Last year (OITJ Feb 09) Shell’s Mike Hinkle described early trials of social networking. The idea then was to ‘do more with less, to reduce travel and connect with the ‘deep expertise’ of an ageing workforce.’ Shell’s enthusiasm for social networking was backed up by a survey from Microsoft and Accenture that found ‘over 70% of respondents believed that collaboration and knowledge sharing are important.’ The 2009 survey revealed that organizations are still using ‘older means of collaboration’ like face-to-face meetings, e-mails and conference calls’ instead of snazzy social media.
Today, it is Shell group IT architect Johan Krebbers who is banging the collaboration drum noting that ‘80% of our teams are global, with members in multiple locations and we must provide a world-class collaboration capability.’ A new study from the same team found (again) that energy professionals ‘want more effective ways to share and communicate’ and that they are desperately waiting for social media and collaboration tools to help them do so. The 2010 study also found (again) that internal barriers inhibit effective collaboration.
Despite the fact that this year’s findings are the same as last year’s, Microsoft’s Craig Hodges described the 2010 findings as an ‘eye-opener.’ Maybe Microsoft should subscribe to Oil IT Journal to refresh its collective memory! An RSS feed is available for ‘seamless’ SharePoint integration. More from the Microsoft survey on links/1002_3.
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