Creating Connection With Contact Collaboration Technologies
by Geoffrey Hyatt of Contact Network Corporation
Enterprise Contact Collaboration
technologies are a new breed of software that allow members of
an organization to better leverage the extended network of contacts
that other members can provide. It is Social Networking for the
enterprise. The premise behind this category of relationship technologies
is that many colleagues have useful relationships that they are
willing to share, but that these contacts are mostly unknown and
unused. These relationships are of great benefit to the organization
if they can be shared. There are three major challenges to creating
a system that works in the real world: compliance (data capture),
privacy, and adoption. The latest technologies address these issues
directly and have proven themselves in leading corporate and academic
environments, allowing these organizations to use their collective
relationship capital within a secure, private internal network.
For example, when a large, global professional services firm
with thousands of employees scattered across multiple offices
plans to pitch a new client, it has been a time-consuming, tedious,
and haphazard process for individuals to track down each colleague
with the key question "Do you know someone at [target company]?"
Hours are invested following suggestions to reach a colleague
who may have a contact at the target company. Sometimes an internal
'spam' email is sent throughout the office or throughout the
firm - which is widely ignored. Most often the request is never
even made. The result is that most organizations do not effectively
tap into their existing network of employees' contacts to help
close deals, win new business and share relevant information
with one another.
Yet the benefits of mining the potential contacts throughout
an organization are tremendous. Many firms realize that relationships
are among their most valuable assets, and they need to be shared
instead of hoarded. "The greatest asset of a venture firm is
the experience and contacts of the firm," says Andrew Hallowell,
Managing Partner of Arcadia Partners. "I want our portfolio
companies to leverage our network on every sale they make. I
want them to access my Rolodex, without giving them my Rolodex.
Now they can instantly check whether we can provide a contact,
and make targeted direct requests for introductions."
New technologies now make it possible to capture the contacts
and introductions that colleagues can provide, and then share
them while still respecting the personal privacy the contact
owner.
Complete
Article
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"Serious structural change is afoot in almost every
corner of the U.S. [global] economy."
Fortune, September 29, 2003
One of the more significant structural changes occurring
in business is the shift in the balance of power between
a business and its customers. Simply stated, "the customer"
has learned to question the value proposition offered
by everyone with whom it interacts. So it comes as no
surprise that traditional advertising and marketing
campaigns aren't delivering their intended results.
What we see now is that despite the reported upturn
in the economy, most companies are still struggling
to understand what their customer really expects - the
value proposition, the experience, the relationship
- in all facets of doing business with you.
We've visited a number of cities in the USA over the
past few weeks and have had dozens and dozens of both
formal meetings and impromptu conversations with a very
diverse group of businesspeople. Their challenges and
opportunities are unique to their personal situations,
yet to a person, every manager, entrepreneur, and executive
is feeling the impact of this shift in the balance of
power. Simply put, they know they must communicate more
directly and personally with all stakeholders if he/she
is to achieve his/her business goals.
In this issue of Pursuing Value we'll introduce
you to innovative relationship technologies that are
helping us, as businesspeople, communicate most effectively
with our most important business relationships.
As always,
Keep on dancing,
Jeff & Jan
and The Rhythm of Business Community
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| Contact Collaboration
Technologies Software Proliferating |
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Lately, the press has been
abuzz with news of Friendster, LinkedIn, Ryze, Spoke Software,
Zero Degrees, and many other contact collaboration products,
all designed to easily connect you with the people you
wish to meet. These products represent the ultimate recognition
that push marketing and selling no longer work and that
the cold call is dead.
Contact collaboration software has been a recent darling
of VCs, although the business models of these companies
are coming into question. Who pays, and for what, are
the central questions currently guiding these tremendously
useful applications to the mainstream business user.
In the featured article, Geoff Hyatt, founder of Contact
Network Corporation writes about how one Boston-based
contact collaboration technology is overcoming the challenges
of this newly evolving category.
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| Special Opportunity - Experience
Face-to-Face Online Communications with Viditel - and
Get a Free 30 Day Trial Membership |
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think 3 CEO Joe Costello Claims
VidiTel Enabled "Live" Collaborative Meetings Critical
Enabling Tool Of Dispersed Workforce
In today's networked and global economy, distance is an
advantage for product development software company think3.
That's because CEO Joe Costello believes that his workforce's
ability to out-innovate and out-perform the competition
is a direct result of recruiting based solely on skill
and performance, not location. In other words, it doesn't
matter where in the world you live, as long as you can
do the work and communicate through the tools the company
provides its employees.
Certainly Costello is a savvy entrepreneur, having built
Cadence Design Systems into one of the world's 10 largest
software companies. Today, think3 is a close- knit, entrepreneurial
organization of 350 employees. They just happen to work
in 22 cities, across three continents and 20 time zones!
But such a widely dispersed employee base brings with
it its own problems - such as assembling "multi- disciplinary,
multi-regional teams to collaborate about a specific customer
problem, and to do so on the fly." To benefit from having
customer care in Europe, engineering in India, and project
management in the US, think3 uses the Internet based,
real-time VidiTel service from Santa Cruz Networks to
deliver rich voice, video, text-messaging, and application
sharing to up to 200 participants, across those 20 time
zones. Someone has to be working in the middle of the
night!
Costello's globally dispersed team may represent an
extreme example of the need to communicate face-to-
face, but it is hardly unique. Think how much more effective
phone meetings could be if you could clearly see the
other people involved - just as if they were across
the desk from you. With VidiTel, the experience is as
if you were there, reviewing documents together, seeing
facial expressions and sensing body language.
Andrew Keen, General Manager of Viditel has generously
offered readers of Pursuing Value a 30 day-free trial
of the VidiTel service. Simply email him directly at
Andrew@viditel.com
and he'll set you up - including giving you a good
deal on the web cam and headset. We'll see you on VidiTel!
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| Once More With Spirit |
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From our vantage point, entrepreneurial
activity is on the upswing. It doesn't matter whether
we're talking about traditional startups, necessity entrepreneurs,
or new initiatives within corporations, it seems harnessing
the creativity and bootstrapping skills associated with
entrepreneurship is on nearly everyone's agenda. So we
were pleased to contribute an article on encouraging entrepreneurial
spirit to an entrepreneurial publishing venture, American
Executive. The magazine is lively, informative, and
thought provoking, reaching 50,000 senior executives monthly
with the latest management thought leadership, business
news, and technology trends. Check them out at www.americanexecutive.com
and click Full Article below for our article, Once
More With Spirit.
Full
Article
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| Gennova Group Story Published |
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The formation of Gennova Group
(www.gennovagroup.com)
is chronicled in "Creating a Collaborative Community of
Management Consultants," a chapter in the just released
Enhancing Inter-Firm Networks and Interorganizational
Strategies, Volume 3 in Research in Management Consulting,
edited by Anthony F. Buono and published by Information
Age Publishing. The journal focuses on the levels of collaboration
and coordination required to support the increasing number
of inter-firm ventures - which are often mission critical
for companies - but are often exceedingly difficult to
make successful. Drawing upon a wide range of researchers,
consultants, and practicing managers, the journal offers
a number of works of interest to relationship business
practitioners. To see the complete table of contents,
learn about earlier volumes and to purchase the journal,
please visit www.infoagepub.com/Buinicombo.pdf.
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| Upcoming Events |
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Jeff will be speaking on Alliance
Managers and the Entrepreneurial Mindset at the Association
of Strategic Alliances Annual Summit Crossing Borders,
Forging Relationships, Unleashing Value in Seattle,
Washington on October 28, 2003. For the full agenda and
to register, visit www.strategic-alliances.org.
Jan and Jeff will be presenting on Measuring and Managing
Value in Business Relationships at the New England Human
Resources Association Invention Convention: HR Means
Business in Providence, Rhode Island on November 3,
2003. For the full agenda and to register, visit www.nehra.com/convention/2003/index.html
Wedding Bells Chime!
September 27th turns out to be a very special day this
year. This coming Saturday wedding bells will chime
for two very important members of The Rhythm of Business
Community.
Sonja Ali, who for the past two years has managed our
events and communications, is marrying her long-time
sweetheart, Ethan Britland, in a celebration in Assonet,
Massachusetts.
Sonja received her MBA from Bentley College in 2002,
incorporating extensive travel and business experience
in Europe and Japan with traditional classroom studies.
Sonja and Ethan will be digesting the structural change
in their relationship during their honeymoon in the
Hawaiian Islands.
That same day, Chris Frosk, founder and CEO of Ekkosoft,
the mariner's wireless development network will marry
Amy Decelles at a ceremony in Newburyport, Massachusetts,
followed by a real New England clambake on the shore.
Chris is also a Bentley alum. Jan is a member of the
board of directors of Ekkosoft. Watch for some really
exciting announcements about the relationships Ekkosoft
is building in the near future.
Please join us in extending best wishes for lives filled
with love and happiness to Sonja and Ethan and Chris
and Amy.
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to "Pursuing Value: The Newsletter for Relationship Business."
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