my ifridge

I have moved!

2010-10-31T01:10:00.000+02:00

My new blog home is now at the ifridge & Company website

WHY !?

2010-07-27T10:28:00.000+02:00

When my kids reached the age of about three or four they started to ask us WHY. In the beginning it was about the basic things in our daily life, later they expanded it in almost every direction, and by the time they hit puberty they started questioning everything and everybody. As parents they often drive us crazy but we know for our kids this is the ultimate and most intense development and learning experience.

Most people outgrow this phase and become contributors to society as bankers, taxi drivers or sales people. Their relationship to the WHY develops to a commentary position in which they observe and comment but have no intention to actually answer the WHY. The most prominent demonstration of this are the millions of fans that comment on every move of their favorite sports team – like being the coach – while never actually participating.

Others continue their quest for answers and develop a very passionate relationship to the WHY. While they sometimes struggle, they often find their own personal mission as they join a humanitarian or even spiritual cause and become nurses, firefighters, teachers or religious leaders. Those demonstrate to us what an amazing power is unleashed when life has a purpose around defining and answering the WHY.

Finally there is a group of people that transition the ability to ask for WHY into their professional lives by developing a mission not just for themselves but for their teams or co-workers. Those people usually become scientists, adventurers or entrepreneurs. The ability to align all of their passion, energy and intellectual power behind one – their own – cause, makes them unique and provides a key ingredient to greatness.

Unfortunately greatness in business is not always appreciated, especially when it meets bureaucracy. “Because excellence isn’t usually what gets you up the greasy pole. What gets you up is a talent for maneuvering.” (William Deresiewicz). In order for greatness to succeed a lot of maneuvering and HOW expertise is needed -- for example, to secure funding, to find the right people, to get all the infrastructure in place, and last but not least to keep things running.

Much too often the Vision and Mission exist only in the head of the founder or even worse is a well polished assembly of marketing words. Building them is hard work and in my experience a great investment with a phenomenal return on that investment. But in order to prevent bureaucracy (structure, environment, circumstances) to dictate what to do, what to think, and what to believe, we need to be able to explain our Vision and Mission - our WHY. Only with that we can rally the people behind our WHY and get them excited to work on WHAT is required to succeed.

So anytime you ask yourself WHAT is the next step for you .... don’t!

Ask WHY.

This post was inspired by Simon Sinek's speach on TED:

Meet me at CeBIT

2010-03-02T18:39:00.000+01:00

Es ist mal wieder Zeit für die CeBIT und natürlich ist ifridge & Company ebenfalls vertreten. Gemeinsam mit unserem Partner netmedia stellen wir den Social Workplace - den Arbeitsplatz der Zukunft - vor.

Hierbei gehen wir der Frage nach wie man Enterprise 2.0 in den Unternehmensalltag integrieren kann. Neben den technischen Möglichkeiten geht es auch um die richtige Strategie, die Einbindung in die Prozesse und die richtige Abwägung der Risiken.

Darüber hinaus moderieren wir zwei sehr interessante Sessions zum Thema:

Social Messaging & Collaboration
5. März 2010, Halle 6, 11.40 Uhr

Flexiblere Informations- und Kollaborationsformen sind wichtige Elemente des "Enterprise 2.0"-Ansatzes. In der Praxis geht es dabei um öffentliche bzw. im Unternehmen öffentliche Kurznachrichten-Dienste a la Twitter (auch als Social Messaging-Lösungen bezeichnet) und anderen Social Software-Ansätzen, die die Kommunikation, Kooperation und Koordination unterstützen. Als wichtige Herausforderung dieser neuen Groupware-Ansätze ist der Aspekt der Strukturierung und Entwicklung des entlang der von diesen Systemen unterstützen Zusammenarbeit generierten Wissens zu diskutieren.
Auf dem Panel sollen die verschiedenen Ansätze und die besonderen Herausforderungen dieses Konzeptes in der Praxis anhand mehrerer Erfahrungsberichte und Lösungswege diskutiert werden.

Social CRM - Kundenvertrieb & Service 2.0

5. März 2010, Halle 6, 13.50 Uhr

Die Einbindung der sozialen Medien und Netzwerke in die Prozesse des Kundenmanagement - sei es für den Vertrieb oder den Service - das ist die Idee von "Social CRM" und bietet den Ausgangspunkt für eine Reihe von neuen Anwendungen und Servicelösungen. Dabei stehen derzeit sicherlich noch zwei gegensätzliche Zielsetzungen im Raum: aus vertrieblicher Sicht soll durch die Anreicherung der Kundendaten mit den Diskussionsbeiträgen, Meinungen und sonstigen Profildaten der Kunden der Kunde transparenter und besser "verständlich" gemacht werden. Aus der Service-Sicht sollen Dienste wie GetStatisfaction.com oder BrandsListen.com das Feedback der Kunden frühzeitig kanalisieren, einen Selbsthilfeprozess initieren und Impulse in Richtung eines offenen Geschäftsmodells geben.
Das Panel "Social CRM - Kundenvertrieb & Service 2.0" diskutiert diese zwei durchaus widersprüchlichen Ansätze und ihr Potentiale sowie Herausforderungen.

Mehr Hintergründe zum Enterprise 2.0 und Social Media, insbesondere Details zu

Social Workplace - dem Arbeitsplatz der Zukunft
Social Business Design, d.h. die Einbindung der Möglichkeiten im Enterprise 2.0 in die Prozesse des Unternehmens und dem
Reputation Management welches sicherstellt, dass sich die Dialoge sowohl inhaltlich als auch vom Stil im angemessenen Rahmen halten (Thema Risiko Management)

gibt es hier im Enterprise 2.0 Special von netmedia sowie in nachfolgender Präsentation.

Enterprise 2.0 Alltagstauglich on Prezi

Alltagstaugliches Enterprise 2.0

2010-02-22T12:26:00.001+01:00

Es gibt so Tage, die es in sich haben. Der heutige begann mit einer SMS von Lufthansa: Ihr Flug wurde leider annuliert! Grundsätzlich war damit zu rechnen, aber nachdem am Abend der Flug noch bestätigt wurde, war die SMS um 5 Uhr etwas überraschend. Aber wenn man von etwas begeistert ist, gibt es auch einen Weg und so kamen wir über Hannover und viel Diplomatie doch noch zu Open Text Web Solutions Group User Group. Airberlin sei Dank.

Menschen, Prozesse, Sicherheit

Wenn es um Social Media geht, ist immer noch eine grosse Unsicherheit zu spüren. Die folgende Präsentation schafft einen Überblick wie man das Thema in den Unternehmensalltag einbinden kann - sowohl strategisch als auch pragmatisch operativ.

Enterprise 2.0 Alltagstauglich on Prezi

Der Start ist einfach

Tobias Mitter von netmedia präsentiert spannende Anwendungsfälle zum Unternehmenseinsatz. Insbesondere stellt er dabei in Demos vor, wie man verschiedene Systeme zum Nutzen der Mitarbeiter integriert.

Inhouse Twitter auf Basis von Open Text und Yammer.

Volle "Wall" analog Facebook aber sicher und intern
Aufbau von Experten Profilen
Integration von allen Inhalten (Dokumente, Bilder, etc)
Einbeziehung bestehender Investitionen (RedDot, Open Text)

Echtzeit Kundensupport auf Basis von Open Text und Google Wave

Direkter Dialog zwischen Kunde und Mitarbeiter
Single sign-on für den Mitarbeiter
Steigerung der Kundenzufriedenheit
Aufbau einer Knowledge Base oder FAQ

Hierzu empfehle ich einen Blick auf das netmedia Enterprise 2.0 Special! Mehr dazu in der Präsentation von Tobias Mitter:

Enterprise 2.0 - Anwendungsfälle im Social Workplace (OTWSUG 2010)

View more presentations from netmedianer GmbH.

Online Marketing

Boris Crismancich von CYBERhouse präsentierte die Integration von verschiedenen Publizierungspotentialen in das Content Management, wie z.B. Twitter oder Flickr sowie einen Ansatz von Social Analytics, der sich nahtlos in den Begriff des Reputation Management der Strategiepräsentation integriert. Einen Link zur CYBERhouse Präsentation wird es demnächst auf der User Group Seite geben.

Open Text setzt strategisch auf Enterprise 2.0

Lars Onasch stellte klar, das Open Text strategisch hinter dem Enterprise 2.0 steht und sein Portfolio entsprechend ausrichtet. Trotz anfänglicher Unsicherheiten setzt die Firma nun eindeutig auf die Social Media Komponenten aus der Vignette Übernahme. Spannend war auch der Vortrag von Bernfried Howe und Martin Schwanke, die die technische Architektur der Social Media von Open Text präsentierten. Die erfrischend offene Darstellung der verschiedenen Optionen von RedDot über Vignette verschaffte einen guten technischen Überlick. Besonderes Interesse weckte die Integration zwischen den verschiedenen Produktwelten, die es erlauben, auch bestehende Investitionen aufzusetzen. Nach Wochen der Unsicherheit dürfte das bei Kunden für etwas Ruhe und Sicherheit sorgen.

Enterprise 2.0 bleibt spannend

Die Kernaussage der Veranstaltung ist ganz klar, dass Enterprise 2.0 seinen Einzug in den Unternehmensalltag fortsetzen wird. Mit richtigen Anwendungsbeispielen und einer klaren Zieldefinition lassen sich bereits heute beachtliche Mehrwerte für die Wertschöpfung der Organisationen erzielen.

Maps meets Picture meets Video and flys to the Moon

2010-02-17T09:22:00.002+01:00

If you like Google maps, you're going to love this presentation! Presented at the recent TED event in Long Beach. Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos new augmented-reality mapping technology from Microsoft. It's not so much about the feature but the actual demo he gives that I like. You can see the fun the team has building those new tools.

What do you think, is that good enough to defeat Google? Check out the TED page to see what happens if the old dinosaur Microsoft is doing something that looks cooler than the web darling Google.

Coke says: Fans First

2010-02-15T10:29:00.002+01:00

Short follow-up on last weeks iStrategy event in Berlin about Social Media and Enterprise 2.0. The Coca Cola Company presented their view on social media with some interesting statements.

Social Media Management is a tactic ... not a strategy? While I agree that once established it's used on a tactical level but given the recent move by Pepsi to shift their investment towards social media, I am sure the Coca Cola people have some strategic angle to it.

Keep it simple: Spot on! Usability is a key element of todays "technologized" world. When you listen to the comments about the Apple iPad you hear a lot of noise about what is missing from the iPad. Who cares? I am very certain the iPad is going to be a great success because it is simple and fun ... just like social media should be.

Always work with the pros. I am sure the advisors love that statement :-) and there have been some good ones at the event (see my comment about Ogilvy). But I have to agree with that statement from own experiences. When my former company entered the space some years ago, we had no idea and had to learn it the hard way. We later turned to Electric Artists and netmedia and got things done.

There are many more good ideas from the Coca Cola people, check the full presentation below. You might also see Geert Bestens' perspective.

Coke's 'fans first' approach in social communities

View more presentations from iStrategy.

iStrategy - Some Feedback

2010-02-11T16:30:00.004+01:00

Just on the way home from the iStrategy event in Berlin about Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media - sharing some of my observations. Overall a good event with real companies presenting real projects. And an international event, over lunch our table had eight people from seven countries.

Is it just marketing?

The audience seemed to be focused a lot on marketing. While the agenda was somewhat guiding towards this, it was interesting to see that the business impact of social media is still considered a new way of outbound communication and marketing. Making your customers a "partner in crime" is a great approach but if your team is not embracing it internally you'll not be able to execute on all the wonderful feedback you get from the market. It somehow feels like 1999 … "I need a website!" … "Why?" … "Because!" Another interesting quote from the team at Coca Cola: "Social media management is a tactic, not a strategy"... not sure I can agree with that.

We are on the way

A refreshing openness was presented when Nicole Yershon and Alex Mecklenburg explored a mixture of an internal case study and an Ogilvy marketing pitch. An agency admitting to have not much of a clue but working hard to change was encouraging to see. Cases included the Ford Fiesta Movement and the Japan's soccer "kick" machine from Castrol. Nicole shared some ideas about the Ogilvy Lab and her challenge to get middle management to embrace social media. I think the firm is on a good path, definitely a team to consider if you aim for the marketing side of 2.0 (and have the budget for it).

"We are all in the cloud ...

... at least 76% use >1 cloud service today and 90% plan to in 2010". A session by Microsoft turned into a discussion about cloud computing. While everybody in the room was willing to do "cloud banking" (online banking), many had reservations to trust their data to the cloud. Talking about what trigger event would change this and when, didn't reveal a clear answer but the terms 'trust' and 'over time' came up multiple times. Personally I got the impression that the word "cloud" is not helping, once called by it's solution name like online banking, sales management or partner portal the acceptance level rises.

Meet the Boss

Lars Hilse was the *Boss* we were invited to meet. He did a great job answering all sorts of questions and it turned out that he knows a great deal about the subject. Craig Hepburn covered more of this session.

We need more "how"

Speaking with some high profile companies at the event unveiled the need for a shift from "what" to "how". Everybody was willing to do something, most even had an idea where to start but many struggle with the "how", especially the "how to get my management on board". And this brings me back to the beginning … approaching it from a marketing perspective is falling short.

If you're a CEO and want to succeed with social media, you need to believe in it. Signing off the budget is not enough, take some time to really understand it … you'll learn that it has much to offer. And don't let anybody make you believe you're late ... it didn't even really start, yet.

PS: What is with the fish tank? … The hotel had this gorgeous fish tank in the center of the hotel and I couldn't help but to compare it with the state of the industry. We all believe to be so important, being the big fish in the sea … but we have a long way to go. Today social media is nothing more but a preview of what is coming … like the little fish in fish tank makes you dream about the ocean.

Posted via email from my ifridge

Social Media im Unternehmenseinsatz

2010-02-01T16:07:00.000+01:00

Die einen können es nicht mehr hören, und die anderen wollen es nicht wahrhaben: Social Media oder Enterprise 2.0 steht in der Tür ... auch in Deutschland. Was mich in den Dialogen immer wieder überrascht ist wie wenig Bezug bei der Diskussion zum echten Geschäftseinsatz genommen wird. Natürlich sind Begriffe wie Facebook oder YouTube spannender als Mitarbeitermotivation oder Reputationsmanagement. Aber jeder, der mal ein Unternehmen geleitet hat weiß, dass es den leichten Weg nicht gibt.

Der Social Workplace

Ein Thema, das mich bereits seit vielen Jahren fesselt, lässt sich am besten mit dem Begriff Social Workplace beschreiben. Damit gemeint ist die persönliche (daher soziale) Interaktion (Dialog) am Arbeitsplatz, und wie man dieses überaus wichtige Thema in die digitale Welt überführen kann.
Dieser persönliche Dialog bei einem Kaffee im Büro oder die kleinen Kommentare während einer Präsentation auf einer Konferenz sind es, die eine Bindung entstehen lassen. Und genau dieses Netzwerk an Bindungen ist es, auf das wir jeden Tag zurückgreifen, wenn wir etwas bewegen, erledigen oder verstehen wollen.

Man sollte dabei nicht den Fehler machen, das als "Klönen" abzutun. Das gehört auch dazu, aber viele Menschen begegnen sich kaum noch persönlich, sondern sind auf andere Kommunikationswege angewiesen, und genau hier greift das "Social" im "Workplace". Reisen sind teuer, oft unproduktiv und lassen sich nicht so spontan einrichten. Daher muss es unsere Aufgabe sein, diesen Dialog digital abzubilden.

Ansätze für den Unternehmensalltag

Genau hier setzt die Idee des Social Workplace an! Wie schaffen wir Möglichkeiten zum Dialog für die Menschen in unserer Firma, die miteinander reden sollten, sich vielleicht aber gar nicht kennen oder bisher keinen Ansatz gefunden haben, in Kontakt zu treten? Hier hilft ein Grundinstinkt des Menschen : die Neugierde. Menschen möchten gerne wissen, was um sie herum geschieht. Jeder, der länger in einem Unternehmen ist, kennt die verschiedenen inoffiziellen Kommunikationskanäle.

Der Ansatz des Social Workplace schafft ein offenes Umfeld mit direktem Zugang zu allen relevanten Informationen. Aber er geht noch einen Schritt weiter und fördert den Dialog über genau diese Informationen. Wobei wir hier nicht den Fehler machen sollten und Informationen zu eng zu definieren. Auch die Ergebnisse der Betriebssportmannschaften, der Gewinn eines großen Auftrages oder Umbaumassnahmen in der Fertigung sind Informationen, die wichtig sind und über die ohnehin jeder im Unternehmen spricht, nun eben auch digital.

Strategie: Top-Down oder Bottom-Up

Immer wieder stellt man mir die Frage, wie wir damit anfangen sollten. Zentral von Seiten des Management oder aus den Abteilungen von unten nach oben. Die Anwort ist so einfach wie unbefriedigend: es kommt darauf an. Jedes Unternehmen hat seine eigene Kultur, und keine noch so gut durchdachte Idee kann dies ignorieren. Daher ist es so wichtig, dass man sich mit dem Thema strategisch befasst und nicht nur darüber nachdenkt, welche Tools wie Wikis oder Blogs man einsetzen soll.

Hier muss ich allerdings anmerken, dass mein Ansatz davon ausgeht, dass ein Unternehmen es wirklich ernst meint. "Einfach mal ausprobieren" ist zwar ein beliebter Rat unter Social-Media-Gurus, und ich habe das anfangs auch so vertreten, aber wir können ein so grundlegendes Thema nicht dem Zufall überlassen oder gar der IT. Meine Meinung hierzu ist mittlerweile sehr eindeutig: nicht jeder muss das machen, aber wenn, dann richtig. Falls man unsicher ist, sollte man einfach externe Hilfe in Anspruch nehmen.

Von oben, aber nicht von oben herab

Eine Sache liegt mir allerdings noch am Herzen. Dialoge erfordern Vertrauen. Wir kennen es aus dem Alltag, erst wenn man sich etwas vertrauter wird, tauscht man auch mal etwas persönliches aus. Gleiches gilt im Unternehmensalltag, erst wenn man sich sicher ist, dass die Idee, der Kommentar oder das Feedback ernst genommen wird, entsteht eine Kultur des Dialoges. Daher ist es wichtig, dass "die da oben" auch mitmachen.

Genauso wichtig ist es, dass im Dialog zunächst die Hierachien keine Rolle spielen dürfen. Wohl gemerkt im Dialog. Wenn es an die Entscheidungen geht, ist es immer noch unsere Aufgabe als Manager die Entscheidungen zu treffen und dafür auch einzustehen. Auch wenn immer von der Demokratisierung gesprochen wird, einer muss sagen, wo es lang geht. Das werden die Puristen im Social Media nicht gerne hören, aber in der Regel haben die auch noch keine ihrer Empfehlungen im Unternehmensalltag umsetzen müssen. Der große Unterschied für Manager liegt nun darin, zunächst zu moderieren, dann zu entscheiden und auch zu begeistern.

Präsentation: Alltagstauglichen Enterprise 2.0 im Rahmen einer gemeinsamen Veranstaltung mit netmedia und Open Text:

Alltagstaugliches Enterprise 2 0 Public

View more presentations from netmedianer GmbH.

More (i)fridges

2010-01-19T16:49:00.000+01:00

Thanks for your encouraging support on the launch of our new website last week. While we're still working on some features, we'd be happy to get your feedback. Let us know what you like, let us know what we should improve or add. We are definitely committed to deliver on the original idea of the ifridge.

In fact parts of the site are already inspired by your feedback. Some days ago we asked our followers on Twitter to provide feedback about the ifridge concept and to submit your favorite (i)fridge picture. The feedback was overwhelming and here is a selection of what you have provided:

ifridge with Character

View more presentations from ifridge & Company.

In addition to those great pictures we received tons of great feedback, comments and retweets. Some got inspired and some others even shared very personal blog posts. We really appreciate all your participation.

Finally let me thank the team of netmedia for their amazing support, strategy and execution in putting www.ifridge.com online. Great to have you on board.

Great People can Change the World

2010-01-15T20:03:00.000+01:00

No worries, I am not going sentimental but when you start a new adventure you need to say something, right? In fact the header might not say anything to you but it means a lot to me.

I recall a conversation I had about two years ago, we were about to launch a new program and I had to internally recruit some people to join me on that. I had nothing to offer, no raise, no promotion, not even a real budget, just my commitment that this is going to be a ride they'll never forget. And believe it or not but we gathered a group of people that truly changed the world - for me.

The project ultimately failed, not because we didn't believe in it but maybe because we didn't fully execute on our beliefs. But I now know for a fact that great people can change the world and the dialogues with our customers proves that every day. Many of the team members at the time embarked to new adventures. One became a CMO and social media guru, another one started his own business and one became co-founder with me at ifridge & Company.

Working with great people on exciting projects is a real privilege and and we therefore made it the core mission of our new adventure at ifridge & Company ... excited to work with people that are ready to execute on their beliefs.

Picture: Cultphotos. Stay tuned for more great pictures.

Social Media Birthday Statistics

2009-12-20T01:07:00.001+01:00

First of all, thanks for all the birthday wishes so many expressed yesterday (Central European Time). As you know, that entire social media phenomenon has been my passion for a long time now and it therefore was just time for my very own Social Media Birthday Statistics :-)

The most interesting result is that more than two thirds of the people reached out via some sort of social media platform. For those who participated in the recent Social Media Workshops in Germany and Canada this might be an interesting exercise to see the network effect of your online profile and your networking activities.

Thanks everybody for participating in this real life social media exercise. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas time or holiday season!

PS: I am also very proud to present this Social Media Birthday Statistics 100% software free. The blog is based on Blogger, the spreadsheet is based on Google Docs, the graphic is an embedded graph including real-time updates.

Listen, Learn & Execute

2009-12-15T00:45:00.011+01:00

Inspired by the Blog Mother we hosted our first Social Media Workshop. Over some cups of coffee we went on a journey through the universe of LinkedIn, XING, Facebook and Twitter, and all the other little tools to manage your digital identity.

The group consisted of developers and QA engineers, product managers and even a VP. While we all agreed on the need on the need for a digital identity, we discovered some key findings.

Keep it Simple: you might impress your co-workers with your perfect worded online profile and all the fantastic buzz words you copied from your company's marketing message. But keep in mind, that most of the people that read your profile have no clue what eDiscovery in a 2.0 World means.
Build it Early: it is never to early to build your network. Working in a 70 people R&D team but having only 40 "connections" is not a good ratio. Just keep in mind: the others also want to connect.
Be Yourself: Online is not a different planet, it is just a different format. So be yourself: online and offline, paper and digital. The greatest chance to succeed is to be consistent and authentic.

During the discussion we also learned that there are different maturity levels, both for people as well as organizations. While some of us have incorporated the digital world into their life, most of you still try to find your way around. There is nothing to worry about, you're still the majority and there is plenty of opportunity to discover the great opportunities out there. As a little guidance we came up with the following three steps into the digital economy:

Listen: there is no need to say anything if you feel there is nothing to say. Simply keep a finger on the pulse. Listen to what your industry people have to say. Turn on your Twitter search, screen the groups and forums and make sure you know what's going on.
Learn: "Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal" ... look around. Do you like an idea how somebody crafted his/her profile? Let them inspire you, there is nothing wrong in learning from others.
Execute: Make sure you're take this last step! Once you understand how things are working in your community it is time to step up and make yourself visible.

Thanks everybody for your contributing to the lively conversations. Social Media might change it's name again but the concept is here to stay. Make the most of the new opportunities and don't be shy to connect!

Social Media Workshop oder 'Jobs für Alle'

2009-12-13T21:27:00.008+01:00

Es ist schon eine interessante Situation, dass jeder mit jedem im Social Web (Facebook, LinkedIn, XING) verbunden ist, aber wenn es darum geht das Ganze zu seinen Gunsten zu nutzen sind wir oft recht einfallslos.

Besonders wenn es darum geht einen Job zu finden, seine Chancen auf einen Job zu erhöhen oder unsere Qualifikationen ins rechte Licht zu rücken, können die neuen Ideen sehr hilfreich sein.

Um meinen Anteil zu tragen lade ich Euch zu einem kleinen - kostenfreien - Workshop ein. Ein erster Workshop fand bereits sehr erfolgreich in Toronto statt. Und nun kommen wir nach Deutschland:

Wir treffen uns am kommenden Montag (14. Dez) um 18.00 Uhr im Vapiano in Oldenburg. Freunde des RedDot sind ausdrücklich willkommen aber keine Bedingung! Bitte gebt mir kurzes Feedback per Twitter @danielkraft oder schickt mir eine Nachricht per Facebook, XING oder LinkedIn.

Bloom Democratized

2009-12-06T00:31:00.013+01:00

Not too long ago a small group of people started a project to take the corporate memory social. Among many ideas our goal was to build an environment that allows for the corporate memory, represented by the combined knowledge of the people, to be general available in the organization using approaches we learnt from the social media movement. Some may recall the term Bloom.

Today I was reading an interesting little blog post from one of the thinkers behind the Bloom idea. Cheryl McKinnon, now CMO at Nuxeo just offered a social media 101 workshop to improve the professional online profiles of those that have been hit be the recent restructuring or are simply interested to learn more about their ID in a digital economy.

While this may not make much sense to those that haven't been part of the original dialogues, but I am just fascinated how the spirit of Bloom isn't quitting. It looks that we were right in the first place but our thinking was too narrow. A dream can never fit in a repository.

I'd like to offer my support to what Cheryl has started. Did you believe in our idea, than I believe in you and I'd like to make the investment in your digital future. Would you like to learn about the digital economy, you have a profile to review, a blog to link to, an idea you'd like to talk about? Go visit Cheryl at the event or find my online.

For those that need local support: I am at Vapiano in Oldenburg on Monday Dec 14 from 6-8pm. Just post a comment on this blog or Tweet @DanielKraft so I know what to expect.

RedDot is back!

2009-11-21T13:40:00.009+01:00

Not too long ago we had to say good bye to one of our dearest friends. While it appeared, at the time, that the RedDot has embarked on his last journey, we might just witnessed once again the wisdom of one of the greatest web visionaries of all times.

Chatter - Social Media for the Enterprise

In his key note address at Dreamforce this week, salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff introduced a new social service for the enterprise: salesforce Chatter. This new service is taking "the magic of facebook and Twitter" to the enterprise and serves as the foundation of the company's latest cloud service: the collaboration cloud.

While many vendors have introduced new social services this comes from a player that has a proven track record in changing an entire industry. salesforce.com is making this new service available to all of their existing customers, which makes the company the largest player in social media for the enterprise.

A Wave in the Clouds

This new service is another signal that the future of enterprise "software" is in the cloud. While many of the traditional vendors try to seed fear by claiming that social services need to be "behind the firewall", salesforce.com proofs them wrong again. More than 60,000 customers trust their most valuable information - customer data - to be stored in the cloud. Why wouldn't we trust this same vendor with our communication ... or chatter?

If you combine this latest development with the direction Google has taken with the introduction of Google Apps, Google Wave and most recently with Google Chrome OS, we might have seen that magic tipping point towards a cloud economy. Name one reason why we still need to buy software?

Inspired by our good old Friend!

You may wonder what all of that has to do with our good old friend RedDot? As mentioned earlier many believed his time was over but it appears that he is the master mind behind all that as his appearance live on stage with salesfoce.com CEO proofs. He has been an inspiration to many of us and might also played a key role in the new direction salesforce.com is taking. In fact many consider him the force behind many other new ideas and ventures. Stay tuned for more.

Surf, Dive or Die ... the Wave is coming

2009-10-11T23:59:00.010+02:00

You most likely have been reading about Google Wave already, like Robert Scoble who finds it "Much more mentally challenging" or Louis Gray who provides a good summary what Google Wave is today: "... an opportunity to further eliminate distance ... ". I understand their points but they are too much focused on what Google Wave is today and not what it's going to be.

For me Google Wave is the biggest threat to the ECM space since the introduction of SharePoint. Google already offers a wide range of content and communication related services like Google Docs, GMail, Google Analytics and with Wave now also a collaborative and social (net)working environment. But more important those are real web services ... no software, no investment, no budget. You don't believe me? Imagine this:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. May 19, 2010 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Salesforce.com will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Google.

That puts an interesting perspective on the topic, isn't it? And it underlines my point from last month's conversation about innovation in the WCM space: It's over, isn't it? I actually agree with some of the comments made there (standards, usability, etc) but it is not even close to innovation, especially in light of above's scenario.

In know, Google Wave is far from being ready but so was (is?) SharePoint. Do you recall the introduction of SharePoint? You could find hundreds of comments, blogs and news about how bad it is and still, it is the #1 content infrastructure. Imagine now Google and Salesforce.com presenting a web-leadgeneration-collaboration-social-content-mail-contact-network-service for 1$ per user ... would you still pay 250k for a single system, when you can have it all for 1$ ... ?

The one thing that keeps Google out of the enterprise is trust but if they combine their ability to innovate with Marc Benioff's ability to sell ... you remember what happened to Siebel? As a vendor you have two options: Ride the wave: see what NewsGator is doing with SharePoint or Dive deep like Open Text does with SharePoint and SAP by providing back-office infrastructure to a front-office offering.

So what are you up for: Surfing or diving or ...

PS: Never heard of Google Wave? See this two minute summary:

It's over, isn't it?

2009-09-24T01:39:00.007+02:00

Every time a software company gets acquired the relevant community starts spinning. Employees fear for their jobs, customers are concerned about their projects, analysts write another paper and of course the competition has a field day. The recent acquisition of Vignette by Open Text has been no different. Of course Open Text needs to reduce head count since Vignette has been reporting losses since before the term WCM was even invented. Everybody that followed Tom Jenkins and John Shackleton over the years knows that burning cash is not an option. But before you bitch about it: 2.2 billion in market cap suggest they doing something right...

When we talk about the products the situation seems complicated. But unlike many "experts" believe, the actual product is not really the issue. If customers would buy software from a startup with a handful of developers, why would they be concerned if a billion dollar company maintains a handful of those developers to keep the product alive? Do you know of any customer of Gauss or Obtree that was forced to migrate to RedDot? Face it: every player is going to get acquired at some time and keeping a product alive keeps the maintenance revenue consistent.

Don't get me wrong, just maintaining a product is always easier (and cheaper) than to innovate. But we also need to admit that the WCM market hasn’t innovated for a long time. What actually happens is that as the products mature and become more stable they work better within the orchestra of tools we need to run a business. But real innovation is not happening. And just to be perfectly clear, social media doesn't count. The fundamentals have been invented 15 years ago and it doesn't count as innovation just because we call it "social" instead of "collaboration" adding some AJAX and better usability. In the auto industry they call that a facelift. Ask your vendor about the top 3 minds behind their social media product and I am sure you'll find 2 of 3 being a collaboration or communication veteran.

But there is something with this deal, which is different. It's the last big one! Believe it or not, there are no more fighters for the greater good in that market; no more idealists that are on a mission. Over are the days when Vignette and Interwoven outsmarted each other to charge a million $ for a website, over are the days of RedDot kicking both their asses :-) Do you even remember Stellent? What is left is a long list of small or smaller companies. Believe me, many are decent businesses run by good managers but still: it is time to exit my friends.

Vendors have two options. Focus on a niche market and sell later or sell the business now. I am happy to discuss my logic behind that but if you follow me for a moment, that leaves two options for customers - either buy from a big player and get an 80/20 solution or buy from a smaller, more focused player and deal with them being acquired sooner or later. Both options come with pain and your decision depends on how mature you think WCM truly is.

So is it over?

Enterprise 2.0 / Make Love not War

2009-06-27T16:23:00.010+02:00

I enjoyed some great days in Boston this week, visiting the Enterprise 2.0 conference and gaining new perpectives on strategy at MIT Sloan.

At the E2.0 conference it seemed that Social Media has entered the main stream. Big sponsors includes IBM, Microsoft, EMC, Novell, SAP ... so basically the who-is-who of corporate IT. While not much progress has been made on the product front since last year's event I was very pleased to see my friends at Open Text release their Social Media offering. You may recall that this was originally presented as part of the overall Bloom vision.

What I found most interesting about the E2.0 show this year was not what was presented but what was missing: Customer Focus & Strategy. With the economy down and budgets tight, you would have expected everybody to be 100% focussed on the customer, with clear use cases, easy to implement solutions and a solid strategy how to not just implement a piece of software (or to turn on a service) but how to achieve real results. But interestingly the focus was again entirely on products. Sure we need good products but I have to agree with Craig Hepburn from Open Text that we need "more education and understanding".

This brings me to my second stop, which was just across the river in Cambridge. I had two exciting days with Professor Arnoldo Hax from MIT Sloan. In his executive training session "Reinventing Your Business Strategy" he presents a remarkably simple and compelling strategy model (the Delta Model) that puts the customer in the center of the strategy. Instead of fighting your competition (war) you should care about your customer (love).

I wish that concept would also be applied to by all stakeholders in Social Media: focus on the customer, care so much about them, that you even base your strategy on that. I strongly believe that Social Media will have a major (and positiv) impact on the way we do business. The Social Workplace and the Social Marketplace are going to be a reality very soon. But in order to be successful we need put the customers and their needs in the centre of our thinking.

It’s all about people – it’s all about You!

2009-04-07T00:13:00.008+02:00

Everybody can change the Web

This was the RedDot tag line many years before the term Web 2.0 was created. We started in a time when the Web was only for those with technical skills or deep pockets. And now we see a world where the people manage the experience and the best Web initiatives are truly social. You have achieved this!

Time to Bloom

Most recently I have been driving what I believe to be the most strategic initiative an ECM company could consider. I worked with an amazing team and learned a tremendous amount about not only breaking new ground but this fascinating momentum we have in the Social Web. Bloom is a movement I truly believe in, I see the world Blooming – growing in ways I was only dreaming for when I started in the Web space so many years ago. It is up to You now to deliver on that dream.

I believe!

The first day I set foot in this company I knew this was going to be different. The people did not work here, they believed in it. Believed in our product, believed in our mission … and after many successful battles believed in me. I will always remember this trust and believe, as it was the most rewarding experience in my entire professional career. It was You that turned me into a believer.

Thank You

I was privileged to work with some of the greatest people I have ever met. It was a pleasure to work with you every day. It was an honor to fight with you side by side to make this business one of the greatest in the industry. I hope the team continues to prosper and finds the enthusiasm to keep our momentum moving forward but for those that know me I am sure you will also understand why I have to start this next adventure in my career.

I leave those that have been so instrumental in my career the wisdom of Yoda: "Do, or do not. There is no 'try'." … and for me, now is the time to DO.

Sicherheit & Social Networking

2009-03-16T21:17:00.001+01:00

Das Fraunhofer Institut - Sichere Informations-Technologie hat sich mit dem Thema "Privatsphärenschutz in Soziale-Netzwerke-Platformen" beschäftigt. Auf 124 Seiten (!) kann man in derStudie alles darüber lesen warum diese Netze nicht immer den optimalen Schutz bieten.

Dabei stellt sich die Frage, ob es eine Privatsphären in Social Networks im klassischen Sinne überhaupt geben kann. Ich bin sich

er kein Vertreter der "alles offen" Philosophie aber wenn ich meine Informationen in ein öffentliches Netz stelle muss ich damit rechnen, dass diese von anderen gefunden, gesehen und verwendet wird. Hier ist allerdings auch zu beachten, dass es verschiedene Level an Sicherheitsbedürfnissen gibt und diesen jeweils Rechnung getragen werden muss.

Auf jeden Fall bietet die Studie einen guten Einblick wie Social Networks funktionieren, wie Daten erhoben und verwendet werden und wer Zugriff auf diese Informationen hat. Gerade wer sich neu mit diesen Themen auseinandersetzt, wird hier viele Informationen finden. Darüber hinaus bietet die Studie eine gute Basis für die interne Überzeugungsarbeit und den Fragen den man sich im Rahmen der Einführung einer Social Networking Infrastruktur stellen

muss.

Auch wird durch die Studie schnell klar, dass öffentliche Social Networks für den Einsatz in Organisationen nur bedingt geeignet sind. Für den "Enterprise" Nutzer finden sich gute Informationen worauf man beim Aufbau von eigenen Social Networks in Organisationen wie Firmen, Vereinen, Parteien, etc. achten sollte. Entgegen den öffentlichen Social Networks sind hier sehr viel komplexere Zusammenhänge zu beachten. Das beginnt bei simplen Zugangsberechtigungen bis hin zu rechtlichen Verpflichtungen aus dem Compliance Bereich, die ich als Organisation zu erfüllen habe.

Siehe auch Pressemeldung meiner Firma zum Thema Sicheres Web 2.0.

Siehe auch Candy & AspirinBlog (Englisch) meinerOpen Text Kollegin Cheryl McKinnon.

Artikel zum Thema:

Deutschland verpasst den Zug bei Social Networking?

2009-03-13T21:23:00.001+01:00

Die Fazit-Unternehmensbefragung besagt, dass 64% der Unternehmen Kooperationen mit anderen Unternehmen, Hochschulen oder Forschungseinrichtungen unterhalten. Insbesondere das Thema Produktentwicklung (80%) spielt hierbei eine besondere Rolle.

Das Spannende ist, dass etwa 2/3 dieser Kooperationen auf Basis regelmäßiger informeller Treffen gepflegt werden. Das bedeutet, die Soziale Interaktion stellt eine bedeutenden Komponente in der Pflege von Kooperationen dar. Mit dem starken Fokus auf Produktentwicklung entsteht ein Bild der kommunikativen, informellen Innovation in Deutschland ...

Das erschreckende an der Studie ist allerdings, dass nur etwa 30% der Unternehmen ein Intranet betreiben (leider sind keine Angaben zu Extranets in der Umfrage enthalten). Des weiteren nutzen nur etwa 9% der Unternehmen Social Networking. Da bereits 70% der Unternehmen einen Webauftritt haben und mehr als 76% der Befragten angeben von den entsprechenden Möglichkeiten des Social Networking zu wissen, stellt sich die Frage was die Firmen zurück hält dies zu verwenden.

Diese Frage wird umso interessante, wenn man eine andere Größe hinzunimmt. Statistiken zu Facebook belegen, dass das Wachstum weiter anhält und mittlerweile die Zahl von 150 Mio. Teilnehmern überschritten wurde. Hierbei besonders spannend ist die Tatsache, dass die Altersgruppe von 35-54 Jahren mit 276% zulegte. Das ist ein weitere Anstieg der Wachstumsrate von zuletzt 172%. Gerade diese Altersgruppe stellt die Leistungsträger in vielen Unternehmen.

Fassen wir zusammen:

Firmen unterhalten Kooperationen, insbesondere in innovativen Bereichen wie der Produktentwicklung und pflegen diese vor allem durch informelle Treffen. Genau diese Firmen nutzen allerdings die neuen Möglichkeiten von informellem Informationsaustausch durch Social Networking kaum, obwohl die Kernaltersgruppe mit grossen Schritten in diese Richtung marschiert. Es bleibt abzuwarten ob dies nur eine Momentaufnahme oder eine besonders konservative Schicht der deutschen Unternehmer darstellt. Es sollte uns in jedem Fall zum Denken und dann auch zum Handeln anregen.

Hinweis: Ergebnisse beziehen sich auf die siebten FAZIT Unternehmensbefragung (Herbst/Winter 2008 von baden-württembergischen Unternehmen, landesweite Ergebnisse können abweichen. Details Verfügbar unter www.fazit-forschung.de.

2009-03-03T22:25:00.001+01:00

Noch wenige Stunden und es geht los: CeBIT, die größte IT Messe der Welt ...

Das Team hat wieder Großartiges vorbereitet und natürlich kann man sich all die neuen Dinge (und auch eine Vorschau auf das was noch kommen wird) live auf der Messe anschauen. Siehe auch die offizielle PR.

Aber es gibt noch mehr spannendes zu berichten. Wie bereits erwähnt, haben wir unsere eigene 2.0 University eingerichtet. Das Open Text Research Centre of Digital Media unterstreicht unser Commitment zu Web 2.0 oder besser unserer Enterprise 2.0 Strategie besser bekannt unter Bloom.

Dazu passend hat heute Tom Jenkins, Chairman meiner Firma Open Text einen Artikel veröffentlicht, in dem er die Digital Revolution für Kanada fordert. Während der Artikel seine kanadischen Landsleute daran erinnert, dass die Digitale Economy in Kanada evtl. hinter den USA und Europa zurück bleiben könnte, enthält er auch einen für uns alle wichtigen Punkt:

"Today's teenagers – tomorrow's work force – are immersed in the digital world, constantly connected to friends via text messages and social websites. They will lead a cultural shift in the way people collaborate and share knowledge in the workplace, with a premium placed on openness and the free flow of information."

Ich mag besonders: "a premium placed on openness and the free flow of information." Ist das nicht der Kern der ganzen 2.0 Bewegung? Ich bin auf derCeBIT zu erreichen und freue mich auf Feedback zu unseren Ideen der Digitalen Revolution und wie wir das in unseren Alltag einbauen.

Bloom Basics February 2009

View more presentations from Daniel Kraft. (tags: enterprise text)

CeBIT & the Digital Revolution - a great day!

2009-03-02T23:39:00.010+01:00

I have been working all day to prepare for CeBIT the largest global IT show starting tomorrow. We are ready to go and from what I can see it is going to be a great event. Most of what the team what has been working on will be available for you to see live on the floor. For more check-out the official PR.

But that's not all. You may have seen my earlier post about our very own 2.0 University we launched last year. The Open Text Research Centre of Digital Media underlines our commitment to the Enterprise 2.0 movement best know as Bloom.

Today Tom Jenkins, Chairman of my company Open Text has posted an article about the Digital Revolution that is over-due in Canada. While the article reminds the Canadians that the digital economy requires some action to keep pace with the US and Europe, he states something that holds true for all of us:

I especially like: "a premium placed on openness and the free flow of information." Isn't that core of the entire 2.0 wave? Let me know if you'd like to learn more about our ideas on the Digital Revolution and how we can help implement that into our daily work.

The Best Team Ever!

2009-02-15T22:58:00.016+01:00

Many technology companies talk about the concept of “shoemaker’s children”. Well, at Open Text we to often suffer from this challenge. We have great technology (shoes) and provide amazing solutions for our customers but internally we sometimes go without shoes. This week, our team not only cobbled us a great pair of shoes but exemplified what team work and imagination can bring to an organization.

Many of you may find yourself in a similar challenge so I would like to share our success from time to time in an effort to motivate your organization to achieve the same. So as I congratulation our team, you will get to know what drives us, and why we love what we do at Open Text.

Last week we had the opportunity to pitch our latest Web Solutions offering to a group of industry experts. The team has done a wonderful job! The overall goal of the meeting was to show how marketing organizations can use our technology and mature throughout a series of online marketing initiatives.

Everything from creating multi-lingual sites (see Web Solutions for Multisites) to driving engaging social experiences online. I saw true passion come from the team delivering a story for marketing driven initiatives that included:

Personalization managed directly by the marketing team - even I could do it - incl. preview for different personas and times: you can go forward in time and see how it will look in the future, e.g. when you kick-off a campaign
Fully integrated rich media management to manage all your marketing assets (BTW: we got rated best marketing asset management in the industry)
Facebook integration: have a look at the SwitchedOn Widget
Whole set of web analytics, incl. Google Analytics integration as well as governance & popularity reporting
Campaign management with integration into Salesforce.com

And of course my favorit presentation was a full set of 2.0 capabilities (incl. Blog, Forum, Tagging, Voting, Wiki) and a full featured community solutions (enterprise class scaling and mobility support for iPhone and Blackberry) ... the true reality of our Bloom strategy we launched at Content World. And as you would expect from a leader in compliance we also showed Social Compliance: the amazing combination of Enterprise 2.0 with the Web Compliance Manager

I know this post has some more marketing to it, but our team truly did an amazing job and what I realized was that as with many solutions, the technology works great, but it’s the story that captivates the audience. The energy, the team work and passion about the web is driving our Web Solutions team. Want to learn more, meet us at CeBIT ... I am going to be there and happy to tell you more about us!

Bloom Basics February 2009

View more presentations from Daniel Kraft. (tags: enterprise text)

The end of an era - the start of a journey

2009-02-02T16:40:00.010+01:00

Time to say good bye.

On December 2008 we had to say good bye to one of our dearest friends - the RedDot. In an emotional ceremony all of his fellow co-workers gathered together to share great stories and express their respect for one of the greatest web visionaries of all times. When we had to enable everybody to change the web, RedDot was there for us! When 3,000 companies knocked on our doors to help them with their web solutions, RedDot was there for us! When two Canadian software companies looked for a great acquisitions in WCM, RedDot was there for us. He was always there for us, our great friend, co-worker and admired leader. We have to say good bye now, but we promise that we will keep RedDot in our hearts, we promise to finish what we have started, and we'll make the Web vision a reality while Open Text Blooms."

You may have noticed that we have made some adjustments to the branding of the Web Solutions Group. Entering 2009 we decided to focus on the Open Text brand for all teams within the group, including RedDot. This is the final step of a 2 year project aligning the operation. RedDot as a product and dedication to WCM does not go away, in fact as we have become an integrated ECM offering our strength in Web Solutions will continue to grow. RedDot is now the Open Text Web Solutions Group and Web Solutions is a continued focus for Open Text.

Many customers may ask, what does this mean for me?

Over the last two years we have made excellent progress providing a fully integrated ECM strategy. It turned out that WCM is a strategic component for many of our customers and with a completely integrated approach we allow you to not only to buy a long term path for your organization with Open Text orchestrating strategic success. As a current customer, our dedication continues and our support network is expanding. For new customers, you can turn to Open Text for the WCM expertise we have gathered over the last 14 years with RedDot while joining Open Text in the journey to be Content Experts.

Join me as we say our farewell to RedDot as a brand but hello to Web Solutions a strategic component of Open Text's ECM strategy. Share with us your opinion on this journey so we can ensure that your investments in Open Text continue to drive more ROI in the future.

Dad, it’s social … 99 Friends since Christmas

2009-02-02T02:34:00.032+01:00

If you still believe that social networking is only for the digital natives … fasten your seatbelt: 5 weeks ago I introduced my father to social networking. I somehow forced him into it as I refused to provide any more family pictures by e-mail, instead setting up a group in Facebook. I was hoping to get him to use social networking to stay in contact and keeping him updated on my travels or family activities. I even got him David Weinberger’s book “Everything is Miscellaneous” as a Christmas present so he’d finally understand what my job is.

To give you some background, my dad is a great business man, running his own little business. Starting it from scratch, he’s making a good living based on hard work, a true entrepreneurial spirit and a healthy cautious view of the world. His business has nothing to do with the Internet and he wouldn’t even need a computer other to check his e-mail and to run his 199$ accounting software (I think he is the only German that doesn’t run SAP).

So we leave Christmas and a day later - checking my e-mail - I see an invite to a German Facebook-equivalent from my father. Not really paying attention I accepted and forgot about it. Tonight I checked again and he has 99 friends there. Can you believe this? He adds 2 friends a day … by the end of the year, he’ll have more than 700 friends and given his age advantage (he knows way more people than I do) I might never catch him on that.

What do we learn from that? Never underestimate your parents … if you can do it, they can do it! By the way, he still calls me for updates and asks about the family and you know what ... I am going to call him tomorrow :-)

Autonomy begräbt WCM Markt

2009-01-27T22:28:00.001+01:00

Als Autonomy die Übernahme von Interwoven veröffentlichte entbrannte eine Diskussion darüber was dies für Interwoven bedeutet. Es war wirklich interessant zu sehen wie sich einige WCM Spezialisten darüber freuten, dass der vermeintliche Fokus der kombinierten Einheit weniger auf WCM sein würde. Auf CMS Wire finden sich einige sehe interessant Statements.

Aber wird es zukünftig einen eigenständigen WCM Market geben? Zwei der drei größten WCM Angebote sind mittlerweile Teil von grossen ECM Firmen (Autonomy, Open Text). Ich würde sogar behaupten, dass der größte Marktanteil in WCM mittlerweile bei den grossen ECM Anbietern ist. Wenn dies stimmt, sehen wir vielleicht sogar die lange erwartete Konsolidierung des gesamten Marktes.

So wer kommt als nächstes? Oder besser wer ist der Letzte? Denn, wenn der Markt konsolidiert möchte niemand allein zurück bleiben ...

Autonomy terminates the WCM market

2009-01-27T19:50:00.011+01:00

When Autonomy announced to acquire Interwoven the discussion started about what will be the impact on Interwoven. What was interesting to see is that the pure-play WCM vendors celebrated this as a great opportunity to highlight the lack of focus on web solutions the combined business may or may not have going forward. Look at CMS Wire for some very interesting quotes.

But will there be a stand alone WCM market going forward? Two of the three largest WCM businesses are now part of greater ECM companies (Autonomy, Open Text) . I would even go one step further and claim that majority of the WCM market share is now with larget ECM vendors. If that holds true we might finally see the long expected market consolidate to happen.

So who is next? Well, I would rather ask the question: who is last? If the stand alone market is reaching an end you don't want to be the last one left ...

Web 2.0 tötet das mittlere Management

2009-01-01T22:29:00.000+01:00

Brad Anderson, CEO von Best Buy stellt in diesem Video vor, wie sie mit Web 2.0 echten Mehrwert geschaffen haben und welche Herausforderungen dadurch auf das Management zukommen wird.

Neben einige guten Beispielen trifft er sinngemäß die folgende Aussage:

"Das ist der Tot des mittleren Managements" (Anderson)

Das Management trifft gerne die Entscheidungen und es sieht ganz so aus als würde Web 2.0 dies auf den Kopf stellen. Wenn jeder seine Ideen ausdrücken kann und wenn jeder seine Meinung zu den Ideen anderer ausdrücken kann, wandelt sich die Aufgabe des Managements zum Moderator und Beschützer von Ideen. Die eigene Meinung des Management ist immer weniger relevant und es genügt auch nicht mehr nur "zuständig" zu sein. Management muss einen Mehrwert leisten, nicht nur kurzzeitig um auf einen Posten befördert zu werden, sondern kontinuierlich um eine Führungsposition auch halten zu können.

Das ist kein gänzlich neues Phänomen: In den 90' ging die Finanzbranche durch massive strukturelle Veränderungen, unterstützt durch aufkommenden Technologien. Vieles wurde zentralisiert und eine anonyme Finanzfabrik übernahm viele Entscheidungen. Der traditionelle Bankdirektor in der Filiale wurde bedeutungslos, verlor zunächst seine Privilegien (Golfclub, Tennisclub, Dienstwagen) und später sogar seinen Job. Ähnliches geschah in der Automobil- und Versicherungsbranche mit regionalen Manager.

Im Video kann man dies an einer weitere Idee sehen: Vorhersage durch die Massen (Crowd Forecasting). Best Buy bat ihre Mitarbeiter die täglichen Verkaufszahlen für jeweils einen Monat vorauszusagen. Anderson glaubt, dass der Erfolg dieses Projektes daraus resultiert, dass man damit das intime Wissen der Organization nutzt ohne es durch die Hierarchie zu verwässern. Er glaubt, dass Manager oft zu optimistisch sind und Problem zu lange verbergen bis es zu spät ist diese zu lösen.

Wenn dies ein Trend ist, fragt man sich, warum gerade wieder massiv Arbeitsplätze abgebaut werden aber die Managementschichten unverändert bleiben. Sollten wir in der aktuellen wirtschaftlichen Lage nicht neue Wege gehen? Noch einmal zurück zu dem Banking Beispiel: Die Manager die die Zentralisierung in den 90' durchgeführt haben, sind heute etwa Ende 50 und es wird interessant zu beobachten sein, ob sie aus Vergangenheit gelernt haben oder ob ihnen Web 2.0 eine Lektion erteilen wird.

Web 2.0 is murder on middle management

2009-01-01T16:27:00.003+01:00

Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy highlights in this video how they gained value with Web 2.0 and how this is challenging the management.

Among great examples he states:

"This is murder on middle management" (Anderson)

Management likes to make the decisions and it looks like Web 2.0 is flipping this around. If everybody can express an idea, and if everybody can express an opinion about an idea, management needs to be the moderator and protector of ideas instead of the owner. It is not enough anymore to be "in charge", managers need to add value and not just once to be promoted but every day to maintain their leadership position.

This is not a new phenomenon: During the 90' the banking industry went through a major structural change, supported by the rise of new technologies . Many decisions got centralized to teams of anonymous people in a banking factory. The traditional "banking director" of the local branch was obsolete. First they lost their privileges (Golf Club, Tennis Club, Company Car) and later even their job. The same happend in other industries like the regional managers in the automotive industry or the insurance sector.

In the video we can see this happening with a concept of crowd forecasting. Best Buy had their employees forecast the sales on a daily basis for a month in advanced. Anderson believes that the reason for being spot on with the results is that they used the insight of the organization without filtering it through the hierarchy. He believes that managers tend to be too optimistic or trying to hide issues too long until it is too late to fix it.

If this holds true, why do we see massive job cuts but very few reductions in management layers? Shouldn't we use the current economic climate to adopt new ways of running a business? Coming back to the banking examples: The middle management had too much too lose to support the change, but at the end lost it anyway. The managers that implemented the centralization and forced that change during the 90' are now in their late 50' and it will be interesting to see if they have learnt their lesson or if Web 2.0 teaching them one.

The return of the Jedi(s)

2008-12-08T19:48:00.002+01:00

It was the year 2008 and the corporate empire had terminated all innovation, fun and open ideas. Processes and rules dominated every corner of the universe for years and the dark lord of the SOX killed any idea that didn’t return margins within one quarter. Developers were under full control to avoid any creativity. There were no free beverages in the office, Pizza-Friday was a term only known by those that joined prior to the Aspirin-Wars and standard corporate coffee was mandatory in all locations.

Just when all fun seem to come to an end a small group stood up for those that had no voice, asked for the unthinkable, requested the impossible and started a project like never before. It was not a product, it was not a solution it truly was a movement. On the back of the last remaining hardcore developers and with the help of those that believed the pure joy of experience has true value, they spread out to all corners of the universe to find those that embraced the free flow of ideas, those that considered a failed idea to be the first step to an even better one and to those that were still carrying that beautiful spirit of innovation.

First there were only a few that supported the movement but more and more groups discovered that deep inside they still had this wonderful spark of innovation. Neither economy downturn nor cost cutting was able to stop them and the more people they reached the stronger the force was with them. Forming an alloy of technology, thought leadership and social networking they continued their march to a better world. We call this movement Bloom and I call all those involved true innovators.

The Four Expressions of Value in Content Management

2008-08-18T22:18:00.004+02:00

Every year the industry is waiting for the new reports from the research firms. One of the bigger ones, Gartner, has just released their WCM marketScope and we did extremely well. We scored among the top vendors and Gartner was very complimentary of our offering.

One thing that bothered me was the statement that we run "the risk of still emphasizing the high technical quality of its components and not moving enough toward linking its offering to the business challenges that can be solved with WCM." I am not questioning that the Gartner team has done a good job and that perhaps we are maybe too "techy":in our approach but hey, there is room to grow. So I took a group of smart people from the broader Open Text team to a nice cottage at one of those beautiful lakes North of Toronto. Whenever you need a break and you're looking for a place to clear your mind … get out to the lakes. The fresh air the clear water, some friends, some beers … brilliant. Anyway, we where sitting at the lake front and discussed the true value we can bring to the customer. One thing led to another and we came up with the four expressions of value in Content Management.

Control.

I know- why would a Web guy like me start with the most boring part of our business. Nobody likes control. Even the first comment I got on some of my posts summarized it quite nice: "…problems are uncool, risk is fun". But when you are the one in charge, you may like to add a little control to it.

Control is a real business value. From a Web perspective control is much more than an archive or a record, it is the foundation. Only if you can have your content come from any source of choice and need it to be in compliance with the applicable rules (like DOD, MoReq or DOMEA) than you get to like the idea of control. But it goes even further. You need to know when people post to your Web site and in a 2.0 environment, you may even want to add a validation layer to assure only appropriate content is posted. Yes my friends, even 2.0 requires control.

So what is the business challenge we solve with this? In many of the public facing sites you have content coming from multiple sources. We spent a huge amount of time and resources to build something that is called the library services. It is your interface into all your content, regardless which repository you use, Livelink, SharePoint, SAP, you name it. So we solved the problem many of our customers had, to fully leverage the knowledge they had already in their organization, while providing the required control to it. And the great thing is, talking a little technical, for most of those repositories we even have the enterprise level of control, our enterprise library services that is applying global records and other legal and regulatory requirements to it.

Experience

Of course this expression is my favorite. Experience is what the Web is all about. Look at some of our customers sites like Rolex, isn't that a piece of art. The pure joy of experience is complemented with the value experience is adding to it. After now 6 years of providing personalization we have found that an experience also needs to happen in context. Our customers, employees, partners live in a world where Web experience is expected. They shop on Amazon, access news sites from their iPhone. The expectation is that information will be delivered in context to them, the visitor, and content management provides that valuable experience our end-users demand.

Control & Experience the two door keepers of content. Consider Control and Experience as the two door keepers of content in any organization. Control is keeping things in order while experience is allowing the consumption. If you manage the two well you have made major progress. Two more to go.

Since I promised you four expressions of value, we have two more to go. While the first two Control & Experience are kind of easy, the next two are more complex. When you look at an organization you will find two ways to become more successful. You can concentrate on the people or you can concentrate on the process and we all know those are linked to each other. Let's start with the people.

Empower

The main value of content management in the context of people is that we empower them. Think about a room without air … a vacuum. Since sound waves need air to travel the entire room would be very very quiet. Now think of your organization without content … no e-mail, no webpage, no documents, nothing … well, while you may enjoy the first couple of days not working you soon will realize that the entire communication between people is based on sharing information … it is like the water in the water cooler. Without this life preservation element, you will die in a matter of days. There was an episode of a television series called the "Twilight Zone" where the world had been destroyed leaving one man alone with his favorite passion - reading. Standing outside the steps of one of the largest libraries in the world, he did not feel alone, since he had an eternity of knowledge at his disposal. Until he broke his glasses and found that what would have helped him to survive was gone. Information is at the core of our existence and the highlight of our evolution.

We are empowered by what we read, write about, share with our friends via texting, blogging, telephone, meetings or lunch conversations. Empowerment is the idea that we can have control of our communication style to create and consume the water that sustains us, expands our minds and brings excitement to our lives. Within the workplace, the method of communication is changing and the Web is at the core of that information exchange. Whether it is the employee directory or the marketing events list on the public Web page, creating, updating, sharing or removing this content easily, intuitively and on our schedule is where the empowerment value of content management is expressed.

Agility

Since you can't send the organization to the gym, you might find another way to add agility to your organization. Once you have empowered your people, we need to do the same with your processes. Once we have the processes "empowered", we have added a new level of agility to the organization. Traditional process management will look at how the process is defined, followed and updated. Wile we can streamline the process of creating, managing, updating and maintaining information to an online community or device, this is just one aspect of the business. Agility in a Web 2.0 world is about how outsiders view our output and how to better enable their usage of our internal processes. Look at the analytical tools applied to Web pages today. Do you know who is accessing your site, from which search engine or bookmark? Are they talking about you on a Google discussion or linked to you from their deli.cio.us site? Is your website easy to navigate on an iPhone or viewable from a Wii? Agility is how your content experts can interact with the information you provide and how well your Web site responds to the request. Imagine that you know where users click the most using a heat map generated view of your Web site. Would you change the way the page was layed out to better facilitate the navigation of the page - of course you would. The next question is how easy is it to change the layout? Agility in a content management system will let you rearrange the images, text and links on the page easily and quickly by those who are the least technical but most interested in the results.

Agility is the optimization of internal processes and tools that help your organization to realize the benefits of the other expressions of value we have discussed thus far. But more importantly, it is also about making it easy for the outsider to communicate with you. Do you allow any visitor to your website to leave a comment on an article or forum to make it more meaningful? Do you embrace this level of communication and learn from it? Imagine the total value of a solution that takes into account the controls in your organization, empowers the people who are responsible for the sharing of information and delivers an exceptional experience that fits into the way your organization works.

To be perfectly honest, we have been working on this for a while and the Gartner report was the perfect opportunity to launch it. Gartner is right; we need to be much more focused on the business value we provide to you. In fact it should be at the center of our thinking. Therefore, we'll make a radical change to the way we develop and deliver solutions to you.
We will focus on the four outlined expressions of value. Let me know your thoughts and ideas. Is there something that will help you to apply technology better and easier to a business case? Our innovation is with you in mind.

Experience Matters

2008-07-07T22:12:00.002+02:00

This week I enjoyed Independence Day in New York and while everybody went to the fire works I had a walk near Wall Street ..so you can imagine that I met close to nobody on the street. Thanks to public free wireless and my iPod Touch I came across an interesting post about a developer, called Sergey Solyanik, that has left Microsoft to work for Google and went back to Microsoft after one year.

So why would that matter to us? Well, the thing that made me start thinking was the blog he posted about why he left Google to go back to Microsoft. One major reason for him to leave was that "Software should be developed to be useful to others" … a statement that most of us woud agree to. He goes on and states "the only way to measure the usefulness is by the amount of money that the people are willing to part with to have access to my work." Although we might find that somewhat simplified .. it has some truth to it. In his blog post he goes further and positions Google as the producer of free, fun, unreliable, time wasting application that "values 'coolness' tremendously, and the quality of service not as much." Therefore he decided to leave Google to go back to Microsoft, the company that can deliver "enterprise class reliability to its user applications" as he values"reliability far, far more than 'coolness.'"

At that point all things made sense. Me in the middle of Manhatten, the Capital of the world, the home of hardcore bankers, the Yankees and the place where people pay a milion dollars for a one bedroom appartment. The city were people don't really care how you look, everthing is cool, everthing is celebrated and you if you walk throught the village you can feel that experience really matters. The fireworks of the independent day celebration reached it's peak and I was asking myself why do we need to chose? Can't we have both, the fun and the reliablility?

We at Open Text have our own little debate every day about the right balance (see my Aspirin & Candy blog) I often get asked how does this all fit together? How do you manage to sell the coolest experience through Web sites and 2.0 and at the same time provide archives and records management infrastructure. Well, I don't really know but what I can tell you is, that the internal debates we have about what is more important, or as Sergey states, what is more lucrative from a commercial perspective, are leading to a better understanding of the issues our customers face every day.

The answer is not about fun or reliability it is about fun AND reliability. Only if you build on a solid infrastructure everybody trusts, you will get the sign-off by the management team. But it also requires the experience in the form of an easy to use interface or a great experience on the Web to get the people excited and to embrace the solutions.

Coming back to the question about who is more reliable Google, that is basically providing beta versions only or Microsoft, that is providing a hotfix every other week? Well, following Sergey's advice we should look at the money. I did and according to Nasdaq.com Google is valued much higher per $ revenues they generate and Microsoft is making more cash. Maybe that is the answer to it: You drive your top line with the experience but you need to keep the cash in the house.

Candy & Aspirin in Action

2008-06-18T00:04:00.005+02:00

Feedback from the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston

I'd like to give you an update from my visit to the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston. It was a very inspiring experience and you could tell that the 2.0 wave in the enterprise is just about to start. As you know Enterprise 2.0 represents a core component of our strategy and therefore this was a major event for us. Even Tom Jenkins our Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer was joined us at the event and we had the opportunity to present a strategic workshop about the Open Text view on 2.0 which we named Candy & Aspirin in Action.

See details at http://www.enterprise2conf.com/

Everybody wants Candy ...

Most of us know the 2.0 wave from the consumer side, like Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube. If you take a closer look, many of the success factors for those platforms also apply to the Enterprise. Rich media, user generated content and social networking can be very powerful. Think about the intranet and how you can draw from the knowledge of the workforce by providing them a platform that is providing all the great features from the Web 2.0 world like blogs, forums, podcasts, wikis but also instant messaging or collaborative spaces. To illustrate the different aspects I consider this the Candy part of 2.0, the nice wrapped, sweet treat. In the workshop (just in real life) it was my job to present this to the audience.

... but organizations also need Aspirin

On the other hand, we need to be mindful about the legal and compliance implications related to this. All that social networking or the exchange of ideas and information can be tracked and followed. Senior management will be held responsible for any material information provided by an employee. Once is is digital, it can be discovered. Just like e-mail caused a lot of problems in the beginning we need to by aware that 2.0 content requires just as much compliance as any other content. This aspect represents the Aspirin part of 2.0, aka the risk avoiding, headache preventing and curing ingredient. Tom Jenkins took over this task and did a great job in highlighting that we only succeed if we make 2.0 safe.

The 2.0 Strategy

Those fundamental elements are playing a key role in the 2.0 world. Only a balanced approach between the the fun (Candy) and the compliance (Aspirin) allows you to really capitalize on the concept of 2.0. During my workshop one gentlemen asked us "what strategy we would recommend to approach 2.0" and you could tell by the looks in the room had the same question. I believe that the answer to this question goes back to the fundamental issue with 2.0: There is no 2.0 strategy! The new opportunities that come with the rise of social computing needs to be linked to business strategy.

New ideas supported

On a seperate note: You may recall my last post about the 2.0 University. We have taken the next step and sponsored a program that is called the Launch Pad Competition at the conference Boston. A large group of individuals and companies took the opportunity to submit videos of their planned or existing products to compete for most to creative new offerings. The 5 finalists had the opportunity to present their ideas to the entire community at the conference. I had the opportunity to meet the five teams prior to the presentation back stage and it was great to see the excitement and dedication that went into their projects.

My conclusion from the conference is that 2.0 will happen and we all should be ready for it. It will be both fun and hard work. I am certainly going to continue to invest my time and interest in this space and will continue to update you along my journey.

Back to School - The 2.0 University

2008-06-09T23:33:00.002+02:00

Centre of Research

You may have seen that we, together with the University of Waterloo, are creating the Leading Institute for Web 2.0 and Digital Media. Our idea is to unite students, educators and professionals in research and innovation. It's location in the arts community of Stratford will bridge the worlds of business, art and the Internet. In addition to the funding & technology we will provide our, executives and thought leaders as contributing faculty, sharing their experience in the classroom.

Maybe soon you'll come to one of my classes … or I come to one of yours as customers & partners are also invited to participate. I am looking forward to that.

Before we get started, let me quote Tom Jenkins our Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer as I like the way he is summarizing the idea: "From Facebook to YouTube to Wikipedia, we are witnessing a revolution in the way consumers socialize, share knowledge and harness collective intelligence. But we've only just begun. There's enormous potential to build on what's been created so far, and apply these new technologies to business, government and culture in new and exciting ways."

The "we've only just begun" is my favorite part as I really believe we're up for something big here. If you'd like to read the entire release you may want to look at www.opentext.com/news/pr.html?id=2031

Why back to school

I have been asked why we are going back to school, why do we invest in something that is not directly leading to a better margin in the next quarter. I gave the answer already: we just begun! As much as we all love to be the thought leaders, posting strategic press releases and claim that we know about everything … there is so much more to come.

And that is why we are investing in the future of social computing …to enhance our knowledge and nurture innovation within the space. Sure we have the technology, we have the products and we have customers that use those products successfully. But we want more. Why is all of that happening, what are the drivers behind that idea and how can we capitalize on this? We are committed to also work on that.

The concept behind the Open Text Centre of Research is fairly simple. We want to commercialize on the new technologies that are going to be developed and continue to lead this market. The combination of educational power and innovation combined with the market focus of our company is what makes this initiative so unique. We leverage the dynamic environment at the crossing of creativity, technology and people.

So we believe getting back to school is needed. Let's find out what the next wave is going to be. What about 3.0 or 4.0 or 17.0? How is rich media evolving and how are we dealing with the growing requirements, what comes after AJAX or RSS, will there be hologram projectors, what role will the mobile device play?

I was attending a boot camp style opening event at the Stratford Institute some days ago. I had the opportunity to explain RSS feeds to a member of the University community that has never seen anything like that. While for many of us this is trivial it was amazing to see what happens once you have passed the pure technical aspect. We had long conversation about distributed information, how to get people better communicating and how that will change the future of our daily life.

Stratford is known for its famous festival (http://www.stratford-festival.on.ca/). During the meeting Tom Jenkins made the comment that in a near future we may see the play of Romeo and Juliet happening online with actors being in different locations. Almost like a mash-up you'll see related content appear like one play although it comes from different source.

Googlization of ECM? or The Borg Take Over

2008-04-27T02:10:00.002+02:00

Did you see Google announces its entry in the WCM space? Google Sites “that makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document”. Didn’t we hear something similar some ten years ago? Right, about ten years ago a little company now called RedDot (for which I am happy to make as much marketing as possible) introduced SmartEdit, the most intuitive and easy to use environment to change the web. While the word tag-line didn’t exist at the time, there tag-line was “everybody can change the web”. Looking back they actually invented something what would be called web 2.0 today… everybody can change the web.

But enough with the marketing, back to Google and their hunger to assimilate as much of our techy life as possible. First they introduced search, than apps and now sites. Will they take over the world, well maybe not today but it is just a matter of time, maybe. But let’s see what their true target is: maybe Microsoft. Just when our friends in Redmond thought they are back in the game with the acquisition of FAST, they got googlized again. Google sites is a full attack against Sharepoint.

But even that seems to be a more tactical goal, there is more behind it. Read their mission: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Well that sounds great and wouldn’t we all like to have our information accessible and useful. While most of us would agree, I found a similar summary the other day: “they want to raise the quality of life”. No, that is not the Google mission statement, it is a quote from the Borg a “A cybernetic life-form thousands of years old which is part organic, part artificial life.” The Borg have a singular goal, namely the consumption of technology, rather than wealth or political expansion as most species seek. If you replace technology by information and replace Borg by Google ….

Are we all about to be information-assimilated or easier googlized?