Ten enterprise social media predictions for 2010

It's a good time to look to the future and make some predictions on how technology and social media will influence the way we work in 2010 and into the new decade. In general terms, use of social media within the firewall will expand hugely in 2010 and begin to catch up with the huge growth that we've seen externally in the past two years. Social media is now an intrinsic part of marketing, PR and is seen increasingly in CRM with the focus very much on the consumer. 2010 will see more emphasis on the employee, who after all performs the external functions listed plus all the others in the enterprise, so there is plenty of scope for value to be created.

1) Whilst there is currently a split between traditional intranet platforms and social networks like Yammer and Socialtext, functions from both will merge to create social intranets. The majority of 'off the shelf' intranets will come complete with intelligent search, social networking, instant messaging, ratings, polls, blogs and wikis. Companies such as Odyssey and Intranet Connections are setting the pace and other platform providers will follow. Intranets will be more about 'the way of working' - collaboration and workflow, and less about communication from management to employees. In the same way that social networks are connecting outside the workplace, eg LinkedIn's recent tie up with Twitter, there will be increased integration amongst enterprise social networks and between enterprise social networks, intranets and other applications. An example of this is Yammer's integration with Microsoft Outlook. Integration will be aided by Salesforce release of the API for Chatter which will lead to many hooks ups with other vendors. The ready made market of around 70,000 Salesforce customers will also help spur the growth of enterprise social media throughout 2010.

2) They'll be a increase in mobile devices being used to access enterprise applications and the company intranet. There has been huge growth this year in mobile phone sales and in particular smartphones. This will continue into 2010 with IDC predicting that the number of mobile phones in circulation will reach 1 billion which will be close to the number of internet connected PCs at 1.3 billion. In the workplace the ratio of PCs to mobiles is big but in 2010 the gap will narrow. We are now at a stage - promised around 5 years ago in UK TV ads for WAP - where browsing the web is an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. We'll see intranet browsing, instant messaging and corporate apps for iPhone and Android, such as Yammer and meeting room booking apps. Mobile devices will become larger with popularity driven by Apple's new tablet PC. Gazing further into the crystal ball, e-readers will also make an appearance within the firewall.

3) Browser based working will become the norm with cloud computing taking over from internal server hosted applications. 2009 saw a renaissance for cloud computing with better security and improved usability and hosted services such as Taleo becoming more popular. Many of the new social intranets will be based on the web enabling people to work from anywhere there's an internet connection or via their smartphone. Employees will use their personal area on the intranet to store documents and files which will lead to a reduction in the use of shared drives and memory sticks.

4) Employees will increasingly resort to using their own gadgets and technology where companies don't provide them with what they need to work and communicate efficiently. Mobile devices and use of instant messaging tools are examples of this. With employers struggling to keep in house technology at the same level as consumer gadgets, we could see companies outsource some of their desktop and IT procurement to their employees.

5) Presence technology will become more widespread. The technology provides information on whether a person you might want to call or message is actually 'present' and ready to answer. For example, Office Communicator provides online, offline, busy and away indicators and Facebook Chat provides online, offline and idle status. Such indicators will be incorporated into the intranet and employee directory/social network applications and in company smartphone apps.

6) It's amazing how many internal applications still require separate sign on which is a real turn off for employees and a time waster. 2010 will be the year when you only have to login to your PC or through a web portal to gain full access to all network applications and systems. This one is not about new technology just the planning and effort to implement it.

7) 2010 will be the year of video in the enterprise driven by falling prices, increased availability of web friendly cameras and the increasing popularity of youtube. The Flip (affiliate link), plus recent entrants such as Samsung(affiliate link) to the market will drive corporate sales. There are several ways in which employees can make valuable and engaging use of video; eg for training, to record an event, to demonstrate the company culture and to solve problems.

8) Ask most employees what they dislike most about their intranet and the answer in most cases is, 'I can't find what I want' or variations on this. 2010 should see improvements in location of information for a number of reasons. Firstly, Google is regularly improving its search offering for the enterprise (Google Search Appliance). Secondly, intranet platform providers are including better quality search facilities in their products. Thirdly, the open nature of the social intranet will make people and information easier to locate. Fourthly, developments in intelligent search techniques will see most popular and context related documents automatically displayed for the user without the need for active searching. So for example, if you working on a bid document past case studies of the same and similar product or service will be displayed. Odyssey are offering this now and offers will follow. Fifthly, although perhaps this will be 2011 rather than 2010, similar enterprise applications to Goggles will see picture search being used to scan business cards, bar codes of stock and assets and perhaps eventually documents and people. Looking even further ahead, augmented reality combined with GPS could be used in a similar way to provide real time business information. Just run out of a component for a product? You could scan a supplier's business card and immediately view his current stock list, location and availability.

9) Existing employee directories as they exist now will disappear. Either they will morph into social networks complete with expanded profiles and status updates through in house development or they will be replaced with social network type applications that are built into 'off the shelf' intranet products.

10) Finally, most of the changes predicted above need a framework so that employees have guidance or what they should and shouldn't do with social media, new tools and technology. Therefore, we'll see an increasing number of companies producing social media policies or guidelines or incorporating them into existing HR and information security documentation. A US survey in July by Russell Herder and law firm Ethos Business Law showed that only a third of companies had such policies in place.

That's my take on the future of intranets, enterprise social media and related technology in 2010. Please comment below or get in touch and tell me what you think.