Online Communities 5 Reasons To Deploy

Introduction to Communities & Social Software

Social networking and online communities appeal to business users for many reasons. The software makes it easier for your workforce to find people and information, understand the relationships and processes that make your company tick – inside and out. © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Communities Create Connections… YOUR markets – Act faster, and acquire the valuable skills to adapt quickly to changing market conditions YOUR talent – Experts, innovators, specialists, leaders both inside and outside the organization Corporate knowledge is YOUR knowledge locked away in: – Documents, processes, ideas, expertise, best • peoples heads practices, SOP’s, lessons learned and • personal laptops • email inboxes innovations • legacy systems © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Not a NEW Concept to Business… Corporate Social Networking (CSN) has been around for over 20 years – “Face to Face” meetings, conference calls, water cooler conversations are all early forms of CSN Email is the #1 CSN application in world with over 90 billion messages sent daily Email CSN = Messages + Contacts + Calendaring © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Email – A Huge Corporate Problem Most companies today still struggle with isolated knowledge workers (RELATIONSHIPS); limited understanding of organizational expertise (TALENT); and a coping with vital corporate knowledge being trapped in information silos (KNOWLEDGE). These barriers hamper productivity, decrease employee awareness and cripple the pace of innovation by duplicating efforts. © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

An Alternative to Email Web 2.0 corporate social networking tools help our workforce to collaborate, share and network across the entire organization effectively and efficiently – inside and out. © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Focus Focus – Outside the organization – Inside the organization Audience Audience – Customers, partners, suppliers, – Employees members and alumni Business Value Business Value – Improving productivity, agility and – Getting closer to your markets to innovation with a more connected increase responsiveness to & knowledgeable workforce changing conditions How? How? – Creating “team driven” corporate – Extending social networking social networks that connect beyond the corporate firewall to employees to the people, connect with your partners, information and processes they customers and suppliers to create need in order to get their jobs done deeper, stronger & more trusted effectively and efficiently relationships © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

The Top 5 Reasons

Reason Social networks and online communities can build better customer, partner and supplier relationships. • A call from a friend of a friend is more effective than a cold call, as is a call to the appropriate person. • Have direct dialogue and conversations with stakeholder groups in real time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. • Create “Live” networks where members are alive and kicking, talking to one another, sharing thoughts, supporting one another and expressing themselves, all keys to innovation and retention. • Launch new products within hours rather than months with instant feedback on successes and flaws. © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

C-Commerce - A new business arena “A new business model for business applications is emerging…The model which we call Collaborative Commerce (C-Commerce) achieves dynamic collaboration among employees, business partners and customers throughout a trading community. C- Commerce applications will replace static Web-enabled supply chain applications as the dominant application model.” Gartner Group © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Reason Social networks and online communities improve knowledge sharing across the entire organization. • Prevent vital corporate knowledge from being trapped in information silo’s so it can be reused by others in the organization. – Personal laptops – Email Inboxes – Enterprise applications – In peoples heads • Finding information, and the people who have it, is easier when relationships and activities are easily accessible to those who need it. – Employee profiles (knowledge, skills and abilities) – Employee contributions – Relationship building (creating contacts and networks) © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Reason Social networks and online communities facilitate recruiting, loyalty and staff retention. • Attract younger workers (generation Y) by offering web 2.o tools in the office. Give them same great tools they use in their personal lives @ work. • Integrate your social networking tools with existing business applications (MS Office, BlackBerry, Email) so that company veterans can easily adapt and use these new web 2.0 corporate social networking tools. • Stop knowledge walking out the door by creating staff loyalty, trust and buy-in by enabling your workforce to choose the web 2.0 applications that they believe will help them be more productive. – Loyalty – Personal investment – Self correction – Commitment © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Use it to build corporate capacity for real competitive advantage. 1000’s of knowledge workers The capacity of to innovate is far greater than that of a few executives. © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Reason Social networks and online communities can improve business opportunities in your marketplace. Social networks and online communities increase business opportunities – By creating deeper and more trusted connections with your customers, partners and suppliers – they become more loyal and are less likely to leave. – Keeping former employees in the loop may create chances to sell your products and services into their new organization. – Networked organizations are closer to their markets, act faster, and acquire the valuable survival skill of learning to swerve. © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Reason Social networks and online communities can help to connect your distributed and mobile workforce. • Social networks can build a sense of community across geographically dispersed teams, business units and your growing mobile workforce. – Employees must work across time zones, language barriers, cultural differences. – Employees are more distributed - 70% of employees work somewhere other than at head office. – Within 5 years the “Net Gen” population will out number the rest of the working population. – Over the past 5 years there has been an 800% increase in mobile workers. – Employees now change roles and jobs more frequently (on average every 3 years). © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Business Challenges • May require changes in corporate culture and work processes – Understanding the challenges is one key to using the networks successfully. • Can be very time intensive – As with Internet access, the tool has to be focused on work and not become a distraction. • May mean giving up some control – Allowing workers to add information and access it freely means breaking down old hierarchies. Managers need to become enablers. • Can challenge the organization chart – Tensions are possible when the best person to contact is in another division, or a direct report to another manager. © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Leading Adopters

Business Challenge 1. Local city officials needed a way to improve transparency, accessibility and feedback on taskforce reports published by the city 2. Could not have the solution hosted internally due to security reasons 3. Needed the community up and running in 5 business days Solution Created an online government network where: • City officials and researchers collaborate on taskforce reports • General public can view and provide feedback and recommendations on published reports © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Business Challenge 1. Create a publicly accessible web site to promote the fund on a global scale to potential partners building applications for the world leading BlackBerry® device developed by RIM 2. Set up a private online community for the investment committee to coordinate, manage and collaborate on potential partner funding applications and competitions. Solution • Created a public web site to promote the BlackBerry Partner Fund to companies interested in developing applications for the BlackBerry mobile devices • Private network for certified partners to help them: – Manage the investment and due diligence proc – Collaboration and knowledge sharing environment for partners including online support forums; wiki for best practices; and access to expert bloggers © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Business Challenge Working within a short window - 37 days to be exact , the David Suzuki Foundation needed to create an interactive online community for public engagement focused on raising the visibility of environmental issues during the 2008 Canadian federal election. Solution • David Suzuki Foundation created the Vote Environment 2008 website • Vote Environment 2008, which took only three days to build and deploy, already has more than 500 community members and 25,000 page views each day • Easy-to-use, the site lets members quickly post content and opinions to the site and discuss topics of importance to the election © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Business Challenge • Rotary International has long played a role in relief efforts, most recently in Myanmar and China. • By using powerful new social networking software, DRRAG helps to significantly increase the speed with which member clubs coordinate relief efforts, funnel donations and provide support for the implementing agencies on the ground. Solution • The DRRAG online community securely connects Rotarians using a collection of easy to use Web 2.0 tools. • When a disaster occurs, members from more than 200 countries can instantly tap into the DRRAG network to solicit support from other Rotary members, offer volunteering support and access links to other international emergency management NGO's and governments. © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

Conclusion • Businesses, organizations and institutions are looking at their stakeholders as a community of individuals whom they are trying to build a long term relationship with. • Social Software and online communities can help by offering easy to use, cost effective and fast to deploy tools that help in: 1. Creating direct dialogue and conversations with stakeholder groups in real time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Establishing networks – where members are alive and kicking, talking to one another, 2. sharing thoughts, supporting one another and expressing themselves, all keys to innovation and retention. 3. Increasing the speed and the ability to launch new products within hours rather than months with instant feedback on successes and flaws. 4. Creating loyalty and trust through direct engagement with employees, customers, partners, suppliers and peers. © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

To discover more about online communities and social software solutions, contact us at: www.igloosoftware.com 1.877.ON.IGLOO © Copyright IGLOO Inc. 2008. 2008. All rights reserved. IGLOO Inc. Confidential All rights reserved.

Online Communities 5 Reasons To Deploy

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Notes on slide 1

4 Favorites & 2 Groups