Mediaboss Marketing

THE influence of social media and networking has been so tremendous in recent years that workplaces are increasingly adopting such tools in the business environment, says a study by technology research firm IDC.

According to the IDC Enterprise Social Survey, 52% of organisations in Asia-Pacific already have an enterprise social network in place while 23% plan to adopt one over the next 18 months.

The study, which was commissioned by Microsoft, polled 352 respondents from across the region. Unsurprisingly, the key drivers behind this new wave are a young workforce, early adoption of gadgets and social media, as well as cultural trends such as relationship-focused business dealings.

Todd Cione, chief marketing and operations officer, Microsoft Asia, believes that enterprise social is already happening and has transformed the way businesses work. "Enterprise social is more than just social networks, it changes the way people work and makes them more productive. It is not just technology, collaborating within a company, having new features or blogging. It is about getting work done in a more agile manner together," he says.

Hersing Corp, which runs the ERA property agency franchise in Singapore, is investing in technology that will make it cheaper and easier for its employees to communicate and work with one another.

The company recently inked a deal with Microsoft Singapore to add 5,000 Office 365 subscriptions to its existing user base of some 200. This is one of the largest Office 365 account wins for Microsoft Singapore.

Compared with the typical Microsoft Office suite of programs such as Word, Excel and Outlook that is installed in the users' computers, Office 365 is a package of subscription and cloud-based services that lets users log in wherever they are as long as they have compatible devices.

"It allows them to be productive, in a very familiar way. There is no need to re-learn the best of breed of tools: the Microsoft Office," says John Fernandes, Microsoft Singapore's director of marketing and operations. To date, there are some 135,000 Office 365 users in Singapore.

Jack Chua, Hersing's CEO, says the cost savings of up to US$300,000 (S$366,562) is just one of the many reasons for deploying Office 365. He especially likes its conferencing features such as Lync Online, which can improve communication within the company and among its property agents with its video conferencing capabilities.

He also likes the way Office 365 can easily group agents, who tend to work in teams some specialise in industrial properties, others residential; they are also divided into regions and areas so that they can receive the relevant messages. With Office 365, different teams can also be mobilised rapidly to handle different projects, he adds.

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The rise of social networking within businesses