The business value of social content

A Custom Technology
Adoption Profile
Commissioned By IBM
January 2014
The Business Value Of
Social Content

1
Introduction
Collaboration is a critical investment for many organizations
looking to drive competitive advantage by better arming
knowledge workers with information, access to expertise,
and the ability to act collectively on trusted content.
Forrester data shows that over 50% of organizations have
implemented or are expanding their implementation of
packaged collaboration software, which Forrester defines as
tools like email, document collaboration, workspace
technology, and enterprise social software. And close to
50% have implemented or plan to specifically implement
social solutions like blogs, wikis, and activity streams. While
the strategy remains valid, the challenge of driving user
adoption of new and different tools can diminish time-to-
business value. One reason for the poor adoption rates is
that users do not know which tool is appropriate for certain
tasks or circumstances. The boundary between document
collaboration and social networking tools is particularly
confusing to users. IBM has engaged Forrester Consulting
to determine if a solution that contextually integrates
enterprise social and document collaboration will lead to
better and faster adoption and hence drive higher value of
all collaboration investments that span both content and
document collaboration. The results of that research are
provided in this document.
This IBM-commissioned profile of North American
enterprise social and collaboration technology decision-
makers evaluates adoption of social and collaboration
technologies and the value of integrated solutions based on
Forrester’s own market data, and a custom study of the
same audience.
Overall Investment In Collaboration
Is High
According to Forrester’s Forrsights Software Survey, Q4
2012, over 50% of organizations (51%) have implemented
or are expanding their implementation of packaged
collaboration software (see Figure 1). Another 23% are
planning to implement collaboration software. This shows
the widespread adoption of a mature technology. The
drivers behind collaboration investments tend to focus on
four basic outcomes:
› Better visibility into information reduces rework and
improves business outcomes. With the goal to better
manage content and information for reuse and capturing
knowledge, organizations are investing in document
collaboration and enterprise social solutions to move
critical information out of email and into repositories
designed to allow more efficient and effective
collaboration by delivering context through social content
queues (e.g., tags, downloads, likes, follow, etc.). Better
access to and management of existing content can drive
better sales and customer service outcomes and reduce
rework cost across the entirety of an organization.
› Ubiquitous access to information when and where
business users need it. Just as information needs to be
managed in the appropriate systems to make it
discoverable, it also needs to be available to users in a
consistent format across all relevant devices, with a
particular emphasis on ubiquitous mobile access. Access
to critical information in the right time and in the right
format can lead to tangible business outcomes, like
making the sale or providing the right customer service
“now” instead of “later.”
› Better ability to locate expertise. A key driver of new
collaboration technology, including document
collaboration and enterprise social, is better association of
expertise through identification of authorship and
community-based recognition of skills. Again, email as the
FIGURE 1
Adoption Plans: Collaboration Software
Base: 565 North American enterprise IT decision-makers
Source: Forrsights Software Survey, Q4 2012, Forrester Research, Inc.
“What are your firm’s plans to adopt the following
packaged (not custom) business applications?”
(Collaboration software)
Not interested
9%
Interested but
no plans
15%
Planning to
implement in a
year or more
10%
Planning to implement
in the next 12 months
13%
Implemented,
not expanding
21%
Expanding/upgrading
implementation
30%
Don’t know
2%

2
dominant tool in use today for collaboration does not allow
this level of discovery. Access to the right expert or
experts can be a critical driver of optimal business
outcomes.
› The ability to drive collective action. Another driver is
the ability to move decision-making from a few key
individuals and better leverage the collective intelligence
of the broader organization. Enterprise social solutions
allow a wide array of voices across geographic and
organizational boundaries to collectively refine and drive
decision-making. Sales, customer service, and new
product development in particular are in the midst of
revolutionary change with the advent of socially driven
collective action.
Enterprise Social And Document
Collaboration Are Hot Areas For
Investment
Many of the overall goals for collaboration investments are
supported by moving content and communications out of
email, which was never designed for broad sharing, and into
platforms that are better suited to support the needs of
today’s knowledge workers. Document collaboration and
enterprise social solutions play a particularly compelling role
in the technology landscape. And investment in both has
been strong. Adoption of social networking tools in particular
is increasing. According to the Forrsights Budgets And
Priorities Tracker Survey, Q4 2012, 46% of organizations
have implemented or plan to implement social networking
tools (see Figure 2). An additional 29% are interested in
adopting.
Email Continues To Be The Tool Of
Choice, Hindering Business Value
While reaching the strategic goals associated with
collaboration requires broad investment, it also has
traditionally required a leap of faith; that users would change
their habits and adopt the newly provisioned technology
solutions.
The unfortunate reality is that despite the investment in
social and collaboration solutions, they are not widely
adopted by workers. Forrester data shows that only 26% of
North American enterprise information workers use
document sharing sites, and a mere 11% use internal social
networks (see Figure 3). Most of the collaboration in the
FIGURE 2
Adoption Plans: Enterprise Social Networking
Solutions
Base: 772 North American enterprise IT decision-makers
Source: Forrsights Budgets And Priorities Tracker Survey, Q4 2012,
Forrester Research, Inc.
FIGURE 3
End User Adoption Of Social And Collaboration
Technologies
Base: 1,219 North American enterprise information workers
Source: Forrsights Workforce Employee Survey, Q4 2012, Forrester
Research, Inc.
“What are your firm’s plans to adopt the
following technologies?”
(Enterprise social networking)
Not interested
22%
Interested but no plans
29%Planning to implement
18%
Implemented or
expanding
28%
Don’t know
2%
“Which of the following other applications or services
do you use on a computer for work?”
Internal microblogging 5%
Blogs for internal
information publishing
7%
Wikis for internal
information sharing 10%
An internal social network 11%
File sync, sharing, or
online locker service
22%
Team document sharing sites 26%
Web meeting or
webconferencing
34%
Instant messaging 41%
Employee intranet or
company portal 69%
Email 90%

3
workplace is still taking place over traditional channels. In
fact, email still leads the pack in usage with 90%. Given that
many of the goals associated with collaboration initiatives
hinge on moving workers out of email and into technologies
that are fundamentally better suited to knowledge worker
empowerment, this trend is particularly concerning.
Users Are Frustrated By Multiple
Tools And Lack Of Mobile Support
If email is fundamentally not suited for driving optimal results
for key collaboration goals then why do better suited tools
continue to suffer from poor adoption? Certainly familiarity
with the email experience is a major factor, and was cited as
an inhibitor to adoption of “competing” tools by 58% of
respondents (see Figure 4). However, the fact that the new
tools that are being introduced are all different, with different
interfaces, and are not integrated with one another also was
cited by 58% of respondents. Another highly correlated
issue, that the abundance of new tools leaves users
confused as to what to use and when, came in at 47%. Lack
of support on mobile devices was an issue to 45%. Clearly,
a lack of a holistic strategy that takes into account the highly
interdependent nature of the tools creates challenges to
driving critical adoption.
An Integrated Strategy Is Considered
Better For Users
That critical interdependence of tools is particularly acute
across document collaboration and enterprise social. The
fact that the two critical workloads have traditionally been
provisioned independently, often with solutions from
different vendors with very different user experiences,
presents significant challenges because:
› Content development is inherently a social endeavor.
Sixty-six percent agree or strongly agree that developing
content is a social activity (see Figure 5). Access to
existing assets and expertise allows for the highest quality
content development. The ability to access social
capabilities from within a content management
environment creates the necessary technical foundation.
› Social interactions often require critical content for
support. Eighty-one percent agree or strongly agree that
content supported with social interactions as an integrated
solution is the preferred user experience. In the course of
business-centric social activities, the ability to seamlessly
surface relevant content in the context of the interaction
can dramatically decrease time-to-decisions and increase
quality.
FIGURE 4
Numerous Factors Inhibit Adoption, Including Lack Of Integration
Base: 53 North American enterprise collaboration and enterprise social technology decision-makers
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of IBM, October 2013
“What are some of the factors that inhibit adoption of collaboration and
enterprise social tools in your organization?”
(Select all that apply)
Other (please specify) 4%
People prefer using their consumer tools 19%
We generally have trouble driving adoption
of new tools; it takes awhile
28%
Users don’t see the value 30%
Tools are not supported on the mobile
devices my company uses
45%
Too many different options; users get
confused what tool to use when
47%
Tools are not integrated; user experiences
are different
58%
Users prefer more traditional tools like email 58%

4
An Integrated Approach Can Drive
Significant Value
When presented with the possibility of a solution that
integrates document collaboration and social capabilities, a
mere 4% responded that it would not help their organization
(see Figure 6). In contrast, 60% responded that it would
allow better access to information and expertise, and 60%
said it would drive better business results. Fifty-seven
percent responded that it would help in providing better
customer service. Two trends emerged that drive further
consideration in driving adoption and the accompanying
business value:
› Focus on a holistic and ubiquitous user experience.
This approach ensures that users are not confused by the
multitude of products. It also drives further value by
extending solutions to mobile devices and making the
business benefits “always available.” It reduces training
costs associated with multiple interfaces and user
experiences and better addresses adoption from busy
workers that simply don’t have time to become familiar
with new tools. Lastly, if done with an open standards
approach, e.g., HTML5, Web 2.0, and CMIS, businesses
can extend out-of-the-box function to address application-
specific use cases independent of device, platform, or
operating system.
› Business value trumps all. Organizations align success
of enterprise social and document collaboration with
identified business value like improved customer service,
higher revenue, and processes that execute more quickly
and efficiently with better results.
FIGURE 5
81% Felt That A Solution Combining Document Collaboration And Social Would Be Best For Users
“How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements?”
There are instances where a dedicated tool might be required,
but generally an integrated solution would be better for our users 34% 47% 11% 6% 2%
Users collaborate around content all the time and
content development is an inherently social activity
19% 47% 23% 11%
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree Don’t know

5
Conclusion
The goals for collaboration investments of better access to
information, expertise, and collective action remain not only
valid, but crucial to long-term business viability. With that in
mind, consider the following in developing a high business
value collaboration strategy:
› The intersection of document collaboration and
enterprise social holds significant potential. This
alignment is particularly critical at the intersection of
document collaboration and enterprise social, which are
highly correlated in the minds of users and have
traditionally been arbitrarily separated across multiple
solutions. The distinction is often arbitrary and based on
existing investments. By leveraging the foundational
capabilities of an enterprise social collaboration platform
with embedded content management capabilities,
corporate content is made available for use across the
enterprise, thereby helping the organization to drive
improved decision-making and business results.
› Users prefer an integrated approach to collaboration.
The results of this research unambiguously indicate that
throwing new tools at users will create confusion and
drive them back to the familiarity of email. Ensure that
your solution is straightforward and easy for users to
understand with minimal switching between applications.
Key critical functions that support document collaboration
like relevant activity streams, community input in the form
of conversations and ratings, following, and others should
be thoroughly integrated into the document collaboration
experience. Likewise, enterprise social activities that are
supported by documents should not require switching the
separate application to access key functionality like
metadata, search, and library services. Lastly, the user
experience must be consistent and familiar across all
devices to drive optimal adoption.
› Align new product acquisitions to support simple and
ubiquitous access to content and expertise. Create a
collaboration strategy that emphasizes more functionality
through fewer products. New functionality should be
tested against this strategic goal.
› Adoption of new collaboration solutions still lags
expectations. Let’s be clear, the biggest impediment to
driving value from collaboration is not lack of investment,
it’s lack of adoption. Forrester data supports this and you
should provision all technology investments with an eye
toward what is required to drive usage.
› Change management is critical. Be cognizant of the fact
that what may be crystal clear to you may not be to the
users — this will ultimately drive the success of these
initiatives. Be prepared to look users in the eye and
convince them that this change will benefit them and the
organization in the form of identified business value.
FIGURE 6
A Combined Social And Document Collaboration Solution Can Drive A Wide Array Of Business Benefits
“Where could you see value in your organization for an integrated content, collaboration, social solution?”
(Select all that apply)
A solution like this wouldn’t help my organization 4%
Driving revenue through better sharing of content
and expertise in sales activities
43%
Driving more rapid business results, like faster
time-to-market for new offerings 45%
Removing human latency from processes by providing
knowledge workers with better tools 49%
Driving innovation 49%
Providing better customer service through better
access to information and expertise
57%
Driving better results by providing access to information
and expertise anywhere at any time 60%
Allowing users better access to information and expertise anytime,
anywhere by providing an outstanding mobile experience 60%

6
Methodology
This Technology Adoption Profile was commissioned by IBM. To create this profile, Forrester leveraged its Forrsights
Software Survey, Q4 2012, Forrsights Budgets And Priorities Tracker Survey, Q4 2012, and Forrsights Workforce Employee
Survey, Q4 2012. Forrester Consulting supplemented this data with custom survey questions asked of 53 North American
enterprise social and collaboration technology decision-makers. The auxiliary custom survey was conducted in October
2013. For more information on Forrester’s data panel and Tech Industry Consulting services, visit www.forrester.com.
ABOUT FORRESTER CONSULTING
Forrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders succeed in their
organizations. Ranging in scope from a short strategy session to custom projects, Forrester’s Consulting services
connect you directly with research analysts who apply expert insight to your specific business challenges. For more
information, visit forrester.com/consulting.
© 2014, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available resources.
Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®
, Technographics®
, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic
Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. For additional information, go to
www.forrester.com. 1-MNUAYS

The business value of social content

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