This the complete video of our panel discussion on Demystifying Enterprise 2.0 @ the Nasscom Product Conclave 2011.
I was also a volunteer and session manager.
The panel discussion was moderated by Vivek Paul (Kinetic Glue) and we had Vijay Doddavaram of Texas Instruments India, Gautam Ghosh (Brave New Talent) and me (Kreeo) on the panel.
Disclaimer: This
article is a piece of humor/satire on the impact of IT on humanity/society. I have taken some creative liberties to make
it interesting and to highlight some key aspects of our evolution with IT in a
story telling format. Idea is to see
things in retrospect and provide some food for thought as we move ahead to
define the future course. Key point is
that things certainly need to change and change for global good and
sustainability.
Starring
H
Humanity
Big C
Capitalism/Capitalists
Huge M
Money
eC
Electronic Computer
S
Software
W
Web
I
Information
Social M
Social Media
C
Communication
oldE
Entertainment
New E
Earn
K
Knowledge
Real M
Mother Earth
The story so far
We as Humanity created a big C – Capitalism whose basic premise was to create huge Money($$$). More than half a century back H influenced by the big C created a new type of C – the eC (electronic Computer). In older times computer used to be people who
could compute complex things, as we wanted to compute at the level and scale not
possible by humans, so a small part of H
and decades of research and evolution created the eC, this minority of H were
basically all big Cs.
The eC could not work without
Software, so a lot of H started creating S to use them across industries so that we as humans could do less
work, do new things without thinking about their other effects and create a
world run by machines that gets bigger and bigger. We created many big Ss for the Enterprise (part of big
C themselves) like OS, Office, ERP, CRM, SCM, KM, BI with multiple copies as
open or proprietary and got them implemented in every organization. The rulers
of S in Enterprise are Microsoft and Oracle.
S was just the start we
then created Web(Internet), the mother
platform that was fathered by Tim Berners Lee and it created something called
as “Information/html pages”, in its
first 10 years it started to become a clutter like a haystack due to rapid
growth of I in the form of billions
of webpages across millions of websites.
“The W caught the imagination of H”
Some people started working to bring order and many kept working on
growing the haystack, but eventually Google
mastered how to discover from it and Hotmail created a mass market that gave people the power
to communicate/share with anyone, anywhere and anytime.
In the next 10 years it got influenced primarily by Wikipedia, Blogger, Youtube, Myspace , Linkedin and Twitter which
multiplied the power of H by giving
yoU the power to publish I and connect globally as one Society
and created a revolution called social Media.
W is also powered by some S and is currently ruled by Google , and Facebook is the new
challenger.
In the early stages of W, like
kids we used W mainly for ICE (Information Communication
and Entertainment(old E)) and most players again like kids
went after mainly C&oldE because
that is what motivated most users and could help big C make huge M.
But now it is more like ICE TE
(read iced tea), with added power to Transact and Earn (new E) from it. C &
old E still rule the W while the
C evolved beyond old and grew to be
“Collaboration” and “Collective” as well. It is still largely for the purpose of
and focused on old E but many
started to use it for the new E also.
“The W got enabled with the expression and
participation of its consumers, as Users became prosUmers the W became
Democratic.”
We had already put a lot of silo Ss
in Enterprise but we were still not satisfied and also realized we wish to do
even less as humans because while doing less work manually we created a new
type of work involving eCs and W.
We further started integrating the silo Ss in companies and also use the W to run it and integrate as the power of eC multiplied following Uncle Moore’s law.
W kinda revolutionized H by empowering it to connect and share
I and possibly create meaningful Knowledge and drive global change for
good, but we the H, overwhelmed
ourselves with C & old E by
giving in to big C.
The H is not yet satisfied
with their blind following of the features in Ss and on W, it is
working hard by killing
precious productive time to make them a phenomenon and fad. In last 2
decades, H using the W made and burnt trillions of $$$, the big C grew business which gave us huge
salaries to go and buy what we ourselves produced as a collective, in the
process we screwed up ourselves by forgetting our real Mother (earth) and burning all the $$$ to make real M suffer more for our pleasures
and laziness to work/compute.
Majority of H did it without
knowing that it will change our lifestyle in such a way that our new needs will
make Healthcare, Insurance, Spirituality and Going Green as big industries which
the big C will grab again and use
the W and S to make huger M.
We created healthcare and insurance as big industries but again forgot
that they will never be sufficient to save
real M ever and with no real M
there will be no H, then what will
the big C do with the huge M? when there won’t be any A… left to use it even as a toilet
paper.
----------to
be continued----------
I hope you found it worth a read.
Do share your feedback in comments. Based on your suggestions I’ll
improvise the Part II where I wish to share some thoughts on the future.
Continuing our#NASSCOMPCinterview series with speakers, today we share Sumeet Anand’s thoughts. Sumeet Anand will be at#NASSCOMPCand will beDe-mystifying Enterprise 2.0with his companionsGautam Ghosh,Vivek PaulandVijay Doddavaram.Do you scratch your head when you are thrown with jargons such as social business, internal social networks, etc? Well frankly speaking I did but not any more. After an hour long discussion with Sumeet Anand, Founder of Kreeo, I was at ease with Enterprise 2.0. And I am sure you will also gain some clear idea about Enterprise 2.0 after you have read this interview.
1. Hi Sumeet! Thanks for talking, as the Founder of Kreeo we would love to know bit about Kreeo and what’s keeping you busy?
Thanks Prasant. For a decade I have been associated with e-learning, knowledge management and analytics as an IT consultant in organizations such as Satyam, NIIT, etc. Apart from this, I always had the dream to be an entrepreneur and after a few failures to start up, I finally got all pieces intact with Kreeo. Kreeo is an Enterprise 2.0 platform which is like the next generation of Knowledge Management and collaboration.
The journey of last 4 years with Kreeo has been quite exciting. As a bootstrapped startup we went through all ups and downs like other startups. During this time I was well supported by Hemant Srivastava who is a Co-Founder of Kreeo. Today we are serving some of the bigger names in the Indian industry like Standard Chartered Bank, AppLabs etc.
Today the biggest challenge for us is scaling up the sales effort, which keeps me busy all the time.
2. The market has quite a few competitors for Enterprise 2.0. So what is the USP of Kreeo to attract customers?
Enterprise 2.0 is a space that is getting too crowded with players like LinkedIn, Google, etc. also entering or planning to enter besides the traditional vendors like Oracle, IBM, MS etc. However, our USP is that we have built a product that is aligned to business needs and is designed to solve real problems through social computing rather than just force fitting features. Being in the industry for quite a number of years in the Knowledge management space and have done award winning work, I am very well aware of the challenges that are often faced by businesses going the traditional way. Kreeo’s contemporary technology, architecture and design are its backbone. For e.g. it gives a flexible and intelligent way of storing and organizing information thus makes information discovery simpler and intelligent. It also helps in creating unified content/knowledge bases and avoids getting information unnecessarily split across silos of wikis, blogs, forums etc. Traditional systems still work on legacy architectures and are evolved incrementally but Kreeo is designed for social computing and from scratch the way it should be done today. With Kreeo, customers can do it all on their own without needing much help from the vendor and without much training.
However, like every product Kreeo too has its own set of challenges like to evolve and keeping that in mind we have built Kreeo as a unified product with a NoSQL database and platform capabilities to provide our customers with the power and flexibility to evolve with least total cost of ownership(TCO) that they don’t get with traditional vendors. In near future, we are moving to hybrid databases with our latest version and that will really scale up Kreeo in the Enterprise 2.0 segment. I believe besides technology our complete solution approach (services+customizations) will always be the biggest USP of Kreeo.
3. You represent one of the speakers in the Nasscom Product Conclave where you would be sharing your thoughts on de-mystifying Enterprise 2.0. Can you share in brief what the discussion is about?
Yes I am part of this talk, I will be managing/moderating the session and I will be sharing the dais with Vivek Paul, Gautam Ghosh and Vijay Doddavaram.
The so called gurus and the pundits of the industry have coined a plethora of similar meaning jargons like Enterprise 2.0, social business, internal social networks etc. that has confused the market. I and my fellow speakers will try to demystify this space and bring out the real meaning of E2.0. With this we would tell what the crux is and how Enterprise 2.0 is different from the traditional methods of collaboration and knowledge sharing and how businesses can apply it.
I also feel that adoption of Enterprise 2.0 in India is going to be a challenge. If you have the culture in your company then it will be fine but if you haven’t then you will need lot of help from HR and that is where Gautam Ghosh will share his thoughts and experience.
So as an Indian business, if you are excited about Enterprise 2.0, it is great but to make it work you have to be ready for the change.
4. Although we have seen Indian businesses adopting Enterprise 2.0 but we still have lot of gaps. What do you think are the challenges in implementing Enterprise 2.0?
As discussed in my earlier answer, along with adoption there are some more challenges for Indian businesses which could be listed as follows:
1. Cultural Challenge: Mindset has to change if you are going to implement Enterprise 2.0 in your organization.
2. Education and Awareness: This is a challenge and lot of work needs to be done here too. Saying that off late I have seen there has been change and I have seen early adopters too.
3. Finally India is still not ready for the SaaS way. MNC’s are not ready to put all their data setup on the cloud and SME’s wish to enjoy free services. Hence monetization from SaaS is a big challenge in India today.
5. In your opinion how does the future look like for Enterprsie2.0 from an Indian perspective?
India is definitely a good market and that’s one of the reasons why we are presently concentrating in the Indian market only. The economic conditions are far better if you compare with the European market. Enterprise 2.0 will be easier to sell if the offerings are business oriented and value proposition is strong, it needs to be realized by the customers as a “must have” rather than a “good to have” stuff.
Solutions that will sell easily will need to add value to the end customers of the enterprise. E2.0 is not a fad but the biggest opportunity for companies to generate competitive advantage through innovative application of this concept in their business. One size fits all is not the way to innovate, companies must innovate and then adapt the concept before applying to their business.
6. Finally, Nasscom Product Conclave is one of the events that is harnessing the Indian startup community. What would be your advice to the young entrepreneurs and why shouldn’t they miss this event?
Nasscom product conclave is one of the best places to be at if you are an Indian entrepreneur for the following reasons:
1. Get real insights from veterans, gurus, and fellow entrepreneurs.
2. Get real exposure and insights on the Indian market.
3. And definitely a good opportunity to network with potential customers, investors and peers.
I was fortunate enough to get introduced to Standard Chartered Bank at a NASSCOM event who later became our first MNC customer. So if you are an Indian entrepreneur, then you definitely got to be at the NASSCOM Product Conclave.
A few words of advice to entrepreneurs:
“Today, everything conventional is challenged, so try and not apply conventional wisdom, rather think from scratch and innovate.” Challenge the status quo and solve problems not just of today but tomorrow.
“Entrepreneurship is not about part time but lifetime” so don’t moonlight for long take the plunge and start your journey because “an idea is like a baby, easy to conceive but painful to deliver.”
Thanks Sumeet! Enterprise 2.0 should be the way and I think that it would be the way going further. Even though with the present set of challenges that Sumeet has listed, I am positive. Aren’t you excited about Enterprise 2.0? Or are you bogged down with the present set of challenges?
The Red Herring editorial team selected the Finalists for the 2011 Red Herring 100 Asia Award. This group of companies is the short list for the Top 100 Asia award. They are the most innovative companies from a pool of hundreds from across Asia. The Finalists are evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and disruption into their respective industries.
One last step remains before the Top 100 are selected - a live presentation at the Red Herring Asia Forum in Hong Kong on October 17-19. After this final stage in the vetting process, the 2011 Top 100 Asia will be announced at a special award dinner on October 19 at the event.
Gamification is the use of game design techniques and mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences. Typically gamification applies to non-game applications (also known as "funware"), particularly consumer-oriented web and mobile sites, in order to encourage people to adopt the applications. It also strives to encourage users to engage in desired behaviors in connection with the applications. Gamification works by making technology more engaging, and by encouraging desired behaviors, taking advantage of humans' psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, or reading web sites.
Gamification can be the potential answer to the challenges faced in driving the adoption of enterprise collaboration software or new genration Enterprise 2.0/Social business software. Though it may motivate people for wrong reasons, so we need to be careful of the pitfalls and design the gamification model carefully.
Attrition rate continues to remain a worry for businesses across industry. There are many initiatives that companies have launched to check attrition.
Methods such as reward and recognition, identifying people who could go the resignation way through various kinds of systems that send warning signal to HR and Operations, attrition targets (not to exceed a certain percentage) for project managers, career management and other similar initiatives have now been institutionalized.
These methods have met with varying degree of success and continue to be regarded as crucial. Along with these systemic methods where empirical data is used to check the health of company from the people management perspective, we should now look at some rather ‘social’ and ‘networking’ ways of managing people and attrition.
The desire to connect and share has never been as it is today. With social networking becoming the norm andsocial media becoming ubiquitous as it has, companies and institutes should shun the apprehensions and create in-house social networks for it makes employee ‘meaningfully’ connect with each other. These in-house social networks will help retain employee in two distinct ways.
Firstly, the young workforce moves and thinks in groups and people love to work where they have formed deep relationships. In-house social networks play a big role in creating these meaningful connections, associations and relationships.
It also provides unique, simple and smart space for social expression within the organization. CXOs should take note of this change and realize that people do it anyway and often share problems they face at work and ask for a solution in the wider open web. Now if you can’t stop people from doing that why not use the opportunity by providing a social platform of your own and derive benefits that it offers.
Secondly, in-house social network will not just increase the social interaction and form deeper relationships among people; it will also generate a body of knowledge around various topics and subjects that people discuss across the ecosystem.
This, if managed well, will turn into a huge and evolving corporate institutional memory. There are solutions already in the market that offer these features and more. Also, information people can’t find within the organization can be pulled in using the external search engines.
If people start to communicate better, help each other solve problems and learn from each other within the boundaries of an in-house social network, it will add to their overall learning. And learning, which often gets ignored as it is still seen as something to do with training by most corporate leaders, is the second most important factor influencing retention after salary.
Hence, social software and in-house social network is an effective retention tool in the wake of high attrition rate across the industry. There are many companies taking this path. But it is yet to become a trend and the solutions being offered often lack comprehensiveness and agility, and people lose interest when they don’t get what they expect from a social network.
The IT heads and CTOs are stuck with a host of legacy software solutions that fail to match up to the benefits offered by the Enterprise 2.0 and other social computing technologies. A lurking fear of social media also sometimes plays heavily on the minds of business leaders.
This should go. We should also be very careful not to confuse the required social software solution with sundry intranet groups and platforms that we see in companies today.
