Social Platforms Catalyst For Collaborative Apps Mkt

According to International Data Corporation, business in 2010 has changed dramatically from the pre-social Web environment. The social Web has shifted customer, employee, supplier, and partner expectations and is shaping a fresh way of interacting. As interaction is redefining online relationships, innovative methods of communication and collaboration have emerged and trust takes on new importance.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) believes that social platforms, which experienced 55.9% year-over-year growth from 2008 to 2009, are quickly becoming a catalyst for the worldwide collaborative applications market.

“In a hyper-connected global business environment, competition is more unpredictable and the impetus for innovation is stronger as well,” stated Michael Fauscette, Group Vice President, Software Business Solutions, IDC. “Not only are market factors and dynamics different, but the people are also different.”

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In a new report, Social Business Framework: Using People as a Platform to Enable Transformation, IDC has put forth its view on the Social Business – a term IDC coined to refer to those organisations that apply emerging technologies, like Web 2.0, accompanied by organisational, cultural, and process changes, to improve business performance in an increasingly connected global economic environment.

“The social business recognises that people and businesses collaborate in different ways,” stated Erin Traudt, Research Director, Enterprise Collaboration and Social Software, IDC. “It enables a choice in communication methods among today’s workforce, where it is not the technology at the center of the conversation, but how people work and interact.”

The social business framework developed by IDC is designed to foster better communication, collaboration, and overall understanding of current market dynamics to decrease language barriers between vendors, customers and the broader industry.

According to IDC, the social business framework is made up of four key elements, which are critical to a social business transition and symbiotic in their relationship. As a practical matter, the process of implementing any social business initiative or project should follow these steps:

• Identify the market factors that are generating the need for change.
• Recognise the social objectives that you want to accomplish and why it’s important.
• Establish the social outputs that will be used to support the objectives.
• Determine which platforms, applications, and/or features will be needed to create the desired outputs