Does Social Business Software Democratise Business Decisions?

I was recently presenting our social business software cloud application to a group of HR professionals.

Personally, I'm quite interested in the application of our "employee idea and innovation module" because it's an effective way for employees to submit, vote and collaborate on new ideas within the business.

The module is completely integrated into the employee profile and activity stream ensuring prominent ideas and discussions gain visibility. Employees can also subscribe to topics of interest and filter the discussions by popularity and ratings.

Nearing the end of this segment a lively discussion emerged. The primary concern was related to the company's obligation to implement ideas and suggestions that gain employee popularity.

Would management be increasingly compelled to discuss business decisions and more importantly would this type of general employee involvement eventually lead to 'democratised' decision making within the organization?

These questions deserve to be dealt with from a number of operational (and psychological) perspectives however the key point of this article, and the point of social business software in general, is that it is just that; software.

On a practical level, any type of social business software or enterprise 2.0 related application should be implemented as a tool to reduce inefficiencies, increase communication and assist employees to easier achieve their daily agenda.

That's where a pure-play social business software specialist comes into play. It's our job to first understand your business objectives and your employee frustrations so that we can then mould our software to resolve your specific business scenarios.

The answer to this blog question (after my long winded pre-amble) is that yes, social business software does democratise business decisions - but only if you want it to.

An interactive ideas and discussion module can be restricted to senior management access; adapted to only accept ideas for competitions; limited to specific business or social topics; perhaps employee feedback, commenting and voting would be disabled. These suggestions just scratch the surface.

Pure-play social business software providers are positioned to understand the business value, unlock the application potential and then adapt the tools to your culture and modus operandi.

I’d really like to hear some feedback about your troublesome business scenarios. I’d be happy to share my thoughts about how social business software tools could be designed to alleviate your pain. Please use the comments box below or contact me on ant [at] mumba [dot] com [dot] au