.

We can be contacted by telephone on 08 9467 4997 or email info@lzt.com.au for bookings or further information.