Case Study: Enterprise Social Networks @ Toyota – Knowledge Sharing & Collaboration

Toyota uses Salesforce.com enterprise social network platform called Chatter that facilitates internal communication between hundreds of thousands of Toyota employees across the world to interact, share and collaborate with each other on a day to day basis and work for the organizational growth. Employees have to login to access the intranet, join groups and participated in discussions of their interests and can post updates, comments, opinions, questions and get answers and suggestions from coworkers based in 170 countries around the world.  With Chatter platform allowing collaboration and sharing of information and documents employees can actively collaborate and work together to resolve critical issues. “People have only 24 hours a day,” says Toyoda. “But through social we can connect with many people at once.” Enterprise social networking platforms are critical tools for knowledge management as organizations need to document and share the knowledge within the organizations effectively for growth. "Most of the knowledge is tacit. It is walking around in the heads of our employees," said Steve Kang, social enterprise manager for Toyota. "The question is how do you get that knowledge? How do you extract that knowledge? Because it's not written down anywhere. This provides us with a way to do that."

Toyota started using the Chatter based intranet since 2012 and employees can access the intranet not only through desktops but also using the mobile devices like iPad, Android and BlackBerry applications. Employees can create topic centered groups and engage with others on this platform and interactions should be mostly work related and one of the popular group is the "ask all Toyota" for employees to pose questions to other Toyota workers around the globe. Another important usage of Chatter in Toyota is the cross-departmental task forces that collaborate across different departments located across the globe and they prefer chatter rather than the traditional email as Chatter allows easy flow of information between collaborators.  Even the senior management in Toyota actively use intranet to communicate with employees and employees keep track of the posts by the senior management. Toyota even implemented a translation service within the chatter so as there will be seamless interaction between Japanese and Non-Japanese employees that enhanced communication among Toyota employees around the world, leading to quicker decision-making and information-sharing as enhanced communication ultimately help to make products and services best suited to consumers. Along with digital modes of communications Toyota also uses face-to-face contact where in Senior management regularly walk around and talk to employees and also regularly hold roundtable discussions. Employees are critical part of organizational success and organizations need to implement platforms that allow communication, collaboration and sharing of information and knowledge between employees and also with senior management so that they can also work together for achieving the organization goals and objectives. Enterprise Social Networks also allow employee engagement with customers and also allow engagement on external social networking platforms too. 

Social Media @ HCL Tech – Social Network platform Meme to "connect, share, learn & grow”

HCL Technologies is a global technology and IT Enterprise and it has 88,000 employees with offices in 26 countries and generates revenues of around US$ 3.9 billion. HCL Tech provides multi-service delivery in key industry verticals including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consumer Services, Public Services and Healthcare. HCL takes pride in its philosophy of 'Employees First, Customers Second' which empowers their employees to create value for the customers. Employees need to communicate with one another for project related activities and also for understanding each other personally and culturally. These interactions are essential for the global organizations to run smoothly, knowledge management, innovation and operational efficiencies. HCL believes that younger generation work force is looking for openness, transparency and lack of command and control and collaborative work style and the organizations have to transform themselves to look like Facebook, which is not hierarchical pyramid and embrace social media in the organizations. When the idea of internal social network propped HCL management was concerned about the productivity of the employees and with belief on their employees approval was given.

HCL developed its own social network for internal use, called Meme, which was modeled after Facebook, and the site was opened for use among employees in April 2011.  MEME, has almost 60,000 registered users, 49,917 photos uploaded in 15,290 albums, 38,498 messages, averaging about 11 per connected employee, have been sent over the platform, 2,400 queries in Ask HR tab and has 1,579 groups where employees can discuss topics ranging from work-life continuity & passion factors at work, participate in contests, download Meme to their mobiles and through which they share feedback and provide enhancement suggestions. Younger employees are attracted to this platform as they are very familiar with communication and collaboration tools like Facebook, Twitter, etc and the numbers highlight that this social networking tool is well adopted by the employees. Employees can share their queries on MEME and get answers from other employees and experts within the company.

HCL Technologies had many initiatives such as social network called U&I that employees can use to interact with CEO, Communities called Employee First Councils around health and hygiene, art, music, corporate social responsibility and business related passions such as a particular technology or a vertical domain area, My Blueprint, another social networking system allowing managers to share plans for their specific business areas and get feedback from another 8000 HCL Tech managers. The company Employee First and Customer Second policy itself highlights the importance for a strong intranet within the organization to engage in open dialogue with his employees. HCL Tech CEO Vineet Nayar believes that the only way to bring innovation to the centre stage of the company to grow faster in the economic turbulent time is to get innovation going at the bottom of the pyramid to employees. He also says that only by putting employees first would you be converting the management and managers and management of the company to be in the business of enthusing and encouraging and enabling the employees. HCL is one company that has seen tremendous success with its Employee First policy. 

Social Media @ Wipro – My Wipro World for employee collaboration & networking

Wipro is a global IT services and consulting company and the company has 136,734 employees with 72 plus global delivery centers across 5 continents and generates revenues of around US$ 7 billion. Wipro has more than 150 global Fortune 500 clients across financial services, retail, transportation, manufacturing, healthcare services, energy and utilities, technology, telecom and media. Wipro believes that employee’s particularly younger generation want to interact with management regularly and social networking tools within the organizations provide a platform for communication and feedback between the employees and managements. Employees need to communicate with one another for project related activities and also for understanding each other personally and culturally. These interactions are essential for the global organizations to run smoothly, knowledge management, innovation and operational efficiencies. Wipro blog can be found on the website home page and blog posts are posted by the senior managers in the company and the topics are mostly technology and vertical related. Wipro had published blogging policy for all their Employees in 2010 which ensure that any content (Blog post, article or comments) published by Wipro Employees on internet are governed by the strict guidelines.

Wipro has a Social Media section on its company website home page called Wipro Social which has live feeds of Facebook, Twitter accounts of Wipro technologies & Experience Wipro and also Slide Share and YouTube Channels. Any discussion/posts/updates that quote Wipro are immediately updated on the Wipro Social that allows the company to keep track of various discussions and mentions about the company. Company also has Wipro TV that is part of branding initiative and also airs white papers and content developed by others like TV channels about the company and its leadership. Wipro also has social networking tool for employees called ‘MyWiproWorld’ launched in 2009, which has 116,981 registered users and 3,264 communities and has become an online forum for collaboration, networking, ideation and innovation. Employees can comment on blog posts, chat with colleagues on various chat forums and discuss various issues with HR and their bosses anonymously if they wish to do so. Wipro has integrated both Twitter and Facebook with MyWiproWorld so that employees can bring together their personal and official worlds.

The classifieds’ section of My Wipro World has 56,000 listings and employees use the portal’s classified section to sell bikes and rent homes as and when they relocate to other places. Wipro launched its employee portal ChannelW ten years ago and it has become one of the most effective employee communication platforms in the company. Today, it receives close to 3.5 crore hits a month. Employees can discuss what is happening inside the company, share ideas/thoughts and post advertisements (such as, selling old furniture, etc) in their discussion boards. The intranet provides a platform to share knowledge among Wipro employees and collaborate with one another across various locations. The company also has a knowledge repository called K Net based on Microsoft SharePoint. Both ChannelW and MyWipro World have a significant impact on the employee engagement and motivation of the employees and it has bonded together the employees working from various locations and has provided them the necessary platforms to communicate and collaborate. 

Social Media @ Infosys – Infy Bubble Social Networking Platform for employees

Infosys is a global technology services company and the company has 146,000 employees with 64 offices across over 29 countries and generates revenues of around US$ 7 billion. North America is the dominant geography followed by Europe in terms of revenue contribution. BFSI, Manufacturing, Retail & CPG, Telecom, Energy & Utilities are the major verticals. Infosys believes that in today’s dynamic business world, success is significantly determined by the collective intelligence and actions of company’s employees. Infosys built an internal communication system that helps its employees collaborate and share knowledge. Employees need to communicate with one another for project related activities and also for understanding each other personally and culturally. These interactions are essential for the global organizations to run smoothly, knowledge management, innovation and operational efficiencies. Infosys also has formulated a social media policy for its employees that provide guidelines in terms how to be active on the various social networking sites without causing any damage to company and its brand reputation. Employee engagement and satisfaction levels have increased after the adoption of the internal social networking tools/platforms in the organization.

Infosys had launched InfyBubble in June 2011, internally developed social network for employees and there are 82,000 employees registered on the platform, with 392,051 connections established across the world and 102,572 average page views a day. The site looks like a Facebook page and Infosys employees can share moods, blogs, videos, photographs and other stuff. The site does not allow employees to post any personal comments on their managers or superiors but negative feedback in terms of performance and work related are invited and expects discipline to be maintained on the social platform. Employees can collaborate with colleagues not only for work but also based on the interest and hobbies. Infosys also launched InfyRadio in August 2011, an in-house radio station for employees across all development centers in India through which employees are informed about happenings in the organization and also ensures they are motivated and engaged with some fun at work. The station runs for six hours a day, five days a week and is accessible via a link on the employee’s computer and on an average it receives 10,000 hits per day.

Infosys intranet Sparsh, the information intranet of Infosys, allows every single member of Infosys to be connected at all times and was rated among the world’s top 10.  It serves as an internal social network, and members can exchange ideas by email, bulletin boards and also hold discussions. Sparsh has helped Infosys in reducing operating costs and meeting clients’ needs even more efficiently, and increase in operating margins. Sparsh is coupled with KShop; a knowledge database where Infosys has book reviews, case studies, even materials, FAQs, tutorials, downloadable software etc for every employee. Infosys in the recent years have been facing significant attrition levels and the company with an intention to regain its best employer status launched these social media initiative in the last few years. Also through the social networking platform and other collaborative tools Infosys is expecting to retain the employees and actively engage them with the management and also involve them in the organization strategy and future policy initiatives.  

Social Media @ TCS – Social Networking Platform internally for employees

TCS is a global IT services, business solutions and outsourcing company and the company has 226,751 employees with 142 offices across over 47 countries and generates revenues of around US$ 8 billion. TCS is the largest Indian IT vendor and gets most of its revenues from North America, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. BFSI, Telecom, Retail & Distribution, Manufacturing and Hi-tech are the dominant verticals. BPO contributes around 11% of total revenues. With operations in 47 countries and more than 200,000 employees across the globe TCS needs an internal communication system that helps its employees collaborate and share knowledge. Employees need to communicate with one another for project related activities and also for understanding each other personally and culturally. These interactions are essential for the global organizations to run smoothly, knowledge management, innovation and operational efficiencies.

TCS has an internal communication system that consists of wikis, forums, blogs, personalized websites & other tools for employees to communicate with the management, and share their concerns and queries. In 2011, TCS started building an integrated system that would enhance the employee engagement and communication with management further and the online program is called ‘@TCS’ that looks like Facebook page and which allows employees to share personal information, post photographs, blogs and comments on any topic and upload user-generated videos.  TCS launched this Facebook styled internal social networking platform only in 2011. Another initiative is the ‘Great India Food Guide’ which lists all Indian food joints in various regions as TCS has its employees travelling to almost all parts of the globe and has 50-60 listings of Indian hotels across the globe. @TCS will be launched in other languages like Spanish, Chinese and German and the communications team is responsible for the whole initiative. Company is also evaluating setting up an e-commerce portal for its employees and is planning to create a corporate social responsibility (CSR) corner where employees can talk about various social issues they are working on.

Tata Consultancy services (TCS) developed a platform called Ultimatix which helps to consolidate internal systems and take advantage of group knowledge. TCS invested in this platform of wikis, personalized sites, blogs that not only bring employees together but also help employees to collaborate for organizational benefits. Justask is similar to Q&A forums that enable employees to ask questions openly, Ideamax encourages employees to share their ideas about a particular technology or a process. Ultimatix integrated 50 core applications to streamline operations and internal collaboration for more than 700 business processes. It integrated all internal processes, including HR, finance, and project management, to support over 200,000 staff. TCS has always worked to bring together their employees across the globe and provide them the necessary tools to interact between themselves and also actively interact with the management. TCS also has a Facebook page and Twitter account and they interact with various stakeholders through the external social networking tools and talks about new client wins, interviews and releases. TCS also uses various social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to recruit employees.