CMS Watch Traction Feed

A Scenario-based Approach to Evaluating Social Software

tbyrne@cmswatch.com(Tony Byrne) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:00:00 -0400

People talk a lot about the value of newer enterprise social tools like blogs and wikis, but what are you really trying to accomplish when you implement them? CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne suggests that you can understand enterprise social software requirements and vendor offerings through the prism of eleven common business scenarios. Identifying which scenarios are a priority for your enterprise, Byrne argues, is an essential step in any social computing strategy...

Talking about Social Software

tbyrne@cmswatch.com(Tony Byrne) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:04:00 -0400

I recently had a long and wide-ranging interview with IT Business Edge on the topic of Social Software technologies.

The intrepid reporter, Ann All, transcribed nearly the whole discussion verbatim -- a rarity these days! -- and something any analyst (well, at least this analyst) welcomes only with some trepidation, because you're never (I'm not) as articulate in a stream-of-consciousness chat than a well-considered article. For example, I was more harsh on SharePoint in the end than I intended to be. Anyway, the key points come through and I'm not complaining.

Ann also offers some interesting commentary here.

Look for more from us over the coming months on the topic of Social Software, in these pages and others...

Announcing the Enterprise Social Software Report 2008

tbyrne@cmswatch.com(Tony Byrne) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The full name is actually Enterprise Social Software Report 2008: Networking & Collaboration Within and Beyond the Enterprise. Enterprises are increasingly using social tools -- some new, some not so new -- within and beyond enterprise boundaries. As one side effect, those boundaries are increasingly blurring, even though vendors still find it difficult to satisfy both internal and external scenarios.

The report evaluates 20 Social Software vendors against eleven common scenarions, weighing in at about 400 pages. Turns out there are a lot of differences among vendors and approaches. The tools may espouse a light touch, but many of the architectures are far from trivial. Our media release today highlights just one potential challenge you may face implementing at an enterprise level: the general dearth of system services (like configuration management) across this space.

The report is available for pre-order today. Subscribers will receive their copy in a week or so when the official version gets burned out.