Wednesday, October 10. 2007

Social Networking, GIS to Improve Knowledge Management?

Reader Susan Zwillinger wanted to share this and seek responses from other APB readers.

Although this is slightly off topic for APB, there is an article in CIO Insight that some of your readers may enjoy. The article discusses the use of social networking applications in internal company networks as a means of knowledge management and improving CRM. The article is here.

The article mentions Leverage Software with its “People Map” application. There is a picture of the application here.

It is not too much of a stretch to see that this type of application could be integrated with GIS to show the spatial relationships along with the business relationships. The larger issue is whether or not enough employees will use the application and enter the quality data required to make it profitable (which is sometimes a problem with GIS implementations, but for different reasons). Perhaps a tech-savvy, 20-something who is eager to climb the ladder will embrace this at the corporate level, but will the experienced sales person who is bringing in a million dollars worth of revenue be willing to share their relationships so that an unknown employee in another state can make a connection? Considering office politics, the social networking software seems like a good idea, but one where the ROI will not be realized for a long time. I’m interested in what other people think about this idea.

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It seems to me that with location-aware social networking, that it finally allows any business -- whether large or small, to put a more 'personal face' on business.

This has been a barrier between customer and business associates since the dawn of telephone communications. One of the things that analysts generally fail to recognize, in my opinion -- is that businesses have become more and more 'unapproachable' throughout the years -- and mainly due in part to the technologies that we all became used to.

By placing a face on business, it's not only good business -- but it connects the customer back to an associate in a more personalized way -- and resembling something a little more like walking in the front door to speak with a representative that you know is taking care of your needs [as a customer].

This is the aspect that the Seth Jayson's of the world just don't 'get', for instance.

#1 Daniel (Link) on 2007-10-10 13:15 (Reply)

I agree that social networking is poised to make use of GIS in a big way (more than just showing dots). As the online mapping platforms and APIs increase in power, you'll see it happening. We at Maponics already see a growing appetite for map layers - for example, our Neighborhood Boundaries, being used in social networking sites to help people identify with a particular community

#2 Darrin Clement (Link) on 2007-10-11 06:26 (Reply)

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