Survey Reveals Key Business Benefits from Social Business Adoption

A new survey by Jive Software revealed three key findings: 1) customers are deriving quantifiable business benefits from their Social Business investments, 2) 2011 is the year of accelerated enterprise-wide adoption across most industries; and 3) Social Business is a mission-critical application.

The survey was based on responses from 500 individuals, representing more than 300 companies worldwide. A large percentage of the participating companies have more than 10,000 employees.

Key Finding #1: Social Business Drives Breakthrough Business Results

The first key finding revealed that customers are adopting social in the enterprise to change the way they do business and generate material breakthroughs in revenue, cost-savings and innovation. The business benefits from Social Business adoption extend across three key audiences: employees, customers and the social web.

Top Employee Engagement Benefits:

-- 39 percent increase in employee connectedness;

-- 32 percent more ideas generated and captured;

-- 30 percent increase in employee satisfaction;

-- 27 percent less email;

-- 32 percent reduction in time to find answers; and

-- 37 percent increase in project collaboration and productivity.

Top Customer Engagement Benefits:

-- 42 percent more communication with customers;

-- 31 percent increase in customer retention;

-- 34 percent higher brand awareness;

-- 28 percent decrease in support call volume;

-- 34 percent more feedback and ideas from customers; and

-- 27 percent increase in new customer sales.

Key Finding #2: Social Business Software Adoption is Pervasive

The survey also found that Social Business software is being adopted at a large scale across a broad range of industries. Eighty-three percent of participants reported that they are implementing enterprise-wide Social Business initiatives. This is indicative of the pervasive use of Social Business software to fundamentally change different business processes, from the way employees collaborate to the way companies engage with their customers.

The survey further showed that Social Business is adopted across many industries. From the respondents surveyed, over 35 industries were represented. The top ten industries are:

1. High tech (software/hardware, computer services);

2. Financial services;

3. Communications / Telecommunications;

4. Healthcare;

5. Media / Marketing / Advertising;

6. Retail / Wholesale;

7. Education;

8. Consumer goods;

9. Government; and

10. Insurance.

Key Finding #3: Social Business is Mission-Critical

The last finding showed that Social Business is a mission-critical initiative that requires a tight partnership between IT and business to be successful. IT needs to be closely involved to ensure that the Social Business system has the right scalability, security and corporate governance standards required by the enterprise. 

More information on Social Media can be found at www.CRMindustry.com.