SWOOP releases 2017 Enterprise Social Network Benchmark Report
SYDNEY, June 1, 2017 – An organization’s internal online network performance is becoming a key indicator of its overall business success, the world’s largest Enterprise Social Network (ESN) benchmarking report has found.
SWOOP Analytics, the world’s leading ESN analysis company, has released its 2017 benchmarking report based on a study of 57 organizations worldwide that examined more than 250,000 employees and almost six million digital interactions.
The report found business outcomes improved as an organization’s ESN matured, linking a successful ESN to a successful business.
When employees use ESNs to connect and build relationships, whether it be in their own team or with a colleague on the other side of the world, it leads to greater knowledge sharing, innovation and ultimately a return on investment.
The report’s author and SWOOP chief scientist Laurence Lock Lee says there are two important transitions that require change at an organizational and individual level.
“First, organizations need to make the transition from using ESNs as a social media platform to connect and build relationships,” Dr Lock Lee said.
“The second change is moving on from happily connecting and sharing knowledge to acting on that shared knowledge, to create tangible value.
“This is where the rubber hits the road in terms of tangible business results and return on investment.”
Dr Lock Lee said jobs are increasingly becoming interdependent on others and when a difficult problem is solved, or a new opportunity grasped, tangible enterprise value has been achieved.
“Relationships can be leveraged to more effectively share knowledge, problem solve and ultimately create new value through innovation,” he said.
Of course, it is possible for an organization to collaborate well without the use online social networks but the ESN is the most representative of an organization’s enterprise-wide collaboration performance, Dr Lock Lee said.
“Those organizations that rely only on email or chat are likely to be prioritizing local performance in teams over global performance overall,” he said.
“Effective enterprise-wide collaboration will require the use of a whole portfolio of toolsets.”
The SWOOP research reveals ESN performance is overtaking formal hierarchical control as the main indicator of organizational performance, a finding which complements the 2017 Deloitte Global Trends survey of more than 10,000 business and human resources leaders across 140 countries.
Of the 57 companies studied by SWOOP in the benchmarking report, all which use Microsoft Yammer, there are three standouts – British rail operator Virgin Trains, US real estate operation RealFoundations and US-based training company Brain Storm Inc.
The organizations in the report include some of the world’s best-known brands and range in size from 100 to 26,000 active users over a six month period.
For more information or to arrange a media interview, please contact:
Dr Laurence Lock Lee on +61 407 001 628 or
SWOOP Director of External Relation & Communications Sharon Dawson on +1 425 647 4342
Download the 2017 Benchmarking Report.