Enterprise Social Network: Keys to a Successful Deployment

There’s no longer any need to prove the success of public social networks, whose use is now integrated into everyone’s daily lives. That’s why many companies are also looking to use these communication tools in their work environment. Inspired by public social networks, Enterprise Social Networks significantly improve internal communication and business collaboration. The enterprise social network is a good way to create connections and exchanges between employees and across hierarchical levels. Every company has its own challenges and therefore its own reasons for implementing an internal collaborative platform. Whatever the reason, the company must follow 4 key phases in the deployment of its ESN to ensure it is truly effective, that employees adopt it, and that performance increases as expected.

1. It is essential to go through an INDISPENSABLE phase of planning
2. Then, communicate and launch the project to the relevant employees
3. Then you need to keep the network active and engage its users
4. Finally, to be able to reap the results and benefits obtained

PHASE 1: AN ESSENTIAL PLANNING STEP BEFORE LAUNCHING YOUR ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORK

Identify the need or problem

Implementing an Enterprise Social Network must address internal needs and challenges. It’s not about acquiring a “trendy tool”. With this mindset, you’re heading for failure. First and foremost, ensure there’s a real need for an ESN in your organization and that the uses you envision are truly necessary. You need to determine:

• Why implement an ESN?
• Where does the need come from? Is it a need expressed by specific departments for their particular organization? Or is it a need expressed by Management? In the latter case, you need to ensure with the various departments and business units that there are relevant uses for them.

Set up a planning workshop to create your specifications

Hold one (or more) planning workshop(s) or a meeting with the people concerned by the tool’s use in their department (executives, department heads, project managers, managers). These people will become your ‘launch team’. During this meeting:

• Clearly define the benefits of an ESN for the company and for employees. Everyone should express what they would like to do with the ESN, their objectives (motivate, build connections, collaborate, etc), the priority features and desired ones.
• Describe the results you expect and rank them by priority.
• Determine exactly who will be members of the platform, and who will have administrator access.
• Then establish a specifications document summarizing all this information. Your specifications document should not be too ‘technical’ but should rather outline the needs, the business units concerned, and the objectives you wish to address.

Important! You must clearly determine who will be a member of your internal social network: will it be all employees of the company? Or only a few specific departments / a very specific group? Indeed, despite what can be seen in some companies, be aware that a collaborative tool does not necessarily have to involve all employees. On the contrary, in large companies, it is sometimes recommended to implement an ESN only for certain populations with specific business challenges.

A generic ESN carries a risk: business uses and information become too diluted, and no one truly finds it relevant in their daily work. You can therefore decide, for example, to implement the tool only for the R&D department or solely for the sales department. Acting this way will make communication on the platform more relevant and each person’s ‘business’ interest much stronger. In summary, your internal network must address a population with a key stake to be more effective and for members to adopt it more easily.

Provide them with a tool that helps them do THEIR job more efficiently. It is sometimes even better to implement several platforms rather than a single platform for all employees. Here are concrete examples of ‘business’ objectives and features related to implementing an enterprise social network:

• Distribution Network : “Strengthen ties with distributors, whom we see very little. Maintain a constant connection and promote our products to the distributor’s sales representatives.” See the case of our client Yara France.
• Marketing/Sales: “Break down silos between marketing and sales: streamline the flow of materials and information between marketing and sales, encourage field feedback, help sales reps sell better, and improve competitive intelligence sharing.”
• HR or Internal Communication: “Create connections between employees and the company, accelerate communication, create a true company directory and a modern collaborative intranet where company members can find all important information and news wherever they are.”
• Legal Department : “Create a legal monitoring tool so that everyone can add the results of their personal monitoring and field information.”
• Sales: “Motivate and stimulate my sales teams by challenging them and tracking their results: foster competition among my sales force, track results, adapt objectives, and drive sales.”
• Marketing: “Foster collective intelligence by providing an internal platform for speaking up and proposing ideas, leveraging the skills and knowledge of each employee, encouraging the sharing of best practices, and surveying employees on certain topics.”
• R&D: “Improve the productivity and efficiency of the R&D department by collaborating more effectively: work together on projects through dedicated spaces, stop cumbersome email systems, and allow everyone to propose their ideas and innovations.”
• Marketing/Sales: “Improve the impact of our training: create spaces to disseminate information, materials, quizzes, and keep knowledge alive.”
• Sales: “Facilitate the development and transformation of my sales team: train my sales representatives on new processes, answer any questions and difficulties, and support change.”

It is necessary to address a business challenge for the implementation of an Enterprise Social Network to make sense. With the Incenteev collaborative platform, you can, for example, decide to target your marketing and sales departments by using features specific to these business units, such as organizing and running a sales challenge, administering quizzes to check skills, dedicated spaces for field feedback, etc.

Choose a provider capable of supporting you in your Enterprise Social Network implementation

It is preferable to opt for a solution that is easy to integrate into the work environment and your organization. Also prefer providers who can offer support. Incenteev, for example, offers support throughout the project, and even during this planning phase: planning with your launch team, brainstorming, conducting field surveys, etc. Incenteev supports you through all the fundamental steps for the success of your ESN project.

Draft the usage policy

You must then define a usage policy. This policy is necessary because, although an ESN is often a simple-to-use platform, it is a tool that changes working methods. Be careful not to create strict regulations that could discourage users. This document should rather be presented as a guide that will motivate them: explain how to use the platform, what it’s for, best practices, and the various features available. Also reassure users about the security of data transmitted on the tool and be transparent!

Prepare the deployment of your ESN

Prepare your communication plan and the means to engage members. We will revisit the different communications to use during launch phase 2. Create the project schedule using Gantt, Excel, or Google Calendar: Create a simple reverse schedule including the launch date, necessary communication actions (e-mailings, print, events, etc.), manager training, and any work meetings. You can now deploy your Enterprise Social Network project, for which there are best practices to follow. Find Phase 2: Launching the Enterprise Social Network Project on our blog.