Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at Océ Part Five: Lessons Learned and Future Plans

This is part five (and the final part) in a multi-part series on how Océ is implementing Enterprise 2.0 within their organization.  Part one covered the Business Drivers of Enterprise 2.0, part two covered Making the Push for Enterprise 2.0, part three covered Change Management for Enterprise 2.0, part four covered the Operational and Financial Impact, and part five is going to cover lessons learned and future plans.  Please make sure to read the prior four posts in the series.

Océ has three items on their list of future plans and and enhancements around E2.0

1. They are thinking of pushing out the social bookmarking idea to the entire company.  If you recall, the ideas originally start off in the R&D department which is where the social bookmarking is currently being used (currently around 1200-1500 people in R&D)
2. Adding some sort of expertise finder functionality or features so that employees can easily find subject experts that they are looking for
3. Creating a new employee homepage when they access their computers.  Currently the homepage has lost any type of sync/connection with the various tools that are being used.  …

This is part five (and the final part) in a multi-part series on how Océ is implementing Enterprise 2.0 within their organization.  Part one covered the Business Drivers of Enterprise 2.0, part two covered Making the Push for Enterprise 2.0, part three covered Change Management for Enterprise 2.0, part four covered the Operational and Financial Impact, and part five is going to cover lessons learned and future plans.  Please make sure to read the prior four posts in the series.

Océ has three items on their list of future plans and and enhancements around E2.0

1. They are thinking of pushing out the social bookmarking idea to the entire company.  If you recall, the ideas originally start off in the R&D department which is where the social bookmarking is currently being used (currently around 1200-1500 people in R&D)
2. Adding some sort of expertise finder functionality or features so that employees can easily find subject experts that they are looking for
3. Creating a new employee homepage when they access their computers.  Currently the homepage has lost any type of sync/connection with the various tools that are being used.  The new homepage would have a better overview of the tools along with guidelines and instructions on how to use them.

Océ has embarked on an interesting Enterprise 2.0 journey and although they are not currently where they want to be, they have certainly learned a lot along the way.  Over the course of the past few years one of the most valuable lessons learned is that technology is interesting and great but Enterprise 2.0 is really not about the technology; it’s about the concepts and the people, the technology simply enables things to happen.  E2.0 is not just another IT project, it’s a people project and IT and business units need to work together to make E2.0 a successful reality.  Océ also realized that pilot programs are effective and help justify the case for E2.0

Focusing on trying to convince people to use a particular technology has also proven to be a bit of a waste of time.  As Océ realized, the best approach is to explain to employees how to use a new type of technology and the benefits of doing so.  However, if an employee doesn’t understand or refuses to use a new tool or platform, there should be no hard feelings held against the employee.  There are always going to be early adopters and laggards.  Hopefully in around 6 months or a year after initial deployment employees (that didn’t want to adopt new tools at the beginning) will begin to start using the new tools and technologies.

Océ also learned that the mix between IT and business units working together is a powerful combination and can prove to be extremely convincing for senior level management.  Having people work together from both IT and business units provides a much better perspective of what can be done and what needs to be done.  Enterprise 2.0 does not fall under IT or communications (at Océ), it’s somewhere in between.  As is with most companies Océ believes that it is very important for employees to be able to try new things (R&D department at Océ).  Océ always had an understanding that some things would work and some wouldn’t, there is nothing wrong with that and companies shouldn’t be scared to experiment.

Finally Océ realized that money was never an issue for Enterprise 2.0, the issue was actually organizational.  Océ ever had any money for E2.0 initiatives yet that never stopped them.  the biggest obstacle is overcoming organizational challenges.

I asked Océ to tell me their worst horror story with anything related to their E2.0 initiatives, perhaps there was an angry employee bashing the company internally, some security hack, or perhaps a leak of some type of secretive information.  Océ’s response to this question was, “We have had no issues with anyone trying to harm the brand, any security issues, or any type of information leaks at Océ, we have had no incidents.”

Key takeaways

• Enterprise 2.0 is really about people and concepts not technology
• Pilot programs have been effective at Océ
• Don’t waste time trying convince or force employees to do something, show them the “how” and the “why” and see what happens
• The mix between IT departments and business units working together is a very powerful combination
• The opportunity to experiment with and try new things is also very important
• Money was never an issue, the challenges came at the organizational level
• Océ has not had a single horror story nor do they have any negative incidents to share

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