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Are you running a great business-focused online community? If so, we want to hear from you…
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 by Angela Ashenden
As sites and technologies such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have captured the imagination of millions of individuals around world, organisations are also beginning to question whether, and how, they too might be able to take advantage of these online communities or adapt them for use in a business context. Indeed, one of the biggest trends which has developed over the last couple of years is the use of business-focused online communities. These can support collaboration and communication in many different areas of business, from internal knowledge sharing amongst colleagues, to improving relationships with customers and partners.
As we move beyond the early adopter phase we’re starting to see trends and best practices emerge. So too the technology marketplace is maturing, as vendors recognise the bigger picture and the potential of online communities within a broader enterprise collaboration strategy.
This is an area that we’re doing a lot of research on at the moment. Last month we published two reports: Building online communities for business and Implementing online communities for business. Today we published the first in a series of case studies, looking at how Swiss Re was able to improve their internal collaboration and knowledge sharing capabilities using online community software. We’re going to follow this up soon with a series of assessments reports that focus on the leading technology vendors, along with a companion technology guide. Stay tuned for more information on that.
We’re also really excited to start telling you about a free online event we’ll be launching in September. It’s in the early stages of development today, but it’s going to look a lot like this event we’re running on Reinventing customer experiences with BPM and this one on Time to define your Cloud strategy. For our online communities event we’d love to include some interviews with organisations that have already got started with either internally- or externally-facing online communities. We’ve already got several lined up, but we’re always on the lookout for great stories. If you’ve already implemented online community technology in your organisation and you’d like to share your experiences and best practices with others and shine a light on your successes, drop us a line and we’ll let you know what’s involved. We’ll also tell you what we’d like to offer you in return for your time and participation.
If this is an area you’re exploring yourself take a look at our reports and make sure you’re signed up for a free Guest Pass account so we can keep you updated about the event and let you know when it’s been launched (tick the box to say you’re happy to receive news and updates from us by email).
Posted in Collaboration