Social Media Makes the Shift from Consumer to Enterprise Communications Tool
Announcement posted by Frost & Sullivan 04 Oct 2011
Enterprise adoption of Social Networking and Team Collaboration to All But Double by 2013
Growing user familiarity and ease of use are driving enterprise adoption of social networking and team collaboration (TC) solutions. Although still in its infancy Frost & Sullivan predicts that the Australian Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) and TC market will grow in excess of 25 percent between 2013 and 2015.
Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), professional services and education have emerged as the early adopters of ESN and TC, partially due to the need for communication and collaboration between multiple branch locations and mobile workers. Additionally social media and social media monitoring technologies are starting to see penetration in the contact centre segment. There is a urgent need for contact centre agents to track and monitor what customers are talking about a product or service and subsequently this would allow the agent to reach out to the customer and provide feedback more effectively. These are among the major findings of Frost & Sullivan's latest investigation into enterprise communications, “Australian Enterprise Social Media and Collaboration Report 2011”.
Audrey William, ICT Research Director, Frost & Sullivan says, “The online social communities that individuals have built up in the past few years are now spilling over into work. As a result the role of social media is changing. Right now, the ability to collaborate and share information internally is one of the main reasons organisations encourage the use of social media. The applications maintain the same level of familiarity and usability as consumer applications, enabling employees to quickly learn and accept the solutions. Over time, this approach will be extended to include customer-facing functions.”
“The market for Enterprise Social Media and Collaboration is in its early growth stages and as such there will be acquisitions and partnerships in this space. Vendors in the Unified Communications, Video conferencing, Software and IT segments have recently acquired social media and collaboration companies to strengthen their existing offerings whilst others have embarked on partnerships with some of the leading vendors in the Enterprise Social Networking and Team Collaboration space. For instance, VMware and Cisco strengthened their capabilities by acquiring Socialcast and Versly respectively. Additionally Polycom recently announced a partnership with Jive software. We are also witnessing contact centre vendors acquiring or partnering with companies in the social media segment”
The current preference for on-premise collaboration solutions will steadily change in favour of cloud based solutions as a number of enabling factors take effect. Information security is typically the main concern hampering the adoption of cloud based solutions. Such concerns are particularly high in the government and BFSI segments. Advancements in mobile devices continue to detach the user from fixed desktop systems. As a result, users are increasingly demanding the ability to access a solution from any connected device and not be limited by a license based model that restricts access to a client computer. Such trends, combined with the pricing and flexibility advantages of a cloud. By 2018 a majority of the ESN and TC solutions will therefore be delivered over a cloud model.
Microsoft, IBM, OpenText, Salesforce.com and Yammer are some of the key players in the Australia market. Acquisitions and partnerships are expected to serve as vehicles for additional organisations seeking to gain a foothold in the market as well as for those looking to strengthen their product portfolios.
In early 2011, Frost & Sullivan surveyed 162 IT managers and IT decision makers for their views on ESN and TC. The major highlights from this research include:
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com on six continents.
Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), professional services and education have emerged as the early adopters of ESN and TC, partially due to the need for communication and collaboration between multiple branch locations and mobile workers. Additionally social media and social media monitoring technologies are starting to see penetration in the contact centre segment. There is a urgent need for contact centre agents to track and monitor what customers are talking about a product or service and subsequently this would allow the agent to reach out to the customer and provide feedback more effectively. These are among the major findings of Frost & Sullivan's latest investigation into enterprise communications, “Australian Enterprise Social Media and Collaboration Report 2011”.
Audrey William, ICT Research Director, Frost & Sullivan says, “The online social communities that individuals have built up in the past few years are now spilling over into work. As a result the role of social media is changing. Right now, the ability to collaborate and share information internally is one of the main reasons organisations encourage the use of social media. The applications maintain the same level of familiarity and usability as consumer applications, enabling employees to quickly learn and accept the solutions. Over time, this approach will be extended to include customer-facing functions.”
“The market for Enterprise Social Media and Collaboration is in its early growth stages and as such there will be acquisitions and partnerships in this space. Vendors in the Unified Communications, Video conferencing, Software and IT segments have recently acquired social media and collaboration companies to strengthen their existing offerings whilst others have embarked on partnerships with some of the leading vendors in the Enterprise Social Networking and Team Collaboration space. For instance, VMware and Cisco strengthened their capabilities by acquiring Socialcast and Versly respectively. Additionally Polycom recently announced a partnership with Jive software. We are also witnessing contact centre vendors acquiring or partnering with companies in the social media segment”
The current preference for on-premise collaboration solutions will steadily change in favour of cloud based solutions as a number of enabling factors take effect. Information security is typically the main concern hampering the adoption of cloud based solutions. Such concerns are particularly high in the government and BFSI segments. Advancements in mobile devices continue to detach the user from fixed desktop systems. As a result, users are increasingly demanding the ability to access a solution from any connected device and not be limited by a license based model that restricts access to a client computer. Such trends, combined with the pricing and flexibility advantages of a cloud. By 2018 a majority of the ESN and TC solutions will therefore be delivered over a cloud model.
Microsoft, IBM, OpenText, Salesforce.com and Yammer are some of the key players in the Australia market. Acquisitions and partnerships are expected to serve as vehicles for additional organisations seeking to gain a foothold in the market as well as for those looking to strengthen their product portfolios.
In early 2011, Frost & Sullivan surveyed 162 IT managers and IT decision makers for their views on ESN and TC. The major highlights from this research include:
- Nearly half of organisations consider the ability to target specific groups as well as agility and speed to market as the main advantages offered by social media over traditional marketing channels;
- Organisations are often unsure how they can develop clear strategies to integrate social media into their customer service strategy. This trend is reflected by 44 percent of businesses being either in early stages of adoption or considering deployment;
- Despite the high awareness of the various collaboration solutions available, a majority of businesses are still reliant on email for document sharing. 46 percent of businesses use email to send and receive documents across teams. Only 17% of businesses currently use vendor applications such as SharePoint, Lotus Team Room or Google Docs.
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com on six continents.