Dennis Howlett over at ZDNet has a well-thought out, and downright brilliant piece about two camps divided over social software in the enterprise, one camp represented by most monster software companies that enter the enterprise at that painful point known as IT. The other, from newer and more agile challengers is slipping in through marketing departments concerned with actually having relationships with customers.
One exception to the big guys, he mentions is SAP (sponsor of my Global Survey of Social Media), who he writes: "
I’m thinking that SAP is realizing that it could get much closer to the millions of people who use its software rather than the IT shops that buy their stuff. The challenge, which Merritt thinks doesn’t get solved for another 2-5 years, is how companies like SAP adapt their software design strategies to accommodate this new reality. Enter the startups."
I'll let Dennis sing the SAP praises. My focus is on that 2-5 years span. What enterprise decision makers need to understand is that when you are big and cumbersome, 2-5 years translates into tomorrow morning. What it means to small and agile challengers like Jive Software, is that the crack in the door where they have inserted a foot is likely to get wider sooner.
What Dennis overlooks is the number of younger people who will be taking over the decision maker seats in the world's enterprises over the next 2-5 years. The guy who was inclined to do it the way it was always done is going to be replaced by someone perhaps more inclined to speak to the more human-oriented Jive Software rep, than the more data-centric Sharepoint.
Perhaps it may be my perpetual Pollyanna view of a social media revolution, but Dennis' post makes me think that we are having the sort of little incidents in the enterprise that will make a big difference. I think the tipping point is coming in those next 2-5 years, for some companies, perhaps sooner.
