A colleague recently approached me and asked me which industry I thought would be best to sell social software to. He explains that in his region, he has a lot of customers in the education industry and they just didn't get it. I had a similar experience before and blogged about it. The question did take me by surprise, so I told him that I would think about it and then blog about it.
First, I had to figure out what were the industries out there. I found this list, but that was way too long. So then, I decided to look at our customer references and see which industries are covered. Here's a summary of them:
| Customer | Industry | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Bank of NY | Banking | Link |
| Imerys | Materials | Link |
| Film Foundation | Media | Link |
| Saxion | Education | Link |
| km.gov | Federal Government | Link |
| Sprint | Telecommunications | Link |
| -Contstruction Group- | Construction/Architecture/Engineering | Enhance collaboration / discover tacit knowledge faster |
| -Software Maker- | Computer Services/Consumer Products | Provide employees better access to company expertise |
| Retail | Link (Note: Updated 9/12/2008 to disclose name) | |
| University in Brazil in partnership with a college in FL | Education | Link (Note: Updated 9/12/2008 to add this row) Video (Note: Updated 11/5/2008 to add this row) |
| FAA | Government | Link (Note: Updated 12/13/2008 to add this row) |
| Aerospace / Automotive | Rheinmetall AG | Link (Note: Updated 5/8/2009 to add this row |
Of course, the list goes on, but I wanted to capture at least 1 example per major industry. As I keep reading about all of our references, some patterns evolve:
- Each industry has a unique need for social software
- Most seem to want to enable a better end-user experience
- Most want to improve collaboration processes, specially those with dispersed/mobile employees
So I don't think the question is valid. Seems to me like everyone needs social software. But who needs it more than others? My guess is that these companies need it more:
- Companies who need better ways to assemble teams allowing innovation and collaboration to happen
- Companies with a high-level of turnover or high-number of employees who will soon retire
- Companies with large number of dispersed and/or mobile employees
- Companies who would like to build customer and employee loyalty
- Attracting / Retaining Top Talent
- Improved Brand and Culture Experience
- Improving Workplace Diversity
- Better Access to and Location of Enterprise Knowledge and Expertise
- New Sources of Revenue
Do you agree? Did I miss something ?