Collaborative Enterprise

Enterprise 2.0 In India

A recent McKinsey report [Requires registration] speaks about high levels of interest amongst Indian enterprises to embrace the Web 2.0 phenomenon. This includes a host of technologies and trends like Blogs, Wikis, Peer-Peer Networks etc., 80% of respondents in India have expressed intentions of investing in Web 2.0 technologies over the next three years. Indian IT companies have already jumped on to the Enterprise 2.0 bandwagon - many of the leading firms are experimenting with RSS, blogs, wikis, podcasting and social networking. Some of them are experimenting with Barcamps and Unconferences for the enterprise. Enterprise 2.0 initiatives in these organizations have predominantly been offshoots of KM and/or enterprise collaboration initiatives.

What about other sectors? Is the Indian industry Enterprise 2.0 ready? A booming economy, global aspirations and leaner or no IT ( fewer legacy systems) as compared to American/European counterparts are all key drivers for Indian companies, both SMBs and large enterprises to leverage emerging technologies in new ways. Some of the key sectors where Enterprise 2.0 is likely to have an impact in India :

Retail

The retail space in India is witnessing tremendous activity. As organized retail becomes the norm, there would be a need to enable collaboration across the value chain. Biggest advantage is that many of these retailers are starting ground-up with their IT infrastructure and there is very little legacy to be dealt with. There is also a need for retailers to go online and B2C sites are a nice sweet spot for social software - to enable social shopping and to tie formal content with user generated content like ratings, reviews etc., with product catalogues.

Media

The Media industry is undergoing a huge transformation in India like the rest of the world. Many traditional players are looking at ways to make their site more participatory and engage with its audience. Citizen journalism is gaining traction. This entails augmenting existing sites with tools/services that will enable a layer of participation. Sites like IBN Live & Merinews are forerunners in using social software as a means to drive peer-peer conversations on the site and beyond. The rest of them will follow suit.

Automotive

Many Indian automotive players are going global. There is a great need for synergy across the value chain - OEMs, distributors, R&D and dealers. For instance getting a dealer on board in India typically takes about 6 months and collaboration happens predominantly over email and phone - Heavyweight CRM/Dealer Relationship Management systems only add to the problem instead of solving it. There is also a huge shortcoming in OEM-Dealership collaboration. Social software can play a key role in overcoming these problems.

Financial Services

Many players in the Financial Services segment are exploring opportunities to improve collaboration internally and with customers. Internal collaboration would entail building out social software wrappers around transactional applications to handle exceptions that occur to typical processes. Collaboration with customers is also becoming extremely crucial. For instance, in the wealth management space, there is a need to engage on an on-going basis with High Net Worth individuals as they plan their finances. Tools/Technologies like Wikis, Blogs and RSS are becoming increasingly important to make this collaboration seamless.

Apart from these, Healthcare and Education are also huge opportunities. Which industries in India would become early adopters of Enterprise 2.0? Where do you think is the maximum impact going to be?

Social Networks in India - Orkut Stands Apart!!

PC World has voted Orkut as the best social networking site in India. The news release itself is sketchy and does not delve into the details. The article says :

"In terms of user experience it is the easiest to navigate, with its straight forward, uncomplicated and clean interface. However, it may not be the best bet for those looking for business networking. It could also do with brighter colors. Orkut also faces some charges of unsuitability for an increasingly younger audience. "

Facebook & LinkedIn are not covered as a part of the study even though both are in the top 100 most visited sites from India. Facebook is the 22nd most visited site from India according to Alexa. Other serious contenders like Hi5, Tagged and MySpace and Bharatstudent have also been left out - All of these are in the top 100 most visited sites from India. Yaari ranks a distant 1600 in traffic and MingleBox 135 while BharatStudent.com ranks 30. Click here for a traffic comparison of Minglebox, Yaari and Bharatstudent.com. I just wish PC World had released a more detailed comparison report - both in terms of features and the sites covered as part of the study.

Social Networking In India - 2007 & Beyond

There has been a lot of activity in the Social Networking space in India this year. With the kind of money being poured into this space, I have been trying to figure out how things may unfold in the coming year and beyond.
The landscape is already crowded with a number of players like Jhoom, MingleBox, Yaari, Humsubka, Yo4Ya and others. Orkut is a clear leader and will continue to be so. Where do we go from here? I see four broad categories of social networks emerging as we go forward. There could be a mish-mash of these options as well.

1. Mobile Communities – With the rapid penetration of mobile devices both incumbent players and startups need to address all levels in the Indian Digital Pyramid [As outlined by Rajesh Jain in a Knowledge @ Wharton Interview - Requires registration] - PC First, Mobile First and Mobile Only. Social Networking players need to go beyond SMS notifications. We need the likes of ProtoMobl, Twitter, DodgeBall. I also believe that there is a huge opportunity for players who address the long tail of "mobile only" and "mobile first" users ( 100 million in all!!) by building out a primarily mobile centric social network that "also" has a web interface instead of focusing first on the web interface. And watch Google closely. It will use its first mover advantage in the social networking space to reach out to the large mobile communities in Brazil and India. My take is that if it gets the DodgeBall/Orkut integration right in India, it would trigger network effects that would bring more and more of the users at the bottom of the pyramid into the Orkut fold. This will be very much in line with what Tim O'Reilly had to say in his recent "Web 2.0 Compact Definition-Trying Again" entry : "Being first or best, you will attract the most users, and if your application truly harnesses network effects to get better the more people use it, you will eventually build barriers to entry based purely on the difficulty of building another such database from the ground up when there's already so much value somewhere else. (This is why no one has yet succeeded in displacing eBay. Once someone is at critical mass, it's really hard to get people to try something else, even if the software is better.)". Expect to see Google entering into partnerships with mobile carriers in India, late 2007 or early 2008.


2. Vertical Communities – These networks would allow individuals to leverage the connections they establish within the social network to achieve a broader objective like job search, making a real estate desicion,planning a trip etc., . This I believe, is going to be a real killer. We need the likes of Doostang, TripConnect and Boompa. My take is that there is a huge opportunity for social nets that can disintermediate the likes of Monster and Naukri - the word of mouth job referral space in India is pretty huge. Tourism and real estate are other areas where social nets can lead to richer user experiences. There are potentially hundreds of other niches that may work in the Indian context.


3. Regional Social Networks - I’m increasingly getting the feeling that to get a critical mass of users in these social networks, we need to dramatically bring down barriers to content creation in local languages. Putting the cart in front of the horse is not going to help. I believe some of the following key technology trends will converge and become key enablers of content creation and catalyze social networks in India:
   a. Transliteration tools like QuillPad
   b. Regional language mobile text input software like the one from Tegic
   c. Mobile keypad layouts in regional languages
   d. All local language computing initiatives like this one


4. Meta Social Networks - PeopleAggregator kind of ecosystems. We are not yet there.

Given the diversity in India in terms of language, culture and life style, it is inevitable that we would end up with a long tail of niche, vertical and mobile social networks. Many of these may be purely mobile or semi mobile - with web as a secondary interface. Startups need to keep these in mind:

1. Understand changing user needs as this generation grows up. Can you create compelling value propositions for an existing Orkut user (passing out of college)? Can your vertical social network help him/her find a job, plan his/her finances etc.,? As social networks mature in India would user expectations in terms of privacy and real tangible value from the community change? Would users want to migrate to other spaces as their social needs change? ( Vox kind of a system as opposed to public scrap books on Orkut).Social networking for the sake of social networking is not sustainable. The key is to create the value layer on top of the connections you enable in the network.


2. Monetizing nodes in a social network remains a challenge. On top of that monetizing a purely mobile, semi-mobile and vertical social networks would a bigger challenge. There is a need for some innovative business models in this space.


3. Remember that this game is not about better software and more features - It is about creating a platform where there is a happy marriage between network effects and rich user experiences for the Indian consumer.


4. Don't take Google and Orkut for granted. DodgeBall integration could be the tipping point for Google and the last nail on the coffin for the rest unless they differentiate,verticalize and reach out to the long tail of users. Let me repeat - the game is not about more features, it is about network effects and Google understands that really well.