Business will become 'social'

Nearly a decade since e-businesses have transformed the way businesses are conducted, IBM believes the next wave will be what it calls “the social business”.

Citing social media like Facebook and Twitter, which have already dramatically changed the way people get to know, interact, and share information with each other, Sandy Carter, vice president of IBM and author of a few books about social media, social business and “marketing 2.0”, asserts that the business world will soon follow their consumers in this trend.

Using social media and social technology tools, and techniques, corporations which can capitalise on this emerging opportunity, will have an edge over their competitors, since they will become more dynamic, collaborative, efficient and customer-driven, she said.

In an exclusive interview to The Nation, the IBM vice president for Social Business and Collaboration Solution Sales and Evangelism cited many real cases that some enterprises – large and small, international and Asian companies, have already embraced the social business capability to their benefits. The Royal Bank of Canada, which has utilised a Web portal technology to improve its customer service rating from No 5 to No 1; Mexican cement firm Cemex leveraged social connection tools to drive innovation among its staff worldwide; HSBC has introduced a virtual test lab to engage new ideas and feedback from customers; Bumbu Desa, a restaurant chain in Indonesia, has used an IBM SmartCloud solution that allows it to attract food critics, share information such as on new menus, new ways to greet guests, submit daily sales reports to headquarters thus enabling it to expand from 20 restaurants in Indonesia to now more than 100 restaurants, including in Singapore and Malaysia.

Carter said social business can help “equalise” the playing field between small companies and their larger competitors.

“Social business goes beyond Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. A social business recognises that people do business with people and optimises how people interact and then leverages those interactions to create business value and gain competitive advantage,” she said.

Carter cited statistics from McKinsey, which polled thousands of clients, and found that adding social to a customer service process on average increased your customer service satisfaction rating by 18 percentage points. The consulting firm also found that applying social business tools to human resource function helped companies reduce costs by 15 per cent on average because  firms could constantly engage with their employees, taking their feedback and allowing them to get information quicker. This enabled them to retain their employees and reduce costs associated with hiring and developing new workers. 

McKinsey also found that social technologies, which enabled firms to take inputs from their customers or potential customers and test-run their products, assisted these firms to improve their “time to market” by 20 per cent, she said.

Carter believes social business will soon become like “electricity”.

“I think soon every company will do it social. It will become like electricity. Companies that start first will have a competitive advantage,” said the IBM executive.

 Addressing security concerns of businesses, IBM has introduced “IBM Connections”, a social software that allows companies to collaborate via social media and other tools on secured platforms, she said.

The latest IBM “Trend Report”, published late last year, revealed that 2011 was the first year that more companies were applying social business tools to their internal processes (43 per cent), such as for HR, and innovation collaboration, than externally (41 per cent) such as for driving marketing and customer satisfaction.

 

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