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 ?
I fully agree! Most companies need social software, if not all. Some need more than others, as well as some are more mature and ready than others.
ReplyDeleteThinking of it, I can imagine a "Social Software Scale", where we could kind of measure an industry need for Social Sofware. Some factors could be used to define this scale, like the ones you listed and some others, more industry related like (1) dinamics of the industry, (2) number of direct competitors, (3) geographic area of influence.
For instance, the oil industry is less dynamic than the telecom industry... the banking industry is kind of global... and so on.
Hi Flavio! Thanks for stopping by. Hope things in Brazil are good! :)
ReplyDeleteI love your concept of the social software scale. Perhaps that's one of the first steps for a true social software ROI calculator ?