Singapore firms embrace social media for enterprise collaboration

Survey shows 80% of global executives point collaboration as key to business success.

The Singapore results of the Global Survey of Collaboration in the Enterprise, which revealed insights into enterprise perceptions around collaboration services and software, were released on Thursday by Avanade, a business technology services provider.

In particular, the Singapore results indicated growing interest in leveraging social media technologies to enable employees to share information and resources online, according to the Avanade report.

The report showed the following results:

• Singapore businesses turned to social networks over three times more (13%) than their global counterparts (4%) as a source of general business news and information.
• One in five Singapore companies (20%) already have in place a fully implemented strategy for integrating social media technologies in the workplace – almost three times the world average of 7%.
• Out of the Singapore respondents who indicated that their organisation does not have a social media strategy, 65% expressed an interest to explore its use to enhance business outcomes.
• 60% of Singapore firms see embracing social networking as a crucial factor in attracting top talent by creating a workplace that is technologically flexible and attractive to new employees.

The same survey also showed that companies perceive clear value from employee collaboration services and software. It revealed that more than 80 percent of executives worldwide believe that enterprise-wide collaboration is the key to success. At the same time, senior executives and IT decision makers are expressing specific business culture and behavioral concerns as a result of collaboration.

The study, conducted by Kelton Research, surveying more than 500 global C-level executives, IT decision makers and business unit leaders in 17 countries, further shows how collaboration is impacting the enterprise. Asia Pacific markets surveyed included Singapore, Australia and Japan, and found that businesses are enabling greater collaboration across globalised workforces and empowering employees to solve business issues more efficiently.

“In an age where real-time information and communication across borders is key, meaningful collaboration that involves both people and technology can mean the difference between success and failure,” said Kevin Wo, Vice President, Avanade Singapore. “Collaboration technologies are more important than ever in shaping the way people work, and many Singaporean firms recognise that enterprise collaboration software and services are integral to improving performance outcomes for their business.”

Collaboration drawbacks must be addressed
While benefits to the enterprise are evident, many respondents are still wary of new business culture issues created by greater collaboration in the workplace. For example:

• Employees may, in fact, be dodging responsibility over certain tasks because of readily available collaboration options to ask other people. More than one in three respondents (37 percent in Asia Pacific and 34 percent in Singapore) agree that people problem solve less on their own today and instead rely on collaboration technologies to ask other people.
• Although the survey results indicate an increase in the rate of collaboration technology adoption, some employees claim to dread collaborating, especially across employee levels and company departments. One in four executives and IT decision-makers in Singapore say they dread collaboration because of the amount of time and energy it wastes.

Clear shift in priorities: Focus on innovation
Key findings in the survey also show that companies are embracing new technologies and actively emphasizing innovation and growth, even over cost savings. This finding was particularly evident in Asia Pacific, where respondents are placing equal emphasis on innovation and growth as they did on cost savings compared to the worldwide average. Key findings include:

• Nearly 90 percent of Singapore respondents placed equal or greater emphasis on innovation and growth over cost savings. Of these, over half saw innovation and growth as more crucial to their business.
• Eighty-seven percent of Singapore’s respondents said that the recent economic turmoil has caused their company to become more open to new technologies, the highest figure in Asia Pacific.
• Singapore respondents (87 percent) view collaboration software and tools as crucial to innovation, and see it as a means to accelerate innovation within the enterprise.
• Ninety-three percent of Singapore respondents say their companies plan to increase their deployment of collaboration technologies in the next year.

“As we emerge from one of the worst recessions the world has seen in decades, innovation has become a key driver of business success. Collaboration is fast becoming an essential enabler to enhance business agility and an opportunity to tap resources in various markets and departments to address everyday business needs,” said Wo.