According to reports in today’s WSJ, social networks are beginning to show important return on investments. For example:
Hospital network Texas Health Resources has reduced the incidence of hospital-acquired urinary tract infections by 30% thanks to the use of collaboration software.
Tyco was able to win a huge contract thanks to information gleaned through its social network that had previously taken an employee six months to search for without any luck.
The Red Robin restaurant chain was able to share customer feedback on a new product vital to the success of its new strategy among managers and assistant managers at its 465 locations.
Companies continue to find creative and innovative ways to connect their employees and customers using social technology. The days of CEOs and CIOs being wary of social utilities in the workplace are quickly fading in light of metrics that show real business results.
The social business workflow is based on people being able to connect, communicate and share information more efficiently. Collaboration platforms such as Jive, Salesforce.com, and others have not been flexible enough to properly support the rapid transformation to mobile that is occurring in the workforce.
But there are some bright lights on the horizon. At its annual gathering in Las Vegas this month, Jive introduced an extension to their social business platform called Jive Present.
Jive states that “…it’s become a business imperative that teams have an easy, intuitive and controlled way to receive information and leverage social tools to interact with the right content and people. With Jive Present, organizations now have a powerful tool accessible anytime and anywhere.”
Since mobile devices, especially tablets, are entering the business workflow faster than any technology device ever, it’s imperative that companies keep their mobile workers connected to their internal networks. One of the biggest challenges that CIOs face is ensuring that their mobile workforce can seamlessly access important data while keeping that data secure.
By extending their platform beyond the desktop companies like Jive will offer more relevant solutions for collaborating. It’s about time that the burgeoning mobile workforce has the ability to collaborate regardless of their location.
With Halloween less than a week away, this weekend will likely be a big hit amongst costume, candy and party lovers. When you’re out and about celebrating, don’t forget to check-in to your favorite location based application.
Foursquare launched a series of badges, pictured below, that encourage users to check-in to the Halloween festivities they participate in. In order to receive a badge you need to wish friends “Happy Halloween” when checking-in and are welcome to share a picture while rocking out Gangnam Style, showing off your Katniss inspired look or any other costume you choose to wear this year. The company is also offering an extra treat if more than 10 friends check-in together at one location.
Although not all users are incentivized purely by pretty badges, those that are will enjoy the latest additions to their badge collection over the next few days. Have a safe and happy Halloween!
It’s probably not that often that you’ll hear about politicians or traditionally non-tech influential leaders joining up with a company here in Silicon Valley. I mean, it’s not that it’s unheard of but it’s not very common. For politicians, typically you’re going to hear of them going to consulting firms or even lobbyists in Washington, DC. However, it looks like big-time venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has snagged two major policy leaders within the past couple of years.
Announced today, the firm picked up the consulting services of former Washington, DC mayor Adrian Fenty. The one-time mayor of the nation’s capital will join the firm as a special advisor where he will most undoubtedly use his expertise in policy, governance, and disruption to help startups better broach the mainstream and become better recognized by the government. As stated by Margit Wennmachers on managing partner Ben Horowitz’s blog, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, Mayor Fenty’s uncanny ability to disrupt an age-old system in the nation’s capital have given him an iconic image of being a reformer and has led him to unheard-of success. In addition, he was the first in the city to spur technological innovation by finally opening up the city’s data and encouraging developers to create useful apps that would help save the city thousands, if not millions, of dollars, and create a better District for all its citizens.
One of the hottest songs to hit the airwaves over the past few weeks is not something you think would become mainstream. “Gangnam Style“, a song with a rocking beat by the South Korean artist, Psy, has become such a sensation, it’s even been performed by Psy himself on the Today Show during their Toyota concert series. After more than 215 million views on YouTube, this pop sensation has definitely opened itself up to a myriad of spoofs and parodies, including this Chatroulette version and the creative wedding version.
Being here in the tech capital of the world, I suppose it was only a matter of time that it would become a huge hit…and the community definitely did not disappoint.
Organized by Refer.ly co-founder, Danielle Morrill, the startup community put together their own version of “Gangnam Style” and today it was released to the world for everyone to see. It’s a mish-mash of footage from both people who videoed themselves doing the dance and also when Mrs. Morrill’s camera crew went around town collecting footage. But just who in the tech world would best portray the indomitable spirit of Psy? There are obviously a few good choices, but in the startup parody, it actually was a bunch of different people just having fun doing the horse-riding dance and everything else.
