Elearning! Magazine: Building Smarter Companies via Learning & Workplace Technologies.
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will be able to fnd knowledge in the organization more readily and to identify experts on various topics, given the expertise implied by their patterns of social communication. We estimate that 25 to 30 percent of total email time could be repurposed if the default channel for communication were shifed to social platforms. Email is just the beginning. Companies could also raise the efciency of the large part of the day — roughly 20 percent — that knowledge workers spend searching for and gathering information. In fact, our analysis suggests that a searchable store of social messages could allow employees to repurpose 30 to 35 percent of their information search time. Unisys, for instance, has started along the path to capturing value in this way: 16,000 employees around the world have joined a company-wide social network, and ten social communities provide ready access to specialized expertise from around the company to resolve technical problems. Capturing these technologies' full potential to improve collaboration and communication, however, will require organizational change and new management approaches, which ofen take time to implement. ADDING UP THE BUSINESS BENEFITS Besides these productivity opportunities from improved collaboration, social technologies ofer a wide range of business benefts in additional areas — including consumer marketing (for instance, in industries such as consumer packaged goods and automotive), customer service, and even fraud detection (in sectors like insurance). To understand the full company-level potential of social media, we examined four major sectors: consumer packaged goods (CPG), advanced manufacturing, professional services, and consumerfacing fnancial services. Within each sector, we quantifed the value potential in fve functional areas — R&D;, operations and distribution, marketing and sales, customer service, and business support — as well as uses that cut across the enterprise and its functions (Exhibits 2 and 3). CONSUMER PACKAGED GOODS CPG companies have been among the early adopters of consumer social media, both to engage customers and to derive insights. However, substantial gains could arise from additional applications, particularly in marketing and sales, where these companies spend an average of 15 to 20 percent of their revenues. Some leading companies have gained the same level of consumer insight, at only 60 to 80 percent of the previous cost, by substituting insights from extensive online communities for more traditional marketing panels and focus groups. Interactive product campaigns that deploy social technologies, our research further shows, can increase the productivity of advertising expenditures by as much as 30 to 60 percent. New, collaborative forms of engagement with customers too can improve product development, both in speed and level of understanding. Kraf, for instance, discovered key consumer insights and signifcantly reduced times to market for 48 new South Beach Diet products by enlisting communities of nutrition experts and potential consumers. ADVANCED MANUFACTURING We found signifcant opportunities for tighter collaboration in the three advancedmanufacturing industries we studied — semiconductors, aerospace, and automotive. Highly educated knowledge workers, though central to R&D; operations in these industries, ofen remain "siloed" in their specifc units within sprawling global operations. Collaboration among such employees across organizational boundaries could increase their efectiveness. Supply chain operations in semiconductors and aerospace frequently require a high degree of collaboration and knowledge sharing within and beyond company boundaries in the manufacture of specialized components Government Elearning! April / May 2013 39