An Industry in Transition
Enterprise Systems have been undergoing several fundamental shifts in the past few years. First, they became ‘open’ with Service Oriented Architectures. Enterprise systems which were previously operating in silos were now being built with the precept of openness and ability to integrate with other applications and systems.
Then came the mobile revolution - an ongoing transformation from the PC era to a smart-phone and tablet led environment. Enterprise Apps now need to be accessible via mobile devices.
The Social Revolution
Here’s the next shift - Enterprise Apps are now 'Social'. Borrowed from the Facebooks and the Twitters, Enterprise Apps have acquired a social dimension to them. An early proponent of this was Yammer (acquired by Microsoft in 2012). Yammer was introduced as the Twitter for the Enterprise. With its open API, Yammer boasts of integration capabilities with enterprise systems such as SAP and Sharepoint.
Social going Enterprise mainstream
Inspired by Facebook, Twitter and of course, Yammer, Salesforce.com joined the Social party with the introduction of Chatter in 2010 - integrated tightly with the Salesforce CRM. And ever since its introduction, Salesforce has been aggressively marketing the 'Social Enterprise' or the 'Business is Social' concept. Stories such as Burberry, Toyota, Kimberly Clark and GE have been extraordinary adoptions of Social technology.
SuccessFactors (acquired by SAP) with its collaboration platform JAM, SAP with its OnDemand as well as IBM Connections and Workday have all followed closely.
Private Social Communities
Another dimension to the enterprise social shift are private, social communities for organizations and brands. Platforms such as Jive, Social Engine and Life Ray have made it possible for companies to create and grow both internal as well as public communities around products and brands.
The Magic
Quite fittingly, Gartner has just released research findings on its new Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the workplace.
Source: http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1CA1K5L&ct=121002&st=sg
Social as the new normal
While the effects and the effectiveness of Enterprise Social networks is hotly debated right now, the Social dimension seems to be the next shift in Enterprise Applications. It'll be interesting to watch the impacts this has on Software Development and the skills expected from IT Teams, Product Companies and Technology Services Vendors.
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