Is the Facebook imperative really so great for Corporate America?
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff has been pounding the table that enterprise software should be more like Facebook. Does Corporate America really want or need this so-called "Facebook imperative"?
Benioff sure hopes so since he's selling Chatter, this Facebook for the enterprise creation that Salesforce.com hopes will nuke Microsoft's SharePoint and Lotus Notes. ZDNet's Dion Hinchcliffe, our one-man enterprise 2.0 think tank, says the social business software movement is gaining increased urgency.
First, let's sum up Benioff's enterprise Facebook tour.
On Salesforce.com's earnings conference call last week Benioff said:
The reality is that’s the very premise that we started Salesforce.com on. It was just about 11 years ago when we asked ourselves the question why is all enterprise software not as easy to use as Amazon.com. No software to buy, no hardware to buy, nothing to install or upgrade or maintain. When companies like Microsoft now 10 years later, which have the most to lose from the declined software finally embrace cloud computing, you know there is no doubt in customer mind about where the future is headed, it’s headed towards cloud computing.
But you know what, the game is evolving again and we believe the stakes are even higher this time much, much higher. Back in 1999 we asked that simple question about Amazon.com, but today the question has changed. The question is why is all enterprise software not like Facebook. On Facebook you don’t waste time searching for the right data going from app to app, the data finds you in real time. That’s what customer is getting, not from outdated collaboration applications like Microsoft Sharepoint and Lotus Notes.
Sharepoint is owned by a lot of businesses, used by far fewer, and enjoyed practically by none. When was the last time everyone said they really loved using Microsoft Sharepoint or Lotus Notes? The reality is customers want to attract their coworkers who matter to them, the most critical conversations, the apps they depend on, the concept they create and share, all using the new mobile devices that they are carrying around in their hand. They want to collaborate without the cost, complexity and flexibility and overall enterprise dead weight of enterprise software, hardware and data centers.
Those comments were reiterated on TechCrunch.
Facebook has become Benioff's obsession. The big question is whether that's the right obsession. Why would I ask such a crazy question? Facebook is damn close to completely jumping the shark for me. Increasingly, I'm relying on Twitter and LinkedIn to get real work done. My Facebook account has become a modern-day equivalent of AOL---I'm there because everyone else is. Benioff contends that you don't waste time searching for the right data on Facebook because it finds you. Yeah right. The data is finding me but my Facebook account is a bit of a mess. It's professional. It's personal. It has little context. And frankly I wouldn't mind deactivating it.
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In talking offline with Dennis Howlett about this Facebook imperative I got a chuckle from what is a line of the day contender. In a nutshell, Facebook is a lot like poo. You inadvertently step in it and then spend a lot of time trying to clean it up.
That sums up my Facebook account.
Do we really want to extend that social-poo-ridden approach to the enterprise? I don't. All I want at work is to find an expert within two or three clicks. On Facebook, I can find a few good Farmville experts, but not much else.
Sure, enterprise software needs to be more social, but the goal should be the opposite of Facebook. I want less noise. Less chatter. Less management. And less work. Let's face it. Facebook can suck up time and there should be at least a few people questioning whether this "imperative" is really the utopia that's being pitched.
The point: Enterprise software needs to become more social, but this Facebook analogy is way over the top. To me, the Facebook imperative argument is the equivalent of saying that enterprise software should be more AOL in 2000. Guess where that would have gotten you?
So what's an enterprise to do? In the end, you'll have to carve you're own path and pick and choose social networking parts that will actually work for your company.
Hinchcliffe writes:
The first subject that still comes up in any high level discussion of enterprise social software is whether the workplace should be social at all. Facebook may have over 400 million registered accounts at the moment and most of the people in the developed world might use it in their personal lives on a regular basis, but is this a type of software that should be strategically situated in most businesses today? Just because enterprise IT can be social, does that mean it should be?
Unfortunately, the answer to whether social software belongs in the enterprise is a big, unsatisfactory, “It depends.”
As you cut through the social enterprise chatter, it's worth noting that Facebook may not be your shiny example of what you should import to your company.
More on the topic:
- Ten emerging Enterprise 2.0 technologies to watch in 2010
- Deal Architect: Why isn’t enterprise software more like BMW? And National Hurricane Center?
- Charles Zedlewski: Enterprise software is not like Facebook for a reason
- Dennis Howlett: Facebook and business software
- Salesforce launches private beta of Chatter