Enterprise 2.0: The Misuse of Social Technology

Hi everyone, welcome to this week’s post which is the last post for portfolio 2. In this post I will be discussing the misuse of social technology.

A number of companies have encountered serious ethical issues because misusing social technology. Some of these companies have gone through this accidentally while some have deliberately misused social technology (Dail, 2014). The introduction and advancement in the number of social technology, and how various companies use it is throughout. So many people believe that companies have to embrace the use of the numerous social technologies. However, this is always practiced with a lot of caution as it can always boomerang on the image of the company should it be “misused.” A good example of such companies that have become a victim is American Medical Response (AMR). This paper details out how AMR ‘misused’ social technology from an ethical perspective.

American Medical Response is a renowned medical and ambulance service provider that is in United States. It is as a major provider and manager of medical transportation. AMR is a leading provider of dispatch service and emergency response, air ambulance, non-emergency transport, event medical, EMT training, and managed transportation services (AMR, 2014). The company is fully operated in up to 42 states including District of Columbia. The business has provided an inordinate opportunity for advancement and growth in numerous career paths. According to AMR website (2014), this has been made much easier by the fact that AMR is largest provider of transportation of medical services in the entire nation. AMR’S public image has earned it so much trust from potential customers and experts. So many people have cherished working with American Medical Response due to how it has related with its staffs. American Medical Response has the best ethical codes of conduct, which has related so well with the public, suppliers, and customers.

How American Medical Response ‘Misused’ Social Technology

Even with a good name that AMR has been enjoying, that had to face a legal battle for what was considered unlawful firing of one of their staffs. AMR fired one of the employees for allegedly posting what was perceived to be defamatory comments about her immediate supervisor on Facebook (Dail, 2014). The decision to fire the employee was in line with the company’s social media policy that prohibited employees from posting defamatory, prejudiced, and or disparaging comments intended to discuss managers, company, or even competitors on any social media. The outrageous post that was made by an employee was purely against the company policy and warranted such punishment.

National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) decided to file a case protesting the action that was taken by American Medical Response. In their case, NLRB argued that the action taken by AMR to fire their employee was illegal (Bloomberg, 2011). The explanation is that employees have the right to discuss the state of their working conditions at whatever place they wish, and that going to Facebook was no different from discussing that on a lunch table. The argument is that the policy set by any company must not be overbroad and try to control speech that is. The policy placed much emphasis on Facebook rather than what was said and its intent, which was wrong according to NLRB (Melick & Wall, 2014).

Such situations can be avoided by companies as they result to unnecessary losses by financially and even on the image of the firm (Anne, 2014). The best way to avoid a similar occurrence is by ensuring that only protective languages are and that the right of employees and the set policies are reviewed after a period of two years.

References

AMR. (n.d.). Keep up with American Medical Response. LinkedIn. Retrieved September 24, 2014 from: https://www.linkedin.com/company/american-medical-response-1

Anne, C. (2014). Drafting social media policies in light of recent NLRB decisions. Find law. Retrieved from: http://technology.findlaw.com/modern-law-practice/drafting-social-media-policies-in-light-of-recent-nlrb-decisions.html#sthash.qIrvleAr.dpuf

Bloomberg. (2011). Company Settles Case in Firing Tied to Facebook. Business Daily. Retrieved from:      http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/business/08labor.html?_r=0

Dail, G. (2014). Social media policies: impact of the American medical response case.The HR Group Inc. Retrieved from:     http://www.thehrgroupinc.net/social-media-policies-impact-of-the-american-medical-response-case/

Melick, H., & Wall, E. (2014). Technology: What is concerted social media activity under the NLRA. InsideCounsel. Retrieved from: http://www.insidecounsel.com/2014/01/31/technology-what-is-concerted-social-media-activity

Enterprise 2.0 McDonalds ROI

Hey everyone,

Welcome again to my blog, this week I’m going to discuss Return on Investment (ROI) of Social Technology implementations.

Companies and other business entities are looking for the most competitive ways to do business and make profits while at it. The social technology has changed the mode of business because most businesses have adopted the use of the social technology in most of their services, product promotion, and advertisements. Enterprise 2.0 project is among the new methods that the companies use to reach their esteemed customers and share their commodities and services. The enterprise 2.0 project enables the companies to track all the needs of their customers by interacting with them through social media (Smagg, 2008)). Many high-tech industries are benefiting from enterprise 2.0 projects that are very crucial to the income of the industries. The enterprise 2.0 helps the companies to increase on their return on investment.

Project Overview

The McDonalds organization has globalized the services of more than 31,000 restaurants all over the world. The organization joined the enterprise 2.0 space not only to optimize the services offered to the customers, but also for proper control of the restaurants. The senior management of the organization created a blog that incorporated all the employees of the restaurants. The employees had an opportunity to share their views in the blog, and the management took heed of the comments and implemented the best practices suggested by the employees. The organization also has a community based blog called “Open For Discussion “ that incorporates all the customers and visitors. The blog enables customers to express their feelings about services offered by the company. The customers are free to communicate to the organization through texting and posting photos. The company gets all the views of customers and works hard to satisfy them by implementing programs and services that are convenient. The customers feel safe and relevant when they are involved in the organization’s activities; this contributes to an improvement in customer relations (McDonalds 2006).

Return on Investment

The Return on Investment (ROI) is the measure that a company or business entity uses to evaluate the efficiency of an investment. McDonalds used $120 million in implementing the investment and after one year, the organization collected the revenue of $200 million. The return on investment for the organization will be determined by a gain from investment ($200 million) minus cost of investment ($120 million) divided by the cost of investment ($120 million). The answer will be 0.6667. The value shows that the investment was efficient because any positive value indicate a valuable investment (Ives 2007).

Benefits of ROI Implementation 

McDonalds organization received both the tangible and intangible benefits from implementing the Return on Investment. The tangible value gained include increased revenue, increased number of customers in the restaurants and an increased production of quality food and services. The intangible benefits that resulted include undisputed customer loyalty, the organization gained trust from the public because of incorporating the public and customers (McDonalds 2006).

Strengths & Weaknesses

The Return on Investment (ROI) implementation approach was successful in McDonald organization. The approach had the following strengths; the approach was favorable to both the employees and the clients. It enabled the employees to express their ideas in an open way that contributed to the company considering the ideas during decision making. The approach used a platform that was easily accessible and with minimal restrictions; this attracted a high number of participants and enabled the company to gain more customers. The weaknesses attributed to the approach include high level of security breaches caused by hackers on the internet, lack of proper methods of implementing the suggestions from the clients and employees (McAfee 2010).

Conclusion

In conclusion, companies have the obligation of determining the projects that contribute to the income of the company. Any investment with a positive return on investment (ROI) is worth implementing, and companies have to make a sound decision while choosing investments. Due to the improvement of technology, every organization has to implement projects that keep them relevant and competitive in the market. The McDonalds took the initiative of enterprise 2.0 space to gain customers and attain high revenue.

References

McAfee, A. (2006) Enterprise 2.0: The dawn of emergent collaboration. Spring. Retrieved from http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/enterprise-the-dawn-of-emergent-collaboration/

Ives, B. (2007) enterprise 2.0 success stories from awareness. Retrieved from: http://billives.typepad.com/portals_and_km/2007/08/enterprise-20-s.html

McAfee, A. (2010) Andrew McAfee’s Blog: The business impact of IT. Retrieved from: http://andrewmcafee.org/

McDonalds (2006) McDonalds: Our Story: Retrieved from: http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/our_story.html

Smagg, C. (2008) Enterprise 2.0 Fear factor: Overcoming risks, Uncertainties and doubts. Retrieved from: https://amielazim.wordpress.com/tag/enterprise-2-0-risks/

Enterprise 2.0 Harvey Norman & Social Technology

Hi everyone, once again welcome to my blog.

We have been asked this week to present a discussion on the utilization of technology within the retail sector.

Social technology is found to be among the most significant factors in various aspects including; sports, business and education among others. Therefore, with the immense growth and improvement of the social technology, business organizations are starting to involve this technology in their operations with an aim of achieving better results.

I have made a choice to present a discussion on Harvey Norman’s social technology use.

Harvey Norman is among the biggest retailers within Australia. This company was founded in the year 1961. It retails in furniture, electrical, computer, bedding and entertainment goods. The retailer has over two hundred and thirty stores outside and within Australia (Harvey Norman, 2014). The company has put in place some strategies aimed at improving their service delivery. Among these strategies, there is use of such social technology as Google+, Facebook and Twitter (Business Day, 2010).There is going to be covering of two functional areas; marketing and customer service:

1-Markeing:

Harvey Norman utilizes social technology to assist them in improving their marketing operations. They are utilizing various social media tools such as Google +, Facebook, and Twitter to reach more customers, thus enhancing their sales. Through the use of such tools, they are able to advertise more conveniently and at no or very minimal cost. Using this social media also enables them to make announcements regarding available discounts, deals or new products by providing information by just a post or twit (Business Day, 2010).

2- Customer service:

The company is also utilizing social technology in enhancing communication with their customers. Customers are able to engage in asking questions and providing feedback, and this can enable the company to make the necessary product improvements and be also able to be aware of the needs of their customers. In addition, social technology can also play a major role in enhancing customer loyalty. This is because, when customers are allowed to ask questions and to give feedback using social media, they feel they are dealing with a caring company and this will promote customer loyalty (Griffith, 2014).

References:

Business Day, (2010). Harvey Norman gets a tweet on. Retrieved from:                          http://www.theage.com.au/business/harvey-norman-gets-a-tweet-on-20100524-w82z.html

Griffith, C. (2014) .Retailers lagging in online markets. Retrieved from:              http://www.theaustralian.com.au/technology/retailers-lagging-in-online-markets/story-e6frgakx-1226988782761?nk=a515560ea5ee80a69b93f13947e31e0a

Harvey Norman. (2014.). About Harvey Norman stores. Retrieved from:                              http://www.harveynorman.com.au/about-harvey-norman-stores/

Harvey Norman. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved September 10, 2014, from:                           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Norman

Enterprise 2.0 Blackberry & Blog

Hey everyone! I hope you are doing well. In this week’s post I will focus on the social technology – blog and how it can impact the business.

 

Companies use social technology now-a-days as it has become an important and effective factor in the business. Using social technology to enhance the number of sales and customers helps the businesses to reach their goals.

 

The organization is Blackberry Company:

 

Blackberry is one of the most popular mobile devices in the world. It was introduced in 1999 and has reached millions of customers worldwide. Blackberry has provided a large amount of mobiles to the mobile device industry and has developed several mobile phones year after year.

Blackberry & Blog

 

Blackberry updates its blog by using social technology. In order to improve its service, Blackberry uses different social technology such as Facebook, Twitter, Flicker and YouTube, which are known as micro-blogging. Furthermore, Blackberry uses blogs to communicate and innovate every possible method that would help the company to provide a better service to its customers.

 

According to McKinsey’s report, social media helps the company both internally and externally. Externally, it helps to use blogs to communicate with their customers and get a feedback or question, which would improve the marketing and enhance the sales of the company. Blackberry uses blogs to post news, deals and any updates the customer would like to know. Also, users can share their experiences and thoughts of the company if they wish to have a better service.

 

On the other hand, internally the members can write and share their updates with the customers and colleagues in an informal way. It would help other members to gain more knowledge and a better understanding of the company, service and share new thoughts and ideas.

 

 

Refernces

 

Blackberry, (n.d.). About Blackberry. Retrieved August 25, 2014, from:

http://us.blackberry.com/company.html

 

Blackberry, (n.d.). Insid Blckberry. Retrieved August 25, 2014, from:

http://blogs.blackberry.com/

 

Blackberry. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved August 25, 2014, from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry

 

Enterprise 2.0 Adidas & Social Technology

Hey everyone, welcome again to my blog f, as we talked about the business Value Chain in the lecture so, this post will be focusing on the Social Technology Levers.

 

Now-a-days the business world has changed to a greater extent than before. Companies are trying to get everything new on the technology side. It helps companies to communicate with the customers to provide better services and improve the existing services. Technology also helps customers to give feedback, ask questions and share ideas. By using technology in a proper way both the companies and the customers can achieve success which would obviously increase the sales and the customer satisfaction.

 

 

I have chosen Adidas as an example.

Adidas is a multinational corporation that designs sport clothing and equipment founded by Adolf Dassler in the year 1949. It is the second largest sports company in the world with a worldwide popularity. Adidas features many kinds of sport such as, tennis, soccer, basketball and many others.

 

 

I will cover two of the five functional areas in the chain, which are Marketing and Sales, and Customer Service.

 

 

Marketing and Sales

Adidas promotes its products through the social technology to reach a large number of customers. Moreover, the company uses social technology to reach their targeted customers as the number of young people using the social media is more than those who watch TV. By using social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube Adidas has improved its marketing strategy by reaching more number of customers.

 

Customer Service

Adidas also uses social technology to communicate with its customers and provides an opportunity to the customers to share their thoughts and opinions by giving valuable feedback. Customers find the method more effective to connect with the company as they can communicate through Facebook and Twitter.

 

 

References

 

Adidas. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved August 19, 2014, from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adidas

 Mulready, R .(n.d.). adidas Social Media Success: A Behind-the-Scenes Look with Lia Vakoutis, Head of Digital Strategy at adidas America. Retrieved August 19, 2014, from:

http://rickmulready.com/adidas-social-media/

 

Sporteology, (n.d.). Top Football Sponsors in the World.i Retrieved August 19, 2014, from:

http://sporteology.com/top-football-sponsors-in-the-world/  

Enterprise 2.0 Social Technology

 

Hi everyone! Welcome to my second post.

 

 

 

For this week’s post, I have chosen option one because I feel the need to improve my humble experience in social technology.

Now-a-days, social technology has become an important factor for people in different areas such as personal, educational, and professional areas. It helps users to connect with their friends and interests. People use it anytime and anywhere to connect with others, which would enhance the communication and interaction between people around the world. It helps the people in their life.

One of the examples of social technology is LinkedIn, which was launched in 2003, and has become the popular business site worldwide. The Idea of LinkedIn is to connect workers and employers with each other and develop their relationship in the business field. Furthermore, users can create their own profiles and connect with others so that they know more about different jobs and the business environment. Users can follow companies and employers to search for work. Also, by checking the jobs opportunities users may recommend jobs to their friends in their network. Moreover, employers who would like to hire people can list the available number of jobs and give post the details to others which would be a convenient way for them to hire workers. It also allows its users to save the jobs that they would like to apply for and receive notification about new jobs from different companies and their network.

However, in my view LinkedIn is a helpful method for workers and students to communicate with companies and make their careers in their fields of interest. Workers can develop their knowledge about the business world and also avail better offers if the connection recommends any. Moreover, it would help students get started with their career and give them a clear idea about their future career. It also helps them to connect with employers and companies to know more about the job opportunities, which would make it easy to compare and choose a better option.  

References

About LinkedIn. (n.d.). LinkedIn press center. Retrieved from:

http://press.linkedin.com/about

Chu. T. (n.d.). Social Networks: How To Keep Up Like A Pro. Retrieved August 14, 2014, from: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/professional-social-network-tools/

LinkedIn. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved August 14, 2014, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn

Linkedin training cource & workshop, (n.d.). The creative collective.i Retrieved August 14, 2014, from: http://www.thecreativecollective.com.au/linkedin-training-course-workshop

Enterprise 2.0: Blogging

Hello everyone! Welcome to my first blog. I hope you enjoy reading my post.

 

Blogging:

 

When I read other people’s blogs I always think how valuable the information is and what kind of information should I need for my blog. Blogs should reach people’s interests because the reader is looking for useful ideas or information on the blog.

The purpose of my blog is to express my thoughts and opinions to others, which would help me to get a wider understanding of different areas. The second purpose is to exchange my knowledge with others to improve my way of thinking and to discuss various ideas from different perspectives. Furthermore, blogging not only provides information to the reader, but also a learning experience to the blogger as the blogger can learn from the feedback of the readers who comment on the post. Blogging is a useful method for both the blogger and the reader to enrich their knowledge.

 

Creating useful posts

 

My post will be based on researches to provide valuable information to the reader, which will make the post more useful to the reader.

 

Obtaining readership

 

My posts will obtain readership as I will try to ensure reader satisfaction. Also, by providing interesting posts, I can make the reader enjoy while reading the blog. Moreover, I can also use the means of social media to guide the readers to my blog.

 

According to me, an example of an excellent blog is SHUBHILICIOUS. The blog is a sports blog for students who show interest in soccer. The blog contains posts about Manchester United FC. The blog is successful because the blogger likes what he posts and the reader enjoys the blog if he or she is following the sport or interested in soccer.

 

References:

Millburn, J. (2014). HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL BLOG TODAY. The Minimalists [web log]. Retrieved August, 2014, from http://www.theminimalists.com/blog/

Rich User Experience

Welcome back to the blog. This week, I am going to discuss the rich user experience.

 

What is the rich user experience (RUE)?

It is one of the eight core patterns, which means that applications are more effective, interactive and pervasive. For instance, Facebook and Twitter. Websites that use AJAX have a RUE. With AJAX, there is no need to refresh the web page for interactions. In addition, according to O’Reilly, programing languages such as JavaScript and DHTML provide clients with richer user experiences and more programmability with rich internet applications (RIA). Moreover, implementing RUE has become popular in Web 2.0 because it utilises applications that are installed on the desktop to improve Internet browser applications’ access and usage.

 

What is Prezi?

Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software and storytelling tool for explaining ideas and clarifying presentations. It allows users to zoom and pan as well as to size and edit objects. Users can also move through videos, texts, photos and presentation media. It can connect with different presentation media to create a single presentation.

 

Prezi and a rich user experience

Prezi it a perfect example of a rich user experience. First of all, Prezi uses the web, so there is no need to install presentation media, which means users, can use it in online instead of installing software. Furthermore, Prezi Pro or Edu Pro subscribers can work off-line, make changes and save them on their computer using Prezi Discktop. Prezi Collaborate allows multiple users (a maximum of 10 users) to work on and edit a presentation. Users can make their presentations interesting and leave a good impression on the audience using the zoom user interface (ZUI) to introduce ideas, designate the positions and size of presentation objects and zoom in and out. Moreover, Prezi is easy to use, and it is a helpful tool for people who want to improve their presentation tools.

 

 

 

References:

http://oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prezi

http://prezi.com

Foursquare & Innovation in assembly

Hi! Welcome to my blog. This week, I am going to be discussing innovation in assembly.

Innovation in assembly

The world has developed and grown rapidly, and with this development Web 2.0 has also improved, as it allows users to contribute and access content from a web site without visiting the real web page. Moreover, developers can develop or innovate services by adjusting already existing ideas from the Internet using an API tool, which makes this process quick and easy. This is the concept of innovation in assembly according to O’reilly’s definition.

 

What is API?

An application programming interface (API) is a protocol that specifies how software components should communicate with each other.

 

 

What is Foursquare?

Foursquare is a social networking website for mobile devices that is location-based. The idea of Foursquare is that users can check in at a place and share this location with other users who are nearby. Also, users can write about their activities at a venue and share their opinions. Moreover, it allows users to share the locations, recommendations, photos and activities through Facebook, Twitter and other social networking websites.

Foursquare’s numbers in January 2014

– Community: Over 45 million people worldwide

– Over 5 billion check-ins, with millions more every day

– Businesses: Over 1.6 million use the Merchant Platform (more information can be found at foursquare.com/business)

– Employees: Over 170 between the headquarters in New York, San Francisco, and London

 

 

Foursquare and innovation in assembly

Foursquare allows users to share their location and the photos of their trips and events with other friends and users who are nearby based on GPS location. It provides this feature through a MapBox, which is based on OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. Thus, Foursquare utilizes this technology and builds its system on it, and its users can share not only photos but also locations, activities and recommendations with other users through mobile device applications.

 

 

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface

http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foursquare

https://foursquare.com/about

Data is the Next ‘Intel Inside

Welcome to my second blog. This week, I am going to discuss how data is the next Intel Inside.

What does “data is the next Intel Inside” mean?

The concept behind data being the next Intel Inside is that data has the same value in Web 2.0 as Intel Inside had for computers. As O’Reilly said, if the web lost its data or could not reach its data safely, the web would lose its value. This makes the reliability of data the most important factor in Web 2.0. Moreover, social networks, such as Twitter, Facebook, Flicker and YouTube, are aware of this point and strive to ensure user satisfaction and confidence.

 

My example of data is the next Intel Inside Eventful

 

 

What is Eventful?

 

Eventful is a Web 2.0 website that was launched in March 2005. It allows users to search and share information about events worldwide. Users can search for events by time, location, performer or descriptive keyword. Users can also create event lists and private or public calendars, including smart calendars, which can be updated automatically to match any search criteria when added or existing events are modified. Users can also vote for an activity to come to their city. In July 2007, the company had approximately 4 million future events in its search engine index. By June 2012, the company had 20 million users.

 

Eventful and Data is the Next ‘Intel Inside

 

Eventful shows the importance of data and how it connects to real world events. The data provide a great selection of local entertainment content, including guides to concerts, sports and family events in an area. Also, Eventful has the “my Eventful” feature, which allows users to view their watch list, which is a watch list for events that the users are going, and users can also share their event lists with friends. Users can also save searches under “saved searches”. Moreover, users can import their iTunes libraries and Last.fm profiles to indicate which performers are their favourites. This means Eventful has a huge amount of data and multiple resources that support its reliability, which makes it a good example of how data is the next Intel Inside. 

 

References: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eventful

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=21839675

http://venturebeatprofiles.com/company/profile/eventful/

http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=3