Select and Implement a Social Media Management Platform

Rein in social media by choosing a management platform that’s right for you.

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

Enterprise use of social media for customer interaction has exploded. Select the right management platform to maximize the value of your social initiatives.

“Social media has rapidly become a ubiquitous channel for customer interaction. Organizations are using social media for use cases from targeted advertising, to sales prospecting, to proactive customer service. However, the growing footprint of social media initiatives – and the constant proliferation of new social networks – has created significant complexity in effectively capturing the value of social.

Organizations that are serious about social manage this complexity by leveraging dedicated social media management platforms. These platforms provide comprehensive capabilities for managing multiple social media networks, creating engagement and response workflows, and providing robust social analytics. Selecting a best-fit SMMP allows for standardized, enterprise-wide capabilities for managing all aspects of social media.

This report will help you define your requirements for social media management and select a vendor that is best fit for your needs, as well as review critical implementation considerations such as CRM integration and security.”

Ben Dickie
Research Director, Enterprise Applications
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive summary

Situation

• Social media has reached maturity as a proven, effective channel for customer interaction across multiple use cases, from customer analytics to proactive customer service.
• Organizations are looking to IT to provide leadership with social media technology enablement and integration with other enterprise systems.

Complication

• The proliferation of social media networks, customer data, and use cases has made ad hoc social media management challenging.
• Many organizations struggle with shadow IT when it comes to technology enablement for social media; SMMP fragmentation leads to increased costs and no uniformity in enterprise social media management capabilities.

Resolution

• Social media management platforms (SMMPs) reduce complexity and increase the results of enterprise social media initiatives. SMMPs integrate with a variety of different social media services, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. The platforms offer a variety of tools for managing social media, including account management, in-band response and engagement, and social monitoring and analytics.
• The value proposition of SMMPs revolves around enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of social media. Using an SMMP to manage social media is considerably more cost effective than ad hoc (manual) management.
• IT must partner with other departments (e.g. Marketing) to successfully evaluate, select, and implement an SMMP. Before selecting an SMMP, the organization must have a solid overall strategy for leveraging social media in place. If IT does not work as a trusted advisor to the business, shadow IT in social media management will be rampant.

Info-Tech Insight

1. SMMP selection must be driven by your overall customer experience management strategy: link your SMMP selection to your organization’s CXM framework.
2. Shadow IT will dominate if IT does not step in: even more so than other areas, SMMP selection is rife with shadow IT.
3. Ensure strong points of integration between SMMP and other software such as customer relationship management (CRM). SMMPs can contribute to a unified, 360-degree customer view.

Framing the SMMP selection and implementation project

Social media management platforms augment social capabilities within a broader customer experience ecosystem

SMMPs reduce complexity and increase the effectiveness of enterprise social media programs

SMMPs are solutions (typically cloud based) that offer a host of features for effectively monitoring the social cloud and managing your organization’s presence in the social cloud. SMMPs give businesses the tools they need to run social campaigns in a timely and cost-effective manner. The typical SMMP integrates with two or more social media services (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) via the services’ API or a dedicated connector. SMMPs are not simply a revised “interface layer” for a single social media service. They provide layers for advanced management and analytics across multiple services. The unique value of SMMPs comes from their ability to manage and track multiple social media services. Aggregating and managing data from multiple services gives businesses a much more holistic view of their organization’s social initiatives and reputation in the social cloud.

SMMPs mediate interactions between end users and the social cloud.

Info-Tech Best Practice

The increasing complexity of social media, coupled with the rising importance of social channels, has led to a market for formal management platforms. Organizations with an active presence in social media (i.e. multiple services or pages) should strongly consider selecting and deploying an SMMP.

Failing to rein in social media initiatives leads to more work, uninformed decisions, and diminishing returns

Info-Tech Best Practice

Effectively managing a social media campaign is not a straightforward exercise. If you have (or plan to have) a large social media footprint, now is the time to procure formal software tools for social media management. Continuing to manage social media in an ad hoc manner is sapping time and money.

Review the critical success factors for SMMP across the project lifecycle, from planning to post-implementation

Info-Tech Insight

Executive management support is crucial. The number one overall critical success factor for an SMMP strategy is top management support. This emphasizes the importance of sales, service, and marketing and prudent corporate strategic alignment. A strategic objective in SMMP projects is to position top management as an enabler rather than a barrier.

(Source: Information Systems Frontiers)

Dell uses a dedicated social media management platform to power a comprehensive social command center

Follow Info-Tech’s methodology for selection and implementation of enterprise applications

Prior to embarking on the vendor selection stage, ensure you have set the right building blocks and completed the necessary prerequisites.

Follow Info-Tech’s enterprise applications program that covers the application lifecycle from the strategy stage, through selection and implementation, and up to governance and optimization. The implementation and execution stage entails the following steps: Define the business case. Gather and analyze requirements. Build the RFP. Conduct detailed vendor evaluations. Finalize vendor selection. Review implementation considerations.

Info-Tech Insight

A critical preceding task to selecting a social media management platform is ensuring a strategy is in place for enterprise social media usage. Use our social media strategy blueprint to ensure the foundational elements are in place prior to proceeding with platform selection.

Use this blueprint to support your SMMP selection and implementation

Launch the SMMP Project and Collect Requirements — Phase 1

Benefits — Use the project steps and activity instructions outlined in this blueprint to streamline your selection process and implementation planning. Save time and money, and improve the impact of your SMMP selection by leveraging Info-Tech’s research and project steps.

Select Your SMMP Solution — Phase 2

Use Info-Tech’s SMMP Vendor Landscape contained in Phase 2 of this project to support your vendor reviews and selection. Refer to the use-case performance results to identify vendors that align with the requirements and solution needs identified by your earlier project findings.

Get Ready for Your SMMP Implementation — Phase 3

Info-Tech Insight — Not everyone’s connection and integration needs are the same. Understand your own business’s integration environment and the unique technical and functional requirements that accompany them to create criteria and select a best-fit SMMP solution.

Use Info-Tech’s use-case scenario approach to select a best-fit solution for your business needs

Readiness Determine where you are right now and where your organization needs to go with a social media strategy.

Use-Case Assessment Identify the best-fit use-case scenario to determine requirements that best align with your strategy.

Selection Approach vendor selection through a use-case centric lens to balance the need for different social capabilities.

Info-Tech walks you through the following steps to help you to successfully select and implement your SMMP

Locate your starting point in the research based on the current stage of your project.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

Select and Implement a Social Media Management Platform – project overview

	1. Develop a Technology Enablement Approach	2. Select an SMMP	3. Review Implementation Considerations
Best-Practice Toolkit	1.1 Determine if a dedicated SMMP is right for your organization Social Media Maturity Assessment Tool Social Media Opportunity Assessment Tool 1.2 Use an SMMP to enable marketing, sales, and service use cases SMMP Use-Case Fit Assessment Tool	2.1 SMMP Vendor Landscape CRM Suite Evaluation and RFP Scoring Tool 2.2 Select your SMMP SMMP Vendor Demo Script Template SMMP RFP Template	3.1 Establish best practices for SMMP implementation Social Media Steering Committee 3.2 Assess the measured value from the project
Guided Implementations	Identify organizational fit for the technology. Evaluate social media opportunities within your organization. Evaluate which SMMP use-case scenario is best fit for your organization	Discuss the use-case fit assessment results and the Vendor Landscape. Review contract.	Determine what is the right governance structure to overlook the SMMP implementation. Identify the right deployment model for your organization. Identify key performance indicators for business units using an SMMP.
Onsite Workshop	Module 1: Launch Your SMMP Selection Project	Module 2: Plan Your Procurement and Implementation Process
	Phase 1 Outcome: Social Media Maturity Assessment SMMP Use-Case Assessment	Phase 2 Outcome: Selection of an SMMP	Phase 3 Outcome: A plan for implementing the selected SMMP

SMMP selection and implementation workshop overview

Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The light blue slides at the end of each section highlight the key activities and exercises that will be completed during the engagement with our analyst team.

Use these icons to help direct you as you navigate this research

Use these icons to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to the recommended activities.

	This icon denotes a slide where a supporting Info-Tech tool or template will help you perform the activity or step associated with the slide. Refer to the supporting tool or template to get the best results and proceed to the next step of the project.
	This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members who will come onsite to facilitate a workshop for your organization.
	This icon denotes a slide that pertains directly to the Info-Tech vendor profiles on marketing management technology. Use these slides to support and guide your evaluation of the MMS vendors included in the research.

Select and Implement a Social Media Management Platform

PHASE 1

Develop a Technology Enablement Approach for Social Media

Phase 1: Develop a technology enablement approach for social media

Estimated Timeline: 1-3 Months

Phase 1 outline

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 1: Develop a technology enablement approach for social media

Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks

Phase 1, Step 1: Determine if a dedicated SMMP is right for your organization

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Assess where your organization sits on the social media maturity curve.
• Inventory the current social media networks that must be supported by the SMMP.
• Go/no-go assessment on SMMP.

This step involves the following participants:

• Digital Marketing Executive
• Digital Strategy Executive
• Business stakeholders

Outcomes of this step

• Social media maturity assessment
• Inventory of enterprise social media
• SMMP Go/no-go decision

Before selecting an SMMP, start with the fundamentals: build a comprehensive strategy for enterprise social media

Implement a social media strategy by determining where you are right now and where your organization needs to go

	Distributed Stage Open-source or low-cost solutions are implemented informally by individual depts. for specific projects. Solutions are deployed to fulfill a particular function without an organizational vision. The danger of this stage is lack of consistent customer experience and wasted resources.	Loosely Coupled Stage More point solutions are implemented across the organization. There is a formal cross-departmental effort to integrate some point solutions. Risks include failing to put together an effective steering committee and not including IT in the decision-making process.	Command Center Stage There’s enterprise-level steering committee with representation from all areas: execution of social programs is handled by a fully resourced physical (or virtual) center. Risks include improper resource allocation and lack of end-user training.
		Optimal stages for SMMP purchase

Assess where your organization sits on the social media maturity curve

INPUT: Social media initiatives, Current status

OUTPUT: Current State Maturity Assessment

MATERIALS: Whiteboard, Markers, Sticky notes

PARTICIPANTS: Digital Strategy Executive, Business stakeholders

Before you can move to an objective assessment of your social media program’s maturity, take an inventory of your current efforts across different departments (e.g. Marketing, PR, Sales, and Customer Service). Document the results in the Social Media Maturity Assessment Tool to determine your social media readiness score.

Determine your organization’s social media maturity with Info-Tech’s Maturity Assessment Tool

Assessing where you fit on the social media maturity continuum is critical for setting the future direction of your social media program. We’ll work through a short tool that assesses the current state of your social media program, then discuss the results.

Info-Tech’s Social Media Maturity Assessment Tool will help you determine your company’s level of maturity and recommend steps to move to the next level or optimize the status quo of your current efforts.

INFO-TECH TOOL

The social cloud is a dominant point of interaction: integrate social channels with existing customer interaction channels

Instead of thinking of customers as an island, think of them interacting with each other and with organizations in the social cloud. As a result, the social cloud itself becomes a point of interaction, not just individual customers. The social cloud is accessible with services like social networks (e.g. Facebook) and micro-blogs (Twitter). Previous lessons learned from the integration of Web 1.0 e-channels should be leveraged as organizations add the social media channel into their overall customer interaction framework: Do not design exclusively around a single channel. Design hybrid-channel solutions that include social channels. Balance customer segment goals and attributes, product and service goals and attributes, and channel capabilities.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Don’t believe that social channel integration will require an entire rebuild of your CXM strategy. Social channels are just new interaction channels that need to be integrated – as you’ve done in the past with Web 1.0 e-channels.

Understand the different types of social media services and how they link to social media strategy and SMMP selection

Before adopting an SMMP, it’s important to understand the underlying services they manage. Social media services facilitate the creation and dissemination of user-generated content, and can be grouped according to their purpose and functionality: Social Networking: Social networking services use the Friend-of-a-Friend model to allow users to communicate with their personal networks. Users can share a wide variety of information and media with one another. Social networking sites include Facebook and LinkedIn. Blogging: Blogs are websites that allow users to upload text and media entries, typically displayed in reverse-chronological order. Prominent blogging services include Blogger and WordPress. Micro-Blogging: Micro-blogging is similar to blogging, with the exception that written content is limited to a set number of characters. Twitter, the most popular service, allows users to post messages up to 140 characters. Social Multimedia: Social multimedia sites provide an easy way for users to upload and share multimedia content (e.g. pictures, video) with both their personal contacts as well as the wider community. YouTube is extremely popular for video sharing, while Instagram is a popular option for sharing photos and short videos. Info-Tech Best Practice In many cases, services do not fit discretely within each category. With minor exceptions, creating an account on a social media service is free, making use of these services extremely cost effective. If your organization makes extensive use of a particular service, ensure it is supported by your SMMP vendor.

Inventory the current social media networks that must be supported by the SMMP

INPUT: Social media services

OUTPUT: Inventory of enterprise social media

MATERIALS: Whiteboard, Markers

PARTICIPANTS: Project team

1. List all existing social media networks used by your organization.
2. For each network, enumerate all the accounts that are being used for organizational objectives.
3. Identify the line of business that administers and manages each service.

An explosion of social media services and functionality has made effectively managing social interactions a complex task

Effectively managing social channels is an increasingly complicated task. Proliferation of social media services and rapid end-user uptake has made launching social interactions a challenge for small and large organizations. Using multiple social media services can be a nightmare for account management (particularly when each brand or product line has its own set of social accounts). The volume of data generated by the social cloud has also created barriers for successfully responding in-band to social stakeholders (social engagement), and for carrying out social analytics. There are two methods for managing social media: ad hoc management and platform-based management. Ad hoc social media management is accomplished using the built-in functionality and administrative controls of each social media service. It is appropriate for small organizations with a very limited scope for social media interaction, but poses difficulties once “critical mass” has been reached.

Ad hoc management results in a number of social media touch points. SMMPs serve as a single go-to point for all social media initiatives

Info-Tech Best Practice

Managing social media is becoming increasingly difficult to do through ad hoc methods, particularly for larger organizations and those with multiple brand portfolios. Ad hoc management is best suited for small organizations with an institutional client base who only need a bare bones social media presence.

Select social media services that will achieve your specific objectives – and look for SMMPs that integrate with them

What areas are different social media services helpful in? Domain Opportunity Consumer Social Networks (Facebook) Micro-Blogging (Twitter) Professional Social Networks (LinkedIn) Consumer Video Sharing Networks (YouTube) Marketing Building Positive Brand Image Increase Mind Share Gaining Customer Insights Sales Gaining Sales Insights Increase Revenue Customer Acquisition Service Customer Satisfaction Increase Customer Retention Reducing Cost of Service

Proven Useful* Potentially Useful *Proven useful by Info-Tech statistical analysis carried out on a cross-section of real-world implementations. Social media is invaluable for marketing, sales, and customer service. Some social media services have a higher degree of efficacy than others for certain functions. Be sure to take this into account when developing a social media strategy.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Different social media services are more effective than others for different goals. For example, YouTube is useful as an avenue for marketing campaigns, but it’s of substantially less use for sales functions like lead generation. The services you select while planning your social media strategy must reflect concrete goals.

Ad hoc social media management results in manual, resource-intensive processes that are challenging to measure

• Most organizations that have pursued social media initiatives have done so in an ad hoc fashion rather than outlining a formal strategy and deploying software solutions (e.g. SMMP).
• Social media is often a component of Customer Experience Management (CXM); Info-Tech’s research shows many organizations are handling CRM without a strategy in place, too.
• Social media management platforms reduce the resource-intensive processes required for ongoing social media involvement and keep projects on track by providing reporting metrics.

SMMPs provide functionality for robust account management, in-band customer response, and social monitoring/analytics

Info-Tech Best Practice

SMMPs are a technology platform, but this alone is insufficient to execute a social media program. Organization and process must be integrated as well. See Info-Tech’s research on developing a social media strategy for a step-by-step guide on how to optimize your internal organization and processes.

Social analytics vary: balance requirements among monitoring goals and social presence/property management

Some firms only need social cloud monitoring, some need to monitor their own social media properties, and others will need to do both. Some vendors do both while other vendors excel in only one feature dimension. If you are NOT prepared to act on results from social cloud monitoring, then don’t expand your reach into the social cloud for no reason. You can always add cloud monitoring services later. Likewise, if you only need to monitor the cloud and have no or few of your own social properties, don’t buy advanced management and engagement features.

Use social analytics to gain the most value from your SMMP

Research indicates successful organizations employ both social cloud monitoring and management of their own properties with analytical tools to enhance both or do one or the other well. Few vendors excel at both larger feature categories. But the market is segmented into vendors that organizations should be prepared to buy more than one product from to satisfy all requirements. However, we expect feature convergence over the next 1–3 years, resulting in more comprehensive vendor offerings.

Cost/Benefit Scenario: A mid-sized consumer products company wins big by adopting an SMMP

Go with an SMMP if your organization needs a heavy social presence; stick with ad hoc management if it doesn’t

The value proposition of acquiring an SMMP does not resonate the same for all organizations: in some cases, it is more cost effective to forego an SMMP and stick with ad hoc social media management.

Follow these guidelines for determining if an SMMP is a natural fit for your organization.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Using an SMMP is definitively superior to ad hoc social media management for those organizations with multiple brands and product portfolios (e.g. consumer packaged goods). Ad hoc management is best for small organizations with an institutional client base who only need a bare bones social media presence.

Assess which social media opportunities exist for your organization with Info-Tech’s tool

1.2 Social Media Opportunity Assessment Tool

Use Info-Tech’s Social Media Opportunity Assessment Tool to determine, based on your unique criteria, where social media opportunities exist for your organization in marketing, sales, and service.

Info-Tech Best Practice Remember that departmental goals will overlap; gaining customer insight is valuable to marketing, sales, and customer service. The social media benefits you can expect to achieve will evolve as your processes mature. Often, organizations jump into social media because they feel they have to. Use this assessment to identify early on what your drivers should be.

Go/no-go assessment on SMMP

1.1.3

INPUT: Social Media Opportunity Questionnaire

OUTPUT: SMMP go/no-go decision

MATERIALS: Whiteboard, Opportunity Assessment Tool

PARTICIPANTS: Digital Strategy Executive, Business stakeholders

Identify whether an SMMP will help you achieve your goals in sales, marketing, and customer service.

1. Complete the questionnaire in the Social Media Opportunity Assessment Tool. Ensure all relevant stakeholders are present to answer questions pertaining to their business area.
2. Evaluate the results to better understand whether your organization has the opportunity to achieve each established goal in marketing, sales, and customer service with an SMMP or you are not likely to benefit from investing in a social media management solution.

Phase 1, Step 2: Use an SMMP to enable marketing, sales, and service use cases

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Profile and rank your top use cases for social media management
• Build the metrics inventory

This step involves the following participants:

• Project Manager
• Project Team

Outcomes of this step

• Use case suitability
• SMMP metrics inventory

SMMPs equip front-line sales staff with the tools they need for effective social lead generation

Info-Tech Best Practice

Social media is on the rise in sales organizations. Savvy companies are using social channels at all points in the sales process, from prospecting to account management. Organizations using social channels for sales will want an SMMP to manage the volume of information and provide content-centric analytics.

Incorporate social media into marketing workflows to gain customer insights, promote your brand, and address concerns

Large organizations must define separate workflows for each stakeholder organization if marketing’s duties are divided by company division, brand, or product lines. Inquiries stemming from marketing campaigns and advertising must be handled by social media teams. For example, if a recent campaign sparks customer questions on the company’s Facebook page, be ready to respond! Social media can be used to detect issues that may indicate product defects, provided defect tracking is not already incorporated into customer service workflows. If defect tracking is part of customer service processes, then such issues should be routed to the customer service organization. If social listening is employed, in addition to monitoring the company's own social properties, marketing teams may elect to receive notices of major trends concerning the company's products or those of competitors.

“I’m typically using my social media team as a proactive marketing team in the social space, whereas I’m using my consumer relations team as a reactive marketing and a reactive consumer relations taskforce. So a little bit different perspective.” (Greg Brickl, IT Director, Organic Valley)

SMMPs allow marketers to satisfy all of their needs with one solution

Have a marketing manager jointly responsible for the selection of an SMMP to realize higher overall success. This will significantly improve customer acquisition approval and competitive intelligence, as well as the overall SMMP success. The marketing manager should be involved in fleshing out the business requirements of the SMMP in order to select the most appropriate solution. Once selected, the SMMP has multiple benefits for marketing professionals. One pivotal benefit of SMMPs for marketing is the capability for centralized account management. Multiple social pages and feeds can be rapidly managed at pre-determined times, through an easy-to-use dashboard delivered from one source. Centralized account management is especially pertinent for organizations with a wide geographic client base, as they can manage wide social media campaigns within multiple time zones, delivering their messaging appropriately. (e.g. contests, product launches, etc.)

(Source: Info-Tech Research Group N = 37)

Info-Tech Best Practice

Managing multiple social media accounts on an ad hoc basis is time consuming and costs money. Lower costs and get the best results out of your social media campaigns by involving the marketing team in the SMMP selection process and knowing their functional requirements.

Leverage SMMPs to proactively identify and respond to customer service issues occurring in the social cloud

SMMPs are an invaluable tool in customer service organizations. In-band response capabilities allow customer service representatives to quickly and effectively address customer service issues – either reactively or proactively. Reactive customer service can be provided through SMMPs by providing response capabilities for private messages or public mentions (e.g. “@AcmeCo” on Twitter). Many SMMPs provide a queue of social media messages directed at the organization, and also give the ability to assign specific messages to an individual service representative or product expert. Responding to a high-volume of reactive social media requests can be time consuming without an SMMP. Proactive customer service uses the ability of SMMPs to monitor the social cloud for specific keywords in order to identify customers having issues. Forward-thinking companies actively monitor the social cloud for customer service opportunities, to protect and improve their image.

Reactive service is customer-initiated. SMMPs enable organizations to monitor the social cloud for service opportunities and provide proactive service in-band.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Historically, customer service has been “reactive” (i.e. customer initiated) and solely between the customer and supplier. Social media forces proactive service interactions between customer, supplier, and the entire social cloud. Using an SMMP significantly improves reactive and proactive service. The ability to integrate with customer service applications is essential.

Customer service is a vital department to realize value from leveraging an SMMP

Info-Tech’s research shows that the more departments get involved with social media implementation, the higher the success score (calculated based on respondents’ report of the positive impact of social media on business objectives). On average, each additional department involved in social media programs increases the overall social media success score by 5%. For example, organizations that leveraged social media within the customer service department, achieved a higher success score than those that did not.

The message is clear: encourage broad participation in coordinated social media efforts to realize business goals.

(Source: Info-Tech Research Group N=65)

Our research indicates that the most important stakeholder to ensure steering committee success is Customer Service. This has a major impact on CRM integration requirements – more on this later.

SMMPs are indispensable for allowing PR managers to keep tabs on the firm and its brands

Info-Tech Best Practice

Leaving negative statements unaddressed can cause harm to an organization’s reputation. Use an SMMP to track what is being said about your organization; take advantage of response capabilities to quickly respond and mitigate PR risk.

SMMPs for recruiting is an emerging talent recruitment technique and will lead to stronger candidates

Only 4% of recruiters are NOT using social media for recruitment, while 50% of recruiters plan to increase their investment in SMR in the coming year. (Source: Jobvite, 2015)

Collapse your drivers for SMMP and link them to Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape use cases

USE CASES

Identify the organizational drivers for social media management – whether it is recruiting, public relations, customer service, marketing, or sales – and align them with the most applicable use case.

Profile and rank your top use cases for social media management using the Use-Case Fit Assessment Tool

1.2.1 1 Hour

INPUT: Project Manager, Core project team

OUTPUT: Use-case suitability

MATERIALS: Whiteboard, Markers

PARTICIPANTS: Project Manager, Core project team

1. Download your own version of the tool and complete the questionnaire on tab 2, Assessment.
   • Use the information gathered from your assessments and initial project scoping to respond to the prompts to identify the business and IT requirements for the tool.
   • Answer the prompts for each statement from a range of strongly disagree to strongly agree.
2. Review the outcomes on tab 3, Results.
   • This tab provides a qualitative measure assessing the strength of your fit against the industry use-case scenarios.
3. If not completed as a team, debrief the results and implications to your core project team.

Use the SMMP Use-Case Fit Assessment Tool to identify which areas you should focus on

Use the Use-Case Fit Assessment Tool to understand how your unique requirements map into a specific SMMP use case. This tool will assess your answers and determine your relative fit against the use-case scenarios. Fit will be assessed as “Weak,” “Moderate,” or “Strong.” Consider the common pitfalls, which were mentioned earlier, that can cause IT projects to fail. Plan and take clear steps to avoid or mitigate these concerns. Note: These use-case scenarios are not mutually exclusive. Your organization can align with one or more scenarios based on your answers. If your organization shows close alignment to multiple scenarios, consider focusing on finding a more robust solution and concentrate your review on vendors that performed strongly in those scenarios or meet the critical requirements for each.

INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

Identify the marketing, sales, and customer service metrics that you will target for improvement using an SMMP

Create measurable S.M.A.R.T. goals for the project.

1. What are the top marketing objectives for your company? For example, is building initial awareness or driving repeat customers more important?
2. What are the corresponding social media goals for this business objective?
3. What are some of the metrics that could be used to determine if business and social media objectives are being attained?

Build the metrics inventory

1.2.2 45 Minutes

INPUT: Marketing, sales, and customer service objectives

OUTPUT: Metrics inventory

MATERIALS: Whiteboard, Markers

PARTICIPANTS: Project Manager, Core project team

1. Identify the top marketing, sales, and customer service objectives for your company? For example, is building initial awareness or driving repeat customers more important?
2. What are the corresponding social media goals for each business objective?
3. What are some of the metrics that could be used to determine if business and social media objectives are being attained?

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team. Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop. Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

1.1.1		Assess your organization’s social media maturity An Info-Tech analyst will facilitate a discussion to assess the maturity of your organization’s social media program and take an inventory of your current efforts across different departments (e.g. Marketing, PR, Sales, and Customer Service).
1.1.2		Inventory your current social media networks The analyst will facilitate an exercise to catalog all social media networks used in the organization.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

1.1.3		Go/no go assessment on SMMP Based on the maturity assessment, the analyst will help identify whether an SMMP will help you achieve your goals in sales, marketing, and customer service.
1.2.1		Rank your top use cases for social media management An analyst will facilitate the exercise to answer a series of questions in order to determine best-fit scenario for social media management for your organization.
1.2.2		Build the metrics inventory An analyst will lead a whiteboarding exercise to brainstorm and generate metrics for your organization’s social media goals.

Select and Implement a Social Media Management Platform

PHASE 2

Select an SMMP

This phase also includes Info-Tech’s SMMP Vendor Landscape

Phase 2: Select an SMMP

Estimated Timeline: 1-3 Months

Phase 2 outline

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 2: Select an SMMP

Proposed Time to Completion: 4 weeks

Phase 2, Step 1: Analyze and shortlist vendors in the space

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Review vendor landscape methodology
• Shortlist SMMP vendors

This step involves the following participants:

• Core team
• Representative stakeholders from Digital Marketing, Sales, and IT

The SMMP Vendor Landscape includes the following sections:

• 2.1.1 Info-Tech Methodology
• 2.1.2 Review the SMMP Evaluation
  • Use Case 1: Social Listening and Analytics
  • Use Case 2: Social Publishing and Campaign Management
  • Use Case 3: Social Customer Care
• 2.1.3 SMMP Vendor Profiles and Scoring
• 2.1.4 Create a Custom Vendor Shortlist

Vendor Landscape use-case scenarios are evaluated based on weightings of features and vendor/product considerations

Use cases were scored around the features from the general scoring identified as being relevant to the functional considerations and drivers for each scenario.

Product and Vendor Weightings

Advanced Features Weightings

Please note that both advanced feature scores and vendor multipliers are based on the specific weightings calibrated for each scenario.

Vendor performance for each use-case scenario is documented in a weighted bar graph

Vendor Performance Vendors qualify and rank in each use-case scenario based on their relative placement and scoring for the scenario. Vendor Ranking Champion: The top vendor scored in the scenario Leaders: The vendors who placed second and third in the scenario Players: Additional vendors who qualified for the scenarios based on their scoring

Value ScoreTM Each use-case scenario also includes a Value Index that identifies the Value Score for a vendor relative to their price point. This additional framework is meant to help price-conscious organizations identify vendors who provide the best “bang for the buck.”

SMMP market overview

Info-Tech Insight

As the market evolves, capabilities that were once cutting edge become default and new functionality becomes differentiating. Supporting multiple social media services and accounts has become a Table Stakes capability and should no longer be used to differentiate solutions. Instead focus on an SMMP’s social listening, campaign management, and customer care to help you find a solution that best fits your requirements.

Review Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape of the SMMP market to identify vendors that meet your requirements

Vendors Evaluated

Each vendor in this landscape was evaluated based on their features, product considerations, and vendor considerations. Each vendor was profiled using these evaluations and, based on their performance, qualified and placed in specific use-case scenarios.

These vendors were included due to consideration of their market share, mind share, and platform coverage

Vendors included in this report provide a comprehensive, innovative, and functional solution for integrating applications and automating their messaging.

Included in this Vendor Landscape:

Adobe: Adobe Social is a key pillar of Adobe’s ecosystem that is heavily focused on social analytics and engagement.

Hootsuite: A freemium player with strong engagement and collaboration tools, particularly well suited for SMBs.

Salesforce: Social Studio is a leading social media management solution and is a key channel of Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Sendible: A fairly new entrant to the social media management space, Sendible offers robust campaign management capability that is well suited for agencies and SMBs.

Sprinklr: A leading solution that focuses on social customer care, offering strong ability to prioritize, route, and categorize high-volume social messaging.

Sprout Social: A great choice for mid-sized companies looking to provide robust social engagement and customer care.

Sysomos: Their MAP and Heartbeat products offer customers in-depth analysis of a wide array of social channels.

Viralheat (Cision): Now a Cision product, Viralheat is an excellent option for analytics, social response workflow management, and in-band social engagement.

Table Stakes represent the minimum standard; without these, a product doesn’t even get reviewed

Info-Tech Insight

If Table Stakes are all you need from your SMMP solution, the only true differentiator for the organization is price. Otherwise, dig deeper to find the best price to value for your needs.

Advanced Features are the capabilities that allow for granular differentiation of market players and use-case performance

Vendor scoring focused on overall product attributes and vendor performance in the market

Balance individual strengths to find the best fit for your enterprise

For an explanation of how the Info-Tech Harvey Balls are calculated, see Information Presentation – Criteria Scores (Harvey Balls) in the Appendix.

Balance individual strengths to find the best fit for your enterprise

For an explanation of how Advanced Features are determined, see Information Presentation – Feature Ranks (Stoplights) in the Appendix.

USE CASE 1

Social Listening and Analytics

Seeking functionality for capturing, aggregating, and analyzing social media content in order to create actionable customer or competitive insights.

Feature weightings for the social listening and analytics use-case scenario

Vendor considerations for the social listening and analytics use-case scenario

Vendor performance for the social listening and analytics use-case scenario

Champions for this use case: Salesforce: Salesforce Social Studio offers excellent trend and in-depth contextual analysis and is among the best vendors in presenting visually appealing and interactive dashboards. Leaders for this use case: Sysomos: Sysomos MAP and Heartbeat are great offerings for conducting social media health checks using in-depth contextual analytics. Adobe: Adobe Social is a great choice for digital marketers that need in-depth sentiment and longitudinal analysis of social data – particularly when managing social alongside other digital channels.

Best Overall Value Award Sysomos: A strong analytics capability offered in Sysomos MAP and Heartbeat at a relatively low cost places Sysomos as the best bang for your buck in this use case. Players in the social listening and analytics scenario Sprinklr Hootsuite Sprout Social

Vendor performance for the social listening and analytics use-case scenario

Value Index for the social listening and analytics scenario

USE CASE 2

Social Publishing and Campaign Management

Seeking functionality for publishing content to multiple networks or accounts simultaneously, and managing social media campaigns in-depth (e.g. social property management and post scheduling).

Feature weightings for the social publishing and campaign management use-case scenario

Vendor considerations for the social publishing and campaign management use-case scenario

Vendor performance for the social publishing and campaign management use-case scenario

Champions for this use case: Adobe: Adobe has the best social campaign execution capability in the market, enabling marketers to manage and auto-track multiple campaigns. It also offers a strong asset management feature that allows users to leverage Marketing Cloud content. Leaders for this use case: Salesforce: SFDC has built a social marketing juggernaut, offering top-notch response workflows and campaign execution capability. Hootsuite: Hootsuite has good response capabilities backed up by a strong team collaboration feature set. It offers simplified cross-platform posting and post-time optimization capabilities.

Best Overall Value Award Sendible: Sendible offers the best value for your money in this use case with good response workflows and publishing capability. Players in the social publishing and campaign management scenario Sprout Social Sprinklr Sendible

Vendor performance for the social publishing and campaign management use-case scenario

Value Index for the social publishing and campaign management scenario

USE CASE 3

Social Customer Care

Seeking functionality for management of the social customer service queue as well as tools for expedient resolution of customer issues.

Feature weightings for the social customer care use-case scenario

Vendor considerations for the social customer case use-case scenario

Vendor performance for the social customer care use-case scenario

Champions for this use case: Salesforce: Salesforce offers exceptional end-to-end social customer care capability with strong response escalation workflows. Leaders for this use case: Sprinklr: Sprinklr’s offering gives users high flexibility to configure escalation workflows and role-based permissions for managing the social customer service queue. Hootsuite: Hootsuite’s strength lies in the breadth of social networks that the platform supports in offering expedient resolution to customer complaints.

Best Overall Value Award Sysomos: Sysomos is the best bang for your buck in this use case, offering essential response and workflow capabilities. Players in the social listening and analytics scenario Sendible Sysomos Viralheat (Cision)

Vendor performance for the social customer care use-case scenario

Value Index for the social customer care scenario

Use the information in the SMMP Vendor Landscape analysis to streamline your own vendor analysis process

This section of the Vendor Landscape includes the profiles and scoring for each vendor against the evaluation framework previously outlined. Vendor Profiles Include an overview for each company. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the product and vendor. Identify the three-year TCO of the vendor’s solution (based on a ten-tiered model).

Vendor Scoring Use the Harvey Ball scoring of vendor and product considerations to assess alignment with your own requirements. Review the use-case scenarios relevant to your organization’s Use-Case Fit Assessment results to identify a vendor’s fit to your organization's SMMP needs. (See the following slide for further clarification on the use-case assessment scoring process.) Review the stoplight scoring of advanced features to identify the functional capabilities of vendors.

Adobe Social is a powerhouse for digital marketers, with extremely well-developed analytics capabilities

Adobe Social

	Info-Tech Recommends Adobe Social provides impressive features, especially for companies that position social media within a larger digital marketing strategy. Organizations that need powerful social analytics or social campaign execution capability should have Adobe on their shortlist, though the product may be an overbuy for social customer care use cases.

Hootsuite is a capable vendor that offers a flexible solution for monitoring many different social media services

Hootsuite

	Info-Tech Recommends The free version of Hootsuite is useful for getting your feet wet with social management. The paid version is a great SMMP for monitoring and engaging your own social properties with good account and team management at an affordable price. This makes it ideal for SMBs. However, organizations that need deep social analytics may want to look elsewhere.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud continues to be a Cadillac solution; it’s a robust platform with a host of features

Salesforce

	Info-Tech Recommends Social Studio in Salesforce Marketing Cloud remains a leading solution. Organizations that need to blend processes across the enterprise that rely on social listening, deep analytics, and customer engagement should have the product on their shortlist. However, companies with more basic needs may be off-put by the solution’s price point.

Sendible offers multiple social media management capabilities for SMBs and agencies

Sendible

	Info-Tech Recommends Sendible offers a viable solution for small and mid-market companies, as well as social agencies with a focus on customer engagement for marketing and customer service use cases. However, organizations that need deep social analytics may want to look elsewhere.

Sprinklr

Sprinklr

	Info-Tech Recommends Sprinklr is a strong choice for small and mid-market organizations offering breadth of social media management capabilities that covers social analytics, engagement, and customer service.

Sprout Social provides small-to-medium enterprises with robust social response capabilities at a reasonable price

Sprout Social

	Info-Tech Recommends Sprout Social’s easy-to-understand benchmarking and dashboards, paired with strong response management, make it a great choice for mid-sized enterprises concerned with social engagement. However, organizations that want to do deep social analytics will need to augment the solution.

Sysomos’ prime feature is its hardy analytics built atop a plethora of inbound social channels

Sysomos

	Info-Tech Recommends Sysomos’ broad array of good features has made it a frequent challenger to Marketing Cloud on analytics-centric SMMP evaluation shortlists. Enterprise-scale customers specifically interested in social listening and analytics, rather than customer engagement and campaign execution, will definitely want to take a look.

Viralheat offers a clean analysis of an organization’s social media activity and has beefed up response workflows

Cision (Viralheat)

	Info-Tech Recommends Cision has upped its game in terms of social workflow and response management and it monitors an above-average number of services. It is a steadfast tool for brands that are primarily interested in outbound customer engagement for marketing and customer service use cases.

Use the SMMP Vendor Shortlist Tool to customize the vendor analysis for your organization

Instructions

Phase 2, Step 2: Select your SMMP solution

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Prioritize your solution requirements.
• Create an RFP to submit to vendors.
• Solicit and review vendor proposals.
• Conduct onsite vendor demonstrations.
• Select the right solution.

This step involves the following participants:

• Core Project Team
• Procurement Manager
• Representative Stakeholders from Digital Marketing, Sales, and IT

Outcomes of this step:

• SMMP Selection Strategy

Determine your SMMP procurement strategy

Prioritize your solution requirements based on your business, architecture, and performance needs

INPUT: Requirements Workbook and requirements gathering findings

OUTPUT: Full documentation of requirements for the RFP and solution evaluation process

Completed in Section 3

1. Identify Your Requirements
   Use the findings being collected in the Requirements Workbook and related materials to define clear requirements around your organization’s desired SMMP.
2. Prioritize Your Requirements
   • Identify the significance of each requirement for your solution evaluation.
   • Identify features and requirements as mandatory, important, or optional.
   • Control the number of mandatory requirements you document. Too many mandatory requirements could create an unrealistic framework for evaluating solutions.
3. Create a Requirements Package
   • Consolidate your identified requirements into one list, removing redundancies and conflicts.
   • Categorize the requirements based on their priority and nature.
   Use this requirements package as you evaluate vendors and create your RFP for shortlisted vendors.

Info-Tech Insight

No solution will meet 100% of your requirements. Control the number of mandatory requirements you place in your procurement process to ensure that vendors that are the best fit for your organization are not eliminated unnecessarily.

Create an RFP to submit to vendors

INPUT: Requirements package, Organization’s procurement procedures

OUTPUT: RFP

MATERIALS: Whiteboard and markers

PARTICIPANTS: Project manager, Core project team

Leverage Info-Tech’s SMMP RFP Template to convey your desired suite requirements to vendors and outline the proposal and procurement steps set by your organization.

Standardize the potential responses from vendors and streamline your evaluation with a response template

	Adjust the scope and content of the Vendor Response Template to fit your SMMP procurement process and vendor requirements.
Section	Why is this section important?
About the Vendor	This is where the vendor will describe itself and prove its organizational viability.
Understanding of the Challenge	Demonstrates that understanding of the problem is the first step in being able to provide a solution.
Methodology	Shows that there is a proven methodology to approach and solve the challenge.
Proposed Solution	Describes how the vendor will address the challenge. This is a very important section as it articulates what you will receive from the vendor as a solution.
Project Management, Plan, and Timeline	Provides an overview of the project management methodology, phases of the project, what will be delivered, and when.
Vendor Qualifications	Provides evidence of prior experience with delivering similar projects for similar clients.
References	Provides contact information for individuals/organizations for which the vendor has worked and who can vouch for the experience and success of working with this vendor.
Value Added Services	Remember, this could lead to a long-term relationship. It’s not only about what you need now, but also what you may need in the future.
Requirements	Confirmation from the vendor as to which requirements it can meet and how it will meet them.

Evaluate the RFPs you receive within a clear scoring process

Activity Build a fair evaluation framework that evaluates vendor solutions against a set criteria rather than relative comparisons. INSTRUCTIONS Have members of the SMMP evaluation team review the RFP responses given by vendors. Input vendor solution information into the SMMP RFP Evaluation and Scoring Tool. Analyze the vendors against your identified evaluation framework. Identify vendors with whom you wish to arrange vendor briefings. Contact vendors and arranging briefings.

How to use this tool Review the feature list and select where each feature is mandatory, desirable, or not applicable. Select if each feature has been met by the vendor RFP response. Enter the costing information provided by each vendor. Determine the relative importance of the features, architecture, and support. Tool Output Costing Overall score Evaluation notes and comments

Vendor product demonstration

Make sure the solution will work for your business Provide the vendor with some usage patterns for the SMMP tool in preparation for the vendor demo. Provide the following information to vendors in your script: Usage for different groups. SMMP usage and [business analytics] usage. The requirements for administration.

How to challenge the vendors in the demo Change visualization/presentation. Change the underlying data. Add additional datasets to the artifacts. Collaboration capabilities. Perform an investigation in terms of finding BI objects and identifying previous changes, and examine the audit trail.

SMMP Demo Script Template

INFO-TECH ACTIVITY

INPUT: Requirements package, Use-case results

OUTPUT: Onsite demo

1. Create a demo script that will be sent to vendors that outlines SMMP usage patterns from your organization.
2. Construct the demo script with your SMMP evaluation team, providing both prompts for the vendor to display the capabilities and some sample data for the vendor to model.

Use vendor RFPs and demos to select the SMMP that best fits your organization’s needs

Don’t just choose the vendor who gave the best presentation. Instead, select the vendor who meets your functional requirements and organizational needs.

Category	Weight	Vendor 1	Vendor 2	Vendor 3	Vendor 4
SMMP Features	60%	75%	80%	80%	90%
Architecture	25%	55%	60%	90%	90%
Support	15%	10%	70%	60%	95%
Total Score	100%	60%	74%	80%	91%
Use your objective evaluation to select a vendor to recommend to management for procurement.

Don’t automatically decide to go with the highest score; validate that the vendor is someone you can envision working with for the long term.

• Select a vendor based not only on their evaluation performance, but also on your belief that you could form a lasting and supportive relationship with them.
• Integration needs are dynamic, not static. Find an SMMP tool and vendor that have strong capabilities and will fit with the application and integration plans of the business.
• In many cases, you will require professional services together with your SMMP purchase to make sure you have some guidance in the initial development and your own staff are trained properly.

Following the identification of your selected suite, submit your recommendation to the organization’s management or evaluation team for final approval.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team. Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop. Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

		Create an RFP for SMMP procurement Our Info-Tech analyst will walk you through the RFP preparation to ensure the SMMP requirements are articulated clearly to vendors in this space.
		Create SMMP demo scripts An analyst will walk you through the demo script preparation to guide the SMMP product demonstrations and briefings offered by vendors. The analyst will ensure the demo script addresses key requirements documented earlier in the process.

Select and Implement a Social Media Management Platform

PHASE 3

Review Implementation Considerations

Phase 3: Review implementation considerations

Estimated Timeline:

Phase 3 outline

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 3: Review Implementation Considerations

Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks

Phase 3, Step 1: Establish best practices for SMMP implementation

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Establish a governance structure for social media management.
• Specify the data linkages you will need between your CRM platform and SMMP.

This step involves the following participants:

• Core Project Team

Outcomes of this step

• Social Media Steering Committee Charter
• SMMP data migration Inventory
• Determination of the deployment model that works best for your organization
• Deployment Model

Follow these steps for effective SMMP implementation

What to Consider

• Creating an overall social media strategy is the critical first step in implementing an SMMP.
• Selecting an SMMP involves gathering business requirements, then translating those requirements into specific selection criteria. Know exactly what your business needs are to ensure the right SMMP is selected.
• Implement the platform with an eye toward creating business value: establish points of integration with the existing CRM solution, establish ongoing maintenance policies, select the right deployment model, and train end users around role-based objectives.

	Plan	Develop a strategy for customer interaction Develop a formal strategy for social media Determine business requirements
	Create RFP	Translate into functional requirements Determine evaluation criteria
	Evaluate	Evaluate vendors against criteria Shortlist vendors Perform in-depth vendor review
Implement		Integrate with existing CRM ecosystem (if applicable) Establish ongoing maintenance policies Map deployment to organizational models Train end-users and establish acceptable use policies Designate an SMMP subject matter expert

Before deploying the SMMP, ensure the right social media governance structures are in place to oversee implementation

An SMMP is a tool, not a substitute, for adequate cross-departmental social media oversight. You must coordinate efforts across constituent stakeholders.

• Successful organizations have permanent governance structures in place for managing social media. For example, mature companies leverage Social Media Steering Committees (SMSCs) to coordinate the social media initiatives of different business units and departments. Large organizations with highly complex needs may even make use of a physical command center.
• Compared to traditional apps projects (like CRM or ERP), social media programs tend to start as grassroots initiatives. Marketing and Public Relations departments are the most likely to spearhead the initial push, often selecting their own tools without IT involvement or oversight. This causes application fragmentation and a proliferation of shadow IT.
• This organic adoption contrasts with the top-down approach many IT leaders are accustomed to. Bottom-up growth can ensure rapid response to social media opportunities, but it also leads to insufficient coordination. A conscious effort should be made to mature your social media strategy beyond this disorganized initial state.
• IT can help be a “cat herder” to shepherd departments into shared initiatives.

Info-Tech Best Practice

Before implementing the SMMP, go through the appropriate organizational governance structures to ensure they have input into the deployment. If a social media steering committee is not already in place, rolling out an SMMP is a great opportunity to get one going. See our research on social media program execution for more details.

Establish a governance structure for social media management

3.1.1 60 minutes

INPUT: Project stakeholders, SMMP mandate

OUTPUT: Social Media Governance Structure

MATERIALS: Whiteboard, Markers

PARTICIPANTS: Project Manager, Core project team

1. Describe the unique role that the governance team will play in social media management.
2. Describe the overall purpose statement of the governance team.
3. Define the roles and responsibilities of the governance team.
4. Document the outcome in the Social Media Steering Committee Charter.

EXAMPLE

Use Info-Tech’s Social Media Steering Committee Charter Template to define roles and ensure value delivery

Leaders must ensure that the SMSC has a formal mandate with clear objectives, strong executive participation, and a commitment to meeting regularly. Create an SMSC Charter to formalize the committee governance capabilities.

Developing a Social Media Steering Committee Charter: Outline the committee’s structure, composition, and responsibilities using the Info-Tech Social Media Steering Committee Charter Template. This template also outlines the key tasks and responsibilities for the committee: Providing strategic leadership for social media Leading SMMP procurement efforts Providing process integration Governing social media initiatives Ensuring open communications between departments with ownership of social media processes Keep the completed charter on file and available to all committee members. Remember to periodically update the document as organizational priorities shift to ensure the charter remains relevant.

INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

Integrate your social media management platform with CRM to strengthen the realization of social media goals

Linking social media to existing customer relationship management solutions can improve information accuracy, reduce manual effort and provide more in-depth customer insights. Organizations Info-Tech surveyed, and who integrated their solutions, achieved more goals as a result. Several major CRM vendors are now offering products that integrate with popular social networking services (either natively or by providing support for third-party add-ons). For example, Salesforce.com now allows for native integration with Twitter, while an add-on available for Oracle gathers real-time information about prospects by pulling their extended information from publicly available LinkedIn profiles. Some CRM vendors are acquiring established SMMPs outright. For example, Salesforce.com acquired Radian6 for their clients that have advanced social media requirements.

Info-Tech Best Practice

CRM vendors still lag in out-of-the-box social features, making a separate SMMP purchase a given. For companies that have not formally integrated social media with CRM, IT should develop the business case in conjunction with the applicable business-side partner (e.g. Marketing, Sales, Service, PR, etc.).

Establish points of integration between SMMPs and CRM suites to gain a 360 degree view of the customer

Info-Tech Best Practice

SMMPs are a necessary single-channel evolutionary step, just like there used to be email-only and web chat-only customer service options in the late 1990s. But they are temporary. SMMPs will eventually be subsumed into the larger marketing automation ecosystem. Only a few best of breed will survive in 10 years.

Specify the data linkages you will need between your CRM platform and SMMP

3.1.2 1 hour

INPUT: SMMP data sources

OUTPUT: SMMP data migration inventory

MATERIALS: Whiteboard, Markers

PARTICIPANTS: Project Manager, Core project team

1. Build a list of sources of information that you’ll need to integrate with your CRM tool.
2. Identify:
   1. Data Source
   2. Integration Direction
   3. Data Type and Use Case

Establish a plan for ongoing platform maintenance

Like other enterprise applications, the SMMP will require periodic upkeep. IT must develop and codify policies around ongoing platform maintenance. Platform maintenance should touch on the following areas: Account access and controls – periodically, access privileges for employees no longer with the organization should be purged. Platform security – cloud-based platforms will be automatically updated by the vendor to plug security holes, but on-premises solutions must be periodically updated to ensure that there are no gaps in security. Pruning of old or outdated material – pages (e.g. Facebook Groups, Events, and Twitter feeds) that are no longer in use should be pruned. For example, a management console for an event that was held two years ago is unnecessary. Remove it from the platform (and the relevant service) to cut down on clutter (and reduce costs for “per-topic” priced platforms.)

IT: SMMP Maintenance Checklist Account upkeep and pruning Security, privacy, and access Content upkeep and pruning

Info-Tech Best Practice

Even cloud-based platforms like SMMPs require a certain degree of maintenance around account controls, security, and content pruning. IT should assist the business units in carrying out periodic maintenance.

Social media is a powerful medium, but organizations must develop a prudent strategy for minimizing associated risks

Using an SMMP can help mitigate many of the risks associated with social media. Review the risk categories on the next several slides to determine which ones can be mitigated by effective utilization of a dedicated SMMP.

Good governance means being proactive in mitigating the legal and compliance risks of your social media program

Security is a top-of-mind risk, though bandwidth is a low priority issue for most organizations

Poaching of client lists and increased costs are unlikely to occur, but address as a worst case scenario

Determine your top social media risks and develop an appropriate mitigation strategy that incorporates an SMMP

3.1.3 20 minutes

INPUT: Risk assessment inventory

OUTPUT: Top social media risks and mitigation plan

MATERIALS: Whiteboard, Markers

PARTICIPANTS: Project Manager, Core project team

1. Based on your unique business variables, which social media risk categories are most applicable to your organization? In what order?
2. Summarize the top risks below and identify mitigation steps (which often involve effective use of a dedicated SMMP).

Determine the workflows that will be supported using your social media management platform

Determine when, where, and how social media services should be used to augment existing workflows across (and between) the business process domains. Establish escalation rules and decide whether workflows will be reactive or proactively.

Fine tune your efforts in each business process domain by matching social technologies to specific business workflows. This will clearly delineate where value is created by leveraging social media. Common business process domains that should be targeted include marketing, sales, and customer service. Public relations, human resources, and analyst relations are other areas to consider for social process support. For each business process domain, IT should assist with technology enablement and execution.

Info-Tech Best Practice

The social media governance team should have high-level supervision of process workflows. Ask to see reports from line managers on what steps they have taken to put process in place for reactive and proactive customer interactions, as well as escalations and channel switching. IT helps orchestrate these processes through knowledge and expertise with SMMP workflow capability.

There are three primary models for SMMP deployment: the agency model uses the SMMP as a third-party offering

There are three models for deploying an SMMP: agency, centralized, and distributed.

Agency Model

In the agency model of SMMP deployment, the platform is managed on behalf of the organization by a third party – typically a marketing or public relations agency. The agency serves as the primary touch point for the client organization: the client requests the types of market research it wants done, or the campaigns it wants managed. The agency uses its own SMMP(s) to execute the requests. Often, the SMMP’s results or dashboards will be rebranded by the agency. Pros: The agency model is useful when large portions of marketing, service, or public relations are already being outsourced to a third-party provider. Going with an agency also splits the cost of more expensive SMMPs over multiple clients, and limits deployment costs. Cons: The client organization has no direct control over the platform; going with an agency is not cost effective for firms with in-house marketing or PR capabilities. Advice: Go with an agency-managed SMMP if you already use an agency for marketing or PR.

Select the centralized deployment model when SMMP functionality rests in the hands of a single department

Centralized Model

In this example, marketing owns and manages a single SMMP

In the centralized model, a single SMMP workspace is owned and operated predominantly by a single business unit or department. Unlike the agency model, the SMMP functionality is utilized in-house. Information from the SMMP may occasionally be shared with other departments, but normally the platform is used almost exclusively by a single group in the company. Marketing or public relations are usually the groups that maintain ownership of the SMMP in the centralized model (with selection and deployment assistance from the IT department). Pros: The centralized model provides small organizations with an in-house, dedicated SMMP without having to go through an agency. Having a single group own and manage the SMMP is considerably more cost effective than having SMMPs licensed to multiple business units in a small company. Cons: If more and more departments start clamoring for control of SMMP resources, the centralized model will fail to meet the overall needs of the organization. Advice: Small-to-medium enterprises with mid-sized topic or brand portfolios should use the centralized model.

Go with a distributed deployment if multiple business units require advanced SMMP functionality

Distributed Model

In the distributed model, multiple SMMPs (sometimes from different vendors) or multiple SMMP workspaces (from a single vendor) are deployed to several groups (e.g. multiple departments or brand portfolios) in the organization. Pros: The distributed model is highly effective in large organizations with multiple departments or brands that each are interested in SMMP functionality. Having separate workspaces for each business group enables customizing workspaces to satisfy different goals of the different business groups. Cons: The cost of deploying multiple SMMP workspaces can be prohibitive. Advice: Go with the distributed model if your organization is large and has multiple relevant departments or product marketing groups, with differing social media goals.

Determine which deployment model works best for your organization

3.1.4 1 Hour

INPUT: Deployment models

OUTPUT: Best fit deployment model

MATERIALS: Whiteboard, Markers

PARTICIPANTS: Project Manager, Core project team

1. Assess and understand the three models of SMMP deployments: agency, centralized and distributed. Consider the pros and cons of each model.
2. Understand how your organization manages enterprise social media. Consider the follow questions:
   • What is the size of your organization?
   • Who owns the management of social media in your organization?
   • Is social media managed in-house or outsourced to an agency?
   • What are the number of departments that use and rely on social media?
3. Select the best deployment model for your organization.

Agency Model	Centralized Model	Distributed Model

Create an SMMP training matrix based on social media roles

IT must assist the business by creating and executing a role-based training program. An SMMP expert in IT should lead training sessions for targeted groups of end users, training them only on the functions they require to perform their jobs.

Use the table below to help identify which roles should be trained on which SMMP features.

	PR Professionals	Marketing Brand, Product, and Channel Managers	Customer Service Reps and Manager	Product Development and Market Research	IT Application Support
Account Management
Response and Engagement
Social Analytics and Data Mining
Marketing Campaign Execution
Mobile Access
Archiving
CRM Integration

Phase 3, Step 2: Track your metrics

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Identify metrics and KPIs for business units using a dedicated SMMP

This step involves the following participants:

• Core Project Team
• Representative Stakeholders from Digital Marketing, Sales, and IT

Outcomes of this step

• Key Performance Indicators

Know key performance indicators (KPIs) for each department that employs a dedicated social media management platform

Share of Voice How often a brand is mentioned, relative to other brands competing in a defined market. User Engagement Quantity and quality of customer interactions with a brand or with each other, either on- or offline. Campaign Success Tracking reception of campaigns and leads brought in as a result.		Reach Measurement of the size of market your brand advertisements and communications reach. Impressions The number of exposures your content, ad, or social post has to people in your target audience. Cost per Point (CPP) Cost to reach one percent of your organization’s audience.
Product Innovation The quantity and quality of improvements, updates, and changes to existing products. Time-to-Market Time that passes between idea generation and the product being available to consumers.		New Product Launches A ratio of completely new product types released to brand extensions and improvements. Cancelled Projects Measure of quality of ideas generated and quality of idea assessment method.

Use social media metrics to complement your existing departmental KPIs – not usurp them

Cost per Lead The average amount an organization spends to find leads. Conversion Rate How many sales are made in relation to the number of leads. Quantity of Leads How many sales leads are in the funnel at a given time.		Average Cycle Time Average length of time it takes leads to progress through the sales cycle. Revenue by Lead Total revenue divided by total number of leads. Avg. Revenue per Rep Total revenue divided by number of sales reps.
Time to Resolution Average amount of time it takes for customers to get a response they are satisfied with. First Contact Resolution How often customer issues are resolved on the first contact.		Contact Frequency The number of repeated interactions from the same customers. Satisfaction Scores Determined from customer feedback – either through surveys or gathered sporadically.

Social analytics don’t operate alone; merge social data with traditional data to gain the deepest insights

Employee Retention The level of effort an organization exerts to maintain its current staff. Employee Engagement Rating of employee satisfaction overall or with a given aspect of the workplace. Preferred Employer A company where candidates would rather work over other companies.

Recruitment Cycle Time Average length of time required to recruit a new employee. Employee Productivity A comparison of employee inputs (time, effort, etc.) and outputs (work). Employee Referrals The ratio of employee referrals that complete the recruitment process.

“There are conversations going on behind your back, and if you're not participating in them, then you're either not perpetuating the positive conversation or not diffusing the negative. And that's irresponsible in today's business world.” (Lon Safko, Social Media Bible)

Identify key performance indicators for business units using an SMMP

3.2.1 30 minutes

INPUT: Social media goals

OUTPUT: SMMP KPIs

MATERIALS: Whiteboard, Markers

PARTICIPANTS: Representative stakeholders from different business units

For each listed department, identify the social media goals and departmental key performance indicators to measure the impact of the SMMP.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team. Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop. Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

3.1.1		Establish a governance structure for social media management Our Info-Tech analyst will walk you through the exercise of developing roles and responsibilities to govern your social media program.
3.1.2		Specify the data linkages you will need between your CRM and SMMP The analyst will help you identify the points of integration between the SMMP and your CRM platform.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

3.1.3		Determine your top social media risks Our Info-Tech analyst will facilitate the discussion to identify the top risks associated with the SMMP and determine mitigation strategies for each risk.
3.1.4		Determine the best-fit deployment model An analyst will demonstrate the different SMMP deployment models and assist in determining the most suitable model for your organization.
3.2.1		Identify departmental KPIs An analyst will work with different stakeholders to determine the top social media goals for each department.

Appendices

Works Cited

Ashja, Mojtaba, Akram Hadizadeh, and Hamid Bidram. “Comparative Study of Large Information Systems’ CSFs During Their Life Cycle.” Information Systems Frontiers. September 8, 2013.

UBM. “The State of Social Media Analytics.” January, 2016.

Jobvite. “2015 Recruiter Nation Survey.” September, 2015.

Vendor Landscape Analysis Appendices

Vendor Landscape Methodology:
Overview

Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscapes are research materials that review a particular IT market space, evaluating the strengths and abilities of both the products available in that space, as well as the vendors of those products. These materials are created by a team of dedicated analysts operating under the direction of a senior subject matter expert over a period of several weeks.

Evaluations weigh selected vendors and their products (collectively “solutions”) on the following eight criteria to determine overall standing:

• Features: The presence of advanced and market-differentiating capabilities.
• User Interface: The intuitiveness, power, and integrated nature of administrative consoles and client software components.
• Affordability: The three-year total cost of ownership of the solution; flexibility of the pricing and discounting structure.
• Architecture: The degree of integration with the vendor’s other tools, flexibility of deployment, and breadth of platform applicability.
• Viability: The stability of the company as measured by its history in the market, the size of its client base, and its percentage of growth.
• Focus: The commitment to both the market space, as well as to the various sized clients (small, mid-sized, and enterprise clients).
• Reach: The ability of the vendor to support its products on a global scale.
• Sales: The structure of the sales process and the measure of the size of the vendor’s channel and industry partners.

Evaluated solutions within scenarios are visually represented by a Pathway to Success, based off a linear graph using above scoring methods:

• Use-case scenarios are decided upon based on analyst expertise and experience with Info-Tech clients.
• Use-case scenarios are defined through feature requirements, predetermined by analyst expertise.
• Placement within scenario rankings consists of features being evaluated against the other scoring criteria.

Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscapes are researched and produced according to a strictly adhered to process that includes the following steps:

• Vendor/product selection
• Information gathering
• Vendor/product scoring
• Information presentation
• Fact checking
• Publication

This document outlines how each of these steps is conducted.

Vendor Landscape Methodology:
Vendor/Product Selection & Information Gathering

Info-Tech works closely with its client base to solicit guidance in terms of understanding the vendors with whom clients wish to work and the products that they wish evaluated; this demand pool forms the basis of the vendor selection process for Vendor Landscapes. Balancing this demand, Info-Tech also relies upon the deep subject matter expertise and market awareness of its Senior Analysts to ensure that appropriate solutions are included in the evaluation. As an aspect of that expertise and awareness, Info-Tech’s analysts may, at their discretion, determine the specific capabilities that are required of the products under evaluation, and include in the Vendor Landscape only those solutions that meet all specified requirements.

Information on vendors and products is gathered in a number of ways via a number of channels.

Initially, a request package is submitted to vendors to solicit information on a broad range of topics. The request package includes:

• A detailed survey.
• A pricing scenario (see Vendor Landscape Methodology: Price Evaluation and Pricing Scenario, below).
• A request for reference clients.
• A request for a briefing and, where applicable, guided product demonstration.

These request packages are distributed approximately eight weeks prior to the initiation of the actual research project to allow vendors ample time to consolidate the required information and schedule appropriate resources.

During the course of the research project, briefings and demonstrations are scheduled (generally for one hour each session, though more time is scheduled as required) to allow the analyst team to discuss the information provided in the survey, validate vendor claims, and gain direct exposure to the evaluated products. Additionally, an end-user survey is circulated to Info-Tech’s client base and vendor-supplied reference accounts are interviewed to solicit their feedback on their experiences with the evaluated solutions and with the vendors of those solutions.

These materials are supplemented by a thorough review of all product briefs, technical manuals, and publicly available marketing materials about the product, as well as about the vendor itself.

Refusal by a vendor to supply completed surveys or submit to participation in briefings and demonstrations does not eliminate a vendor from inclusion in the evaluation. Where analyst and client input has determined that a vendor belongs in a particular evaluation, it will be evaluated as best as possible based on publicly available materials only. As these materials are not as comprehensive as a survey, briefing, and demonstration, the possibility exists that the evaluation may not be as thorough or accurate. Since Info-Tech includes vendors regardless of vendor participation, it is always in the vendor’s best interest to participate fully.

All information is recorded and catalogued, as required, to facilitate scoring and for future reference.

Vendor Landscape Methodology:
Scoring

Once all information has been gathered and evaluated for all vendors and products, the analyst team moves to scoring. All scoring is performed at the same time so as to ensure as much consistency as possible. Each criterion is scored on a ten-point scale, though the manner of scoring for criteria differs slightly:

• Features is scored via Cumulative Scoring.
• Affordability is scored via Scalar Scoring.
• All other criteria are scored via Base5 Scoring.

Cumulative Scoring is on a four-point scale. Zero points are awarded to features that are deemed absent or unsatisfactory, one point is assigned to features that are partially present, two points are assigned to features that require an extra purchase in the vendor’s product portfolio or through a third party, three points are assigned to features that are fully present and native to the solution, and four points are assigned to the best-of-breed native feature. The assigned points are summed and normalized to a value out of ten. For example, if a particular Vendor Landscape evaluates eight specific features in the Feature Criteria, the summed score out of eight for each evaluated product would be multiplied by 1.25 to yield a value out of ten to represent in a Harvey Ball format.

In Scalar Scoring, a score of ten is assigned to the lowest cost solution, and a score of one is assigned to the highest cost solution. All other solutions are assigned a mathematically-determined score based on their proximity to / distance from these two endpoints. For example, in an evaluation of three solutions, where the middle cost solution is closer to the low end of the pricing scale it will receive a higher score, and where it is closer to the high end of the pricing scale it will receive a lower score; depending on proximity to the high or low price it is entirely possible that it could receive either ten points (if it is very close to the lowest price) or one point (if it is very close to the highest price). Where pricing cannot be determined (vendor does not supply price and public sources do not exist), a score of 0 is automatically assigned.

In Base5 scoring a number of sub-criteria are specified for each criterion (for example, Longevity, Market Presence, and Financials are sub-criteria of the Viability criterion), and each one is scored on the following scale:

• 5 - The product/vendor is exemplary in this area (nothing could be done to improve the status).
• 4 - The product/vendor is good in this area (small changes could be made that would move things to the next level).
• 3 - The product/vendor is adequate in this area (small changes would make it good, more significant changes required to be exemplary).
• 2 - The product/vendor is poor in this area (this is a notable weakness and significant work is required).
• 1 - The product/vendor fails in this area (this is a glaring oversight and a serious impediment to adoption).

The assigned points are summed and normalized to a value out of ten as explained in Cumulative Scoring above.

Scores out of ten, known as Raw scores, are transposed as is into Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape Shortlist Tool, which automatically determines Vendor Landscape positioning (see Vendor Landscape Methodology: Information Presentation – Vendor Landscape, below), Criteria Score (see Vendor Landscape Methodology: Information Presentation – Criteria Score, below), and Value Index (see Vendor Landscape Methodology: Information Presentation – Value Index, below).

Vendor Landscape Methodology:
Information Presentation – Criteria Scores (Harvey Balls)

Info-Tech’s criteria scores are visual representations of the absolute score assigned to each individual criterion, as well as of the calculated overall vendor and product scores. The visual representation used is Harvey Balls.

Harvey Balls are calculated as follows:

1. Raw scores are transposed into the Info-Tech Vendor Landscape Shortlist Tool (for information on how raw scores are determined, see Vendor Landscape Methodology: Scoring, above).
2. Each individual criterion raw score is multiplied by a pre-assigned weighting factor for the Vendor Landscape in question. Weighting factors are determined prior to the evaluation process, based on the expertise of the Senior or Lead Research Analyst, to eliminate any possibility of bias. Weighting factors are expressed as a percentage, such that the sum of the weighting factors for the vendor criteria (Viability, Strategy, Reach, Channel) is 100%, and the sum of the product criteria (Features, Usability, Affordability, Architecture) is 100%.
3. A sum-product of the weighted vendor criteria scores and of the weighted product criteria scores is calculated to yield an overall vendor score and an overall product score.
4. Both overall vendor score / overall product score, as well as individual criterion raw scores are converted from a scale of one to ten to Harvey Ball scores on a scale of zero to four, where exceptional performance results in a score of four and poor performance results in a score of zero.
5. Harvey Ball scores are converted to Harvey Balls as follows:
   • A score of four becomes a full Harvey Ball.
   • A score of three becomes a three-quarter full Harvey Ball.
   • A score of two becomes a half-full Harvey Ball.
   • A score of one becomes a one-quarter full Harvey Ball.
   • A score of zero becomes an empty Harvey Ball.
6. Harvey Balls are plotted by solution in a chart where rows represent individual solutions and columns represent overall vendor / overall product, as well as individual criteria. Solutions are ordered in the chart alphabetically by vendor name.

Overall Harvey Balls represent weighted aggregates.

Criteria Harvey Balls represent individual raw scores.

Vendor Landscape Methodology:
Use-Case Scoring

Within each Vendor Landscape a set of use-case scenarios are created by the analysts by considering the different outcomes and purposes related to the technology being evaluated. To generate the custom use-case vendor performances, the feature and Harvey Ball scoring performed in the Vendor Landscapes are set with custom weighting configurations. Calculations Each product has a vendor multiplier calculated based on its weighted performance, considering the different criteria scored in the Harvey Ball evaluations. To calculate each vendor’s performance, the advanced feature scores are multiplied against the weighting for the feature in the use-case scenario’s configuration. The weighted advanced feature score is then multiplied against the vendor multiplier. The sum of each vendor’s total weighted advanced features is calculated. This sum is used to identify the vendor’s qualification and relative rank within the use case. Each use case’s feature weightings and vendor/product weighting configurations are displayed within the body of slide deck.

Use-Case Vendor Performance Vendors who qualified for each use-case scenario are ranked from first to last in a weighted bar graph based on the features considered.

Vendor Landscape Methodology:
Information Presentation – Feature Ranks (Stoplights)

Advanced features are determined by analyst expertise, leveraging information gained from conversations with clients. Advanced features chosen as part of the evaluation are representative of what Info-Tech clients have indicated are of importance to their vendor solution. Advanced features are evaluated through a series of partial marks, dedicated to whether the solution performs all aspects of the Info-Tech definition of the feature and whether the feature is provided within the solution. Analysts hold the right to determine individual, unique scoring criteria for each evaluation. If a feature does not meet the criteria, Info-Tech holds the right to score the feature accordingly. Use cases use features as a baseline of the inclusion and scoring criteria.

Vendor Landscape Methodology:
Information Presentation – Value Index

Info-Tech’s Value Index is an indexed ranking of solution value per dollar as determined by the raw scores assigned to each criteria (for information on how raw scores are determined, see Vendor Landscape Methodology: Scoring, above). Value scores are calculated as follows: The TCO Affordability criterion is removed from the Affordability score and the remaining product score criteria (Features, Usability, Architecture). Affordability scoring is adjusted with the TCO weighting distributed in proportion to the use case’s weighting for Affordability. Weighting is adjusted as to retain the same weightings relative to one another, while still summing to 100%. An adjusted multiplier is determined for each vendor using the recalculated Affordability scoring. The multiplier vendor score and vendor’s weighted feature score (based on the use-case scenario’s weightings), are summed. This sum is multiplied by the TCO raw score to yield an interim Value Score for each solution. All interim Value Scores are then indexed to the highest performing solution by dividing each interim Value Score by the highest interim Value Score. This results in a Value Score of 100 for the top solution and an indexed Value Score relative to the 100 for each alternate solution. Solutions are plotted according to Value Score, with the highest score plotted first, and all remaining scores plotted in descending numerical order. Where pricing is not provided by the vendor and public sources of information cannot be found, an Affordability raw score of zero is assigned. Since multiplication by zero results in a product of zero, those solutions for which pricing cannot be determined receive a Value Score of zero. Since Info-Tech assigns a score of zero where pricing is not available, it is always in the vendor’s best interest to provide accurate and up-to-date pricing. In the event that insufficient pricing is available to accurately calculate a Value Index, Info-Tech will omit it from the Vendor Landscape.

Value Index Vendors are arranged in order of Value Score. The Value Score each solution achieved is displayed, and so is the average score. Those solutions that are ranked as Champions are differentiated for point of reference.

Vendor Landscape Methodology:
Information Presentation – Price Evaluation: Mid-Market

Info-Tech’s Price Evaluation is a tiered representation of the three-year Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a proposed solution. Info-Tech uses this method of communicating pricing information to provide high-level budgetary guidance to its end-user clients while respecting the privacy of the vendors with whom it works. The solution TCO is calculated and then represented as belonging to one of ten pricing tiers. Pricing tiers are as follows: Between $1 and $2,500 Between $2,500 and $10,000 Between $10,000 and $25,000 Between $25,000 and $50,000 Between $50,000 and $100,000 Between $100,000 and $250,000 Between $250,000 and $500,000 Between $500,000 and $1,000,000 Between $1,000,000 and $2,500,000 Greater than $2,500,000 Where pricing is not provided, Info-Tech makes use of publicly available sources of information to determine a price. As these sources are not official price lists, the possibility exists that they may be inaccurate or outdated, and so the source of the pricing information is provided. Since Info-Tech publishes pricing information regardless of vendor participation, it is always in the vendor’s best interest to supply accurate and up to date information. Info-Tech’s Price Evaluations are based on pre-defined pricing scenarios (see Product Pricing Scenario, below) to ensure a comparison that is as close as possible between evaluated solutions. Pricing scenarios describe a sample business and solicit guidance as to the appropriate product/service mix required to deliver the specified functionality, the list price for those tools/services, as well as three full years of maintenance and support.

Price Evaluation Call-out bubble indicates within which price tier the three-year TCO for the solution falls, provides the brackets of that price tier, and links to the graphical representation. Scale along the bottom indicates that the graphic as a whole represents a price scale with a range of $1 to $2.5M+, while the notation indicates whether the pricing was supplied by the vendor or derived from public sources.

Vendor Landscape Methodology:
Information Presentation – Vendor Awards

At the conclusion of all analyses, Info-Tech presents awards to exceptional solutions in three distinct categories. Award presentation is discretionary; not all awards are extended subsequent to each Vendor Landscape and it is entirely possible, though unlikely, that no awards may be presented. Awards categories are as follows: Champion Awards are presented to the top performing solution in a particular use-case scenario. As a result, only one Champion Award is given for each use case, and the entire Vendor Landscape will have the same number of Champion Awards as the number of evaluated use cases. Leader Awards are presented to top performing solutions for each use-case scenario. Depending on the use-case scenario and the number of solutions being evaluated, a variable number of leader awards will be given. This number is at the discretion of the analysts, but is generally placed at two, and given to the solutions ranking second and third respectively for the use case. Best Overall Value Awards are presented to the solution for each use-case scenario that ranked the highest in the Info-Tech Value Index for each evaluated scenario (see Vendor Landscape Methodology: Information Presentation – Value Index, above). If insufficient pricing information is made available for the evaluated solutions, such that a Value Index cannot be calculated, no Best Overall Value Award will be presented. Only one Best Overall Value Award is available for each use-case scenario.

Vendor Awards for Use-Case Performance Info-Tech’s Champion Award is presented to solutions that placed first in an use-case scenario within the Vendor Landscape. Info-Tech Leader Award is given to solutions who placed in the top segment of a use-case scenario. Info-Tech’s Best Overall Value Award is presented to the solution within each use-case scenario with the highest Value Index score.

Vendor Landscape Methodology:
Fact Check & Publication

Info-Tech takes the factual accuracy of its Vendor Landscapes, and indeed of all of its published content, very seriously. To ensure the utmost accuracy in its Vendor Landscapes, we invite all vendors of evaluated solutions (whether the vendor elected to provide a survey and/or participate in a briefing or not) to participate in a process of fact check.

Once the research project is complete and the materials are deemed to be in a publication ready state, excerpts of the material specific to each vendor’s solution are provided to the vendor. Info-Tech only provides material specific to the individual vendor’s solution for review encompassing the following:

• All written review materials of the vendor and the vendor’s product that comprise the evaluated solution.
• Info-Tech’s Criteria Scores / Harvey Balls detailing the individual and overall vendor / product scores assigned.
• Info-Tech’s Feature Rank / stoplights detailing the individual feature scores of the evaluated product.
• Info-Tech’s Raw Pricing for the vendor either as received from the vendor or as collected from publicly available sources.
• Info-Tech’s Scenario ranking for all considered scenarios for the evaluated solution.

Info-Tech does not provide the following:

• Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape placement of the evaluated solution.
• Info-Tech’s Value Score for the evaluated solution.
• End-user feedback gathered during the research project.
• Info-Tech’s overall recommendation in regard to the evaluated solution.

Info-Tech provides a one-week window for each vendor to provide written feedback. Feedback must be corroborated (be provided with supporting evidence), and where it does, feedback that addresses factual errors or omissions is adopted fully, while feedback that addresses opinions is taken under consideration. The assigned analyst team makes all appropriate edits and supplies an edited copy of the materials to the vendor within one week for final review.

Should a vendor still have concerns or objections at that time, they are invited to a conversation, initially via email, but as required and deemed appropriate by Info-Tech, subsequently via telephone, to ensure common understanding of the concerns. Where concerns relate to ongoing factual errors or omissions, they are corrected under the supervision of Info-Tech’s Vendor Relations personnel. Where concerns relate to ongoing differences of opinion, they are again taken under consideration with neither explicit not implicit indication of adoption.

Publication of materials is scheduled to occur within the six weeks following the completion of the research project, but does not occur until the fact check process has come to conclusion, and under no circumstances are “pre-publication” copies of any materials made available to any client.

Pricing Scenario

Info-Tech Research Group is providing each vendor with a common pricing scenario to enable normalized scoring of Affordability, calculation of Value Index rankings, and identification of the appropriate solution pricing tier as displayed on each vendor scorecard.

Vendors are asked to provide list costs for SMMP software licensing to address the needs of a reference organization described in the pricing scenario. Please price out the lowest possible 3-year total cost of ownership (TCO) including list prices for software and licensing fees to meet the requirements of the following scenario.

Three-year total acquisition costs will be normalized to produce the Affordability raw scores and calculate Value Index ratings for each solution.

The pricing scenario:

• Enterprise Name: Imperial Products Incorporated
• Enterprise Size: SMB
• Enterprise Vertical: Consumer packaged goods
• Total Number of Sites: Three office locations
• Total Number of Employees: 500
• Total Number SMMP End Users: 50
  • 20 dedicated CSRs who are handling all customer service issues routed to them
  • 5 PR managers who need the ability to monitor the social cloud
  • 24 brand portfolio managers – each portfolio has 5 products (25 total)
  • Each product has its own Facebook and Twitter presence
  • 1 HR manager (using social media for recruiting)
• Total Number of IT Staff: 20
• Operating System Environment: Windows 7
• Functional Requirements and Additional Information: Imperial Products Incorporated is a mid-sized consumer packaged goods firm operating in the United States. The organization is currently looking to adopt a platform for social media monitoring and management. Functional requirements include the ability to monitor and publish to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs. The platform must have the ability to display volume trends, show follower demographics, and conduct sentiment analysis. It must also provide tools for interacting in-platform with social contacts, provide workflow management capabilities, and offer the ability to manage specific social properties (e.g. Facebook Pages). Additional features that are desirable are the ability to archive social interactions, and a dedicated mobile application for one of the major smartphone/tablet operating systems (iOS, Android etc.).

Analyst Perspective

The key is in anticipation.

“We all encounter unexpected changes and our responses are often determined by how we perceive and understand those changes. We react according to the unexpected occurrence. Business organizations are no different.

When a company faces a major technology disruption in its markets – one that could fundamentally change the business or impact its processes and technology – the way its management perceive and understand the disruption influences how they describe and plan for it. In other words, the way management sets the context of a disruption – the way they frame it – shapes the strategy they adopt. Technology leaders can vastly influence business strategy by adopting a proactive approach to understanding disruptive and innovative technologies by simply adopting a process to review and evaluate technology impacts to the company’s lines of business.”

Troy Cheeseman
Practice Lead, Infrastructure & Operations Research
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

• New technology can hit like a meteor. Not only disruptive to IT, technology provides opportunities for organization-wide advantage.
• Your role is endangered. If you don’t prepare for the most disruptive technologies, you could be overshadowed. Don’t let the chief marketing officer (CMO) set the technological innovation agenda.

Common Obstacles

• Predicting the future isn’t easy. Most IT leaders fail to realize how quickly technology increases in capability. Even for the tech savvy, predicting which specific technologies will become disruptive is difficult.
• Communication is difficult when the sky is falling. Even forward-looking IT leaders struggle with convincing others to devote time and resources to monitoring technologies with a formal process.

Info-Tech’s Approach

• Identify, resolve, and evaluate. Use an annual process as described in this blueprint: a formal evaluation of new technology that turns analysis into action.
• Lead the analysis from IT. Establish a team to carry out the annual process as a cure for the causes of “airline magazine syndrome” and to prevent it from happening in the future.
• Train your team on the patterns of progress, track technology over time in a central database, and read Info-Tech’s analysis of upcoming technology.
• Create your KPIs. Establish your success indicators to create measurable value when presenting to your executive.
• Produce a comprehensive proof-of-concept plan that will allow your company to minimize risk and maximize reward when engaging with new technology.

Info-Tech Insight

Proactively monitoring, evaluating, and exploiting disruptive tech isn’t optional.
This will protect your role, IT’s role, and the future of the organization.

A diverse working group maximizes the insight brought to bear.
An IT background is not a prerequisite.

The best technology is only the best when it brings immediate value.
Good technology might not be ready; ready technology might not be good.

Review

We help IT leaders make the most of disruptive impacts.

This research is designed for:

Target Audience: CIO, CTO, Head of Infrastructure

This research will help you:

• Develop a process for anticipating, analyzing, and exploiting disruptive technology.
• Communicate the business case for investing in disruptive technology.
• Categorize emerging technologies to decide what to do with them.
• Develop a plan for taking action to exploit the technology that will most affect your organization.

Problem statement:

As a CIO, there is a need to move beyond day-to-day technology management with an ever-increasing need to forecast technology impacts. Not just from a technical perspective but to map out the technical understandings aligned to potential business impacts and improvements. Technology transformation and innovation is moving more quickly than ever before and as an innovation champion, the CIO or CTO should have foresight in specific technologies with the understanding of how the company could be disrupted in the near future. Foresight + Current Technology + Business Understanding = Understanding the Business Disruption. This should be a repeatable process, not an exception or reactionary response.

Insight Summary

Establish the core working group, select a leader, and select a group of visionaries to help brainstorm emerging technologies.

The right team matters. A core working group will keep focus through the process and a leader will keep everyone accountable. Visionaries are out-of-the-box thinkers and once they understand how to think like a "futurists," they will drive the longlist and shortlist actions.

Train the group to think like futurists

To keep up with exponential technology growth you need to take a multi-threaded approach.

Brainstorm about creating a better future; begin brainstorming an initial longlist

Establish the longlist. The longlist helps create a holistic view of most technologies that could impact the business. Assigning values and quadrant scoring will shortlist the options and focus your PoC option.

Converge everyone’s longlists

Long to short...that's the short of it. Using SWOT, value readiness, and quadrant mapping review sessions will focus the longlist, creating a shortlist of potential POC candidates to review and consider.

Evaluate the shortlist

There is no such thing as a risk-free endeavor. Use a systematic process to ensure that the risks your organization takes have the potential to produce significant rewards.

Define your PoC list and schedule

Don’t be afraid to fail! Inevitably, some proof-of-concept projects will not benefit the organization. The projects that are successful will more than cover the costs of the failed projects. Roll out small scale and minimize losses.

Finalize, present the plan to stakeholders, and repeat!

Don't forget the C-suite. Effectively communicate and present the working group’s finding with a well-defined and succinct presentation. Start the process again!

1. Identify
   • Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
   • Train the group to think like futurists
   • Hold your initial meeting
2. Resolve

• Create and winnow a longlist
• Assess and create the shortlist

The Key Is in Anticipation!

Use Info-Tech’s approach for analyzing disruptive technology in your own disruptive tech working group

Four key challenges make it essential for you to become a champion for exploiting disruptive technology

1. New technology can hit like a meteor. It doesn’t only disrupt IT; technology provides opportunities for organization-wide advantage.
2. Your role is endangered. If you don’t prepare for the most disruptive technologies, you could be overshadowed. Don’t let the CMO rule technological innovation.
3. Predicting the future isn’t easy. Most IT leaders fail to realize how quickly technology increases in capability. Even for the tech savvy, predicting which specific technologies will become disruptive is difficult.
4. Communication is difficult when the sky is falling. Even forward-looking IT leaders struggle with convincing others to devote time and resources to monitoring emerging technologies with a formal process.

“Look, you have never had this amount of opportunity for innovation. Don’t forget to capitalize on it. If you do not capitalize on it, you will go the way of the dinosaur.”
– Dave Evans, Co-Founder and CTO, Stringify

Technology can hit like a meteor

“ By 2025:

• 38.6 billion smart devices will be collecting, analyzing, and sharing data.
• The web hosting services market is to reach $77.8 billion in 2025.
• 70% of all tech spending is expected to go for cloud solutions.
• There are 1.35 million tech startups.
• Global AI market is expected to reach $89.8 billion.”

– Nick Gabov

IT Disruption

Technology disrupts IT by:

• Affecting the infrastructure and applications that IT needs to use internally.
• Affecting the technology of end users that IT needs to support and deploy, especially for technologies with a consumer focus.
• Allowing IT to run more efficiently and to increase the efficiency of other business units.
• Example: The rise of the smartphone required many organizations to rethink endpoint devices.

Business Disruption

Technology disrupts the business by:

• Affecting the viability of the business.
• Affecting the business’ standing in relation to competitors that better deal with disruptive technology.
• Affecting efficiency and business strategy. IT should have a role in technology-related business decisions.
• Example: BlackBerry failed to anticipate the rise of the apps ecosystem. The company struggled as it was unable to react with competitive products.

Senior IT leaders are expected to predict disruptions to IT and the business, while tending to today’s needs

You are expected to be both a firefighter and a forecaster

• Anticipating upcoming disruptions is part of your job, and you will be blamed if you fail to anticipate future business disruptions because you are focusing on the present.
• However, keeping IT running smoothly is also part of your job, and you will be blamed if today’s IT environment breaks down because you are focusing on the future.

You’re caught between the present and the future

• You don’t have a process that anticipates future disruptions but runs alongside and integrates with operations in the present.
• You can’t do it alone. Tending to both the present and the future will require a team that can help you keep the process running.

Info-Tech Insight

Be prepared when disruptions start coming down, even though it isn’t easy. Use this research to reduce the effort to a simple process that can be performed alongside everyday firefighting.

Make disruptive tech analysis and exploitation part of your innovation agenda

Organizations without high satisfaction with IT innovation leadership are only 20% likely to be highly satisfied with IT

“You rarely see a real-world correlation of .86!”
– Mike Battista, Staff Scientist, Cambridge Brain Sciences, PhD in Measurement

There is a clear relationship between satisfaction with IT and the IT department’s innovation leadership.

Prevent “airline magazine syndrome” by proactively analyzing disruptive technologies

“The last thing the CIO needs is an executive saying ‘I don’t what it is or what it does…but I want two of them!”
– Tim Lalonde

Airline magazine syndrome happens to IT leaders caught between the business and IT. It usually occurs in this manner:

1. While on a flight, a senior executive reads about an emerging technology that has exciting implications for the business in an airline magazine.
2. The executive returns and approaches IT, demanding that action be taken to address the disruptive technology – and that it should have been (ideally) completed already.

Without a Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan:

“I don’t know”

With a Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan:

“Here in IT, we have already considered that technology and decided it was overhyped. Let me show you our analysis and invite you to join our working group.”

OR

“We have already considered that technology and have started testing it. Let me show you our testing lab and invite you to join our working group.”

Info-Tech Insight

Airline magazine syndrome is a symptom of a wider problem: poor CEO-CIO alignment. Solve this problem with improved communication and documentation. Info-Tech’s disruptive tech iterative process will make airline magazine syndrome a thing of the past!

IT leaders who do not keep up with disruptive technology will find their roles diminished

“Today’s CIO dominion is in a decaying orbit with CIOs in existential threat mode.”
– Ken Magee

Protect your role within IT

• IT is threatened by disruptive technology:
  • Trends like cloud services, increased automation, and consumerization reduce the need for IT to be involved in every aspect of deploying and using technology.
  • In the long term, machines will replace even intellectually demanding IT jobs, such as infrastructure admin and high-level planning.
• Protect your role in IT by:
  • Anticipating new technology that will disrupt the IT department and your place within it.
  • Defining new IT roles and responsibilities that accurately reflect the reality of technology today.
  • Having a process for the above that does not diminish your ability to keep up with everyday operations that remain a priority today.

Protect your role against other departments

• Your role in the business is threatened by disruptive technology:
  • The trends that make IT less involved with technology allow other executives – such as the CMO – to make IT investments.
  • As the CMO gains the power and data necessary to embrace new trends, the CIO and IT managers have less pull.
• Protect your role in the business by:
  • Being the individual to consult about new technology. It isn’t just a power play; IT leaders should be the ones who know technology thoroughly.
  • Becoming an indispensable part of the entire business’ innovation strategy through proposing and executing a process for exploiting disruptive technology.

IT leaders who do keep up have an opportunity to solidify their roles as experts and aggregators

“The IT department plays a critical role in [innovation]. What they can do is identify a technology that potentially might introduce improvements to the organization, whether it be through efficiency, or through additional services to constituents.”
– Michael Maguire, Management Consultant

The contemporary CIO is a conductor, ensuring that IT works in harmony with the rest of the business.

The new CIO is a conductor, not a musician. The CIO is taking on the role of a business engineer, working with other executives to enable business innovation.

The new CIO is an expert and an aggregator. Conductor CIOs increasingly need to keep up on the latest technologies. They will rely on experts in each area and provide strategic synthesis to decide if, and how, developments are relevant in order to tune their IT infrastructure.

The pace of technological advances makes progress difficult to predict

“An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense ‘intuitive linear’ view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century – it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate).”
– Ray Kurzweil

Technology advances exponentially. Rather than improving by the same amount of capability each year, it multiplies in capability each year.

Think like a futurist to anticipate technology before it goes mainstream.

Exponential growth happens much faster than linear growth, especially when it hits the knee of the curve. Even those who acknowledge exponential growth underestimate how capabilities can improve.

To predict new advances, turn innovation into a process

“We spend 70 percent of our time on core search and ads. We spend 20 percent on adjacent businesses, ones related to the core businesses in some interesting way. Examples of that would be Google News, Google Earth, and Google Local. And then 10 percent of our time should be on things that are truly new.”
– Eric Schmidt, Google

• Don’t get caught in the trap of refining your core processes to the exclusion of innovation. You should always be looking for new processes to improve, new technology to pilot, and where possible, new businesses to get into.
• Devote about 10% of your time and resources to exploring new technology: the potential rewards are huge.

You and your team need to analyze technology every year to predict where it’s going.

Foundational technologies, such as computing power, storage, and networks, are improving exponentially. Disruptive technologies are specific manifestations of foundational advancements. Advancements of greater magnitude give rise to more manifestations; therefore, there will be more disruptive technologies every year. There is a lot of noise to cut through. Remember Google Glasses? As technology becomes ubiquitous and consumerization reigns, everybody is a technology expert. How do you decide which technologies to focus on?

Protect IT and the business from disruption by implementing a simple, repeatable disruptive technology exploitation process

“One of the most consistent patterns in business is the failure of leading companies to stay at the top of their industries when technologies or markets change […] Managers must beware of ignoring new technologies that can’t initially meet the needs of their mainstream customers.”
– Joseph L. Bower and Clayton M. Christensen

Info-Tech Insight

Use Info-Tech’s tools and templates, along with this storyboard, to walk you through creating and executing an exploitation process in six steps.

Create measurable value by using Info-Tech’s process for evaluating the disruptive potential of technology

No business process is perfect. Use Info-Tech’s Proof of Concept Template to create a disruptive technology proof of concept implementation plan. Harness your company’s internal wisdom to systematically vet new technology. Engage only in calculated risk and maximize potential benefit.

Info-Tech Insight

Inevitably, some proof of concept projects will not benefit the organization. The projects that are successful will more than cover the costs of the failed projects. Roll out small scale and minimize losses.

Establish your key performance indicators (KPIs)

Key performance indicators allow for rigorous analysis, which generates insight into utilization by platform and consumption by business activity.

• Brainstorm metrics that indicate when process improvement is actually taking place.
• Have members of the group pitch KPIs; the facilitator should record each suggestion on a whiteboard.
• Make sure to have everyone justify the inclusion of each metric: how does it relate to the improvement that the proof of concept project is intended to drive? How does it relate to the overall goals of the business?
• Include a list of KPIs, along with a description and a target (ensuring that it aligns with SMART metrics).

Communicate your plan with the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

Use the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template to summarize everything that the group does. Update the report continuously and use it to show others what is happening in the world of disruptive technology.

Whether you need a process for exploiting disruptive technology, or an analysis of current trends, Info-Tech can help

Two sets of research make up Info-Tech’s disruptive technology coverage:

This storyboard, and the associated tools and templates, will walk you through creating a disruptive technology working group of your own.

Blueprint deliverables

Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

Key deliverable:

The Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template acts as an implementation plan for developing a long-term strategy for monitoring and implementing disruptive technologies.

Proof of Concept Template

The Proof of Concept Template will guide you through the creation of a minimum-viable proof-of-concept project.

Executive Presentation

The Disruptive Technology Executive Presentation Template will assist you to present an overview of the disruptive technology process, outlining the value to your company.

Disruptive Technology Value Readiness & SWOT Analysis Tool

The Disruptive Technology Value Readiness & SWOT Analysis Tool will assist you to systematize notional evaluations of the value and readiness of potential disruptive technologies.

Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool

The Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool will help you to keep track of the independent research that is conducted by members of the disruptive technology exploitation working group.

Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool

The Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool will help you to codify the results of the disruptive technology working group's longlist winnowing process.

Disruptive Technology Look to the Past Tool

The Disruptive Technology Look to the Past Tool will assist you to collect reasonability test notes when evaluating potential disruptive technologies.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

Workshop

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

Consulting

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

A typical GI is 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

Workshop Overview

Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology

Disrupt or be disrupted.

Identify

Create your working group.

PHASE 1

Use Info-Tech’s approach for analyzing disruptive technology in your own disruptive tech working group

1. Identify
   1. Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
   2. Train the group to think like futurists
   3. Hold your initial meeting
2. Resolve
   1. Create and winnow a longlist
   2. Assess and create the shortlist
3. Evaluate
   1. Create process maps
   2. Develop proof of concept charter

The Key Is in Anticipation!

Phase 1: Identify

Create your working group.

Activities:

Step 1.1: Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
Step 1.2: Train the group to think like futurists
Step 1.3: Hold the initial meeting

This step involves the following participants:

IT Infrastructure Manager

CIO or CTO

Potential members and visionaries of the working group

Outcomes of this step:

• Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
• Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group who will provide insight and direction.
• Introduce the core working group members.
• Gain a better understanding of how technology advances.
• Brainstorm a list of organizational processes.
• Brainstorm an initial longlist.

Step 1.1

Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries.

Activities:

• Articulate the long- and short-term benefits and costs to the entire organization
• Gain support by articulating the long- and short-term benefits and costs to the IT department
• Gain commitment from key stakeholders and executives
• Help stakeholders understand what goes into formally exploiting disruptive tech by reviewing this process
• Establish the core working group and select a leader
• Create a schedule with a time commitment appropriate to your organization’s size; it doesn’t need to take long
• Select a group of visionaries external to IT to help the working group brainstorm disruptive technologies

This step involves the following participants:

• IT Infrastructure Manager
• CIO or CTO
• Potential members and visionaries of the working group

Outcomes of this step

• Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
• Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group that will provide insight and direction.

1.1.A Articulate the long- and short-term benefits and costs to the entire organization

A cost/benefit analysis will give stakeholders a picture of how disruptive technology could affect the business. Use the chart as a starting point and customize it based on your organization.

1.1.B Gain support by articulating the long- and short-term benefits and costs to the IT department

A cost/benefit analysis will give stakeholders a picture of how disruptive technology could affect the business. Use the chart as a starting point and customize it based on your organization.

1.1.C Gain commitment from key stakeholders and executives

Gaining approval from executives and key stakeholders is the final obstacle. Ensure that you cover the following items to have the best chance for project approval.

• Use a sample deck similar to this section for gaining buy-in, ensuring that you add/remove information to make it specific to your organization. Cover this section, including:
  • Who: Who will lead the team and who will be on it (working group)?
  • What: What resources will be required by the team (costs)?
  • Where/When: How often and where will the team meet (meeting schedule)?
  • Why: Why is there a need to exploit disruptive technology (benefits and examples)?
  • How: How is the team going to exploit disruptive technology (the process)?
• Go through this blueprint prior to presenting the plan to stakeholders so that you have a strong understanding of the details behind each process and tool.
• Frame the first iteration of the cycle as a pilot program. Use the completed results of the pilot to establish exploiting disruptive technology as a necessary company initiative.

Insert the resources required by the disruptive tech exploitation team into Section 1.5 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template. Have executives sign-off on the project in Section 1.6.

Disruption has undermined some of the most successful tech companies

“The IT department plays a critical role in [innovation]. What they can do is identify a technology that potentially might introduce improvements to the organization, whether it be through efficiency or through additional services to constituents.”
- Michael Maguire, Management Consultant

VoIP’s transformative effects

Disruptive technology:
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a modern means of making phone calls through the internet by sending voice packets using data, as opposed to the traditional circuit transmissions of the PSTN.

Who won:
Organizations that realized the cost savings that VoIP provided for businesses with a steady internet connection saved as much as 60% on telephony expenses. Even in the early stages, with a few more limitations, organizations were able to save a significant amount of money and the technology has continued to improve.

Who lost?
Telecom-related companies that failed to realize VoIP was a potential threat to their market, and organizations that lacked the ability to explore and implement the disruptive technology early.

Digital photography — the new norm

Disruptive technology:
Digital photography refers to the storing of photographs in a digital format, as opposed to traditional photography, which exposes light to sensitive photographic film.

Who won:
Photography companies and new players that exploited the evolution of data storage and applied it to photography succeeded. Those that were able to balance providing traditional photography and exploiting and introducing digital photography, such as Nikon, left competitors behind. Smartphone manufacturers also benefited by integrating digital cameras.

Who lost?
Photography companies, such as Kodak, that failed to respond to the digital revolution found themselves outcompeted and insolvent.

1.1.D Help stakeholders understand what goes into formally exploiting disruptive tech by reviewing this process

There are five steps to formally exploiting disruptive technology, each with its own individual outputs and tools to take analysis to the next level.

Info-Tech Insight

Before going to stakeholders, complete the entire blueprint to better understand the tools and outputs of the process.

1.1.E Establish the core working group and select a leader

• Selecting your core membership for the working group is a critical step to the group’s success. Ensure that you satisfy the following criteria:
  • This is a team of subject matter experts. They will be overseeing the learning and piloting of disruptive technologies. Their input will also be valuable for senior executives and for implementing these technologies.
  • Choose members that can take time away from firefighting tasks to dedicate time to meetings.
  • It may be necessary to reach outside of the organization now or in the future for expertise on certain technologies. Use Info-Tech as a source of information.

• Once the team is established, you must decide who will lead the group. Ensure that you satisfy the following criteria:
  • A leader should be credible, creative, and savvy in both technology and business.
  • The leader should facilitate, acting as both an expert and an aggregator of the information gathered by the team.

Choose a compelling name

The working group needs a name. Be sure to select one with a positive connotation within your organization.

Section 1.3 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

1.1.F Create a schedule with a time commitment appropriate to your organization’s size; it doesn’t need to take long

Time the disruptive technology working group’s meetings to coincide and integrate with your organization’s strategic planning — at least annually.

“Regardless of size, it’s incumbent upon every organization to have some familiarity of what’s happening over the next few years, [and to try] to anticipate what some of those trends may be. […] These trends are going to accelerate IT’s importance in terms of driving business strategy.”
– Vern Brownell, CEO, D-Wave

Section 1.4 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

1.1.G Select a group of visionaries external to IT to help the working group brainstorm disruptive technologies

Selecting advisors for your group is an ongoing step, and the roster can change.

Ensure that you satisfy the following criteria:

• Look beyond IT to select a team representing several business units.
• Check for self-professed “geeks” and fans of science fiction that may be happy to join.
• Membership can be a reward for good performance.

This group does not have to meet as regularly as the core working group. Input from external advisors can occur between meetings. You can also include them on every second or third iteration of the entire process.

However, the more input you can get into the group, the more innovative it can become.

“It is … important to develop design fictions based on engagement with directly or indirectly implicated publics and not to be designed by experts alone.”
– Emmanuel Tsekleves, Senior Lecturer in Design Interactions, University of Lancaster

Section 1.3 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

The following case study illustrates the innovative potential that is created when you include a diverse group of people

INDUSTRY - Chip Manufacturing
SOURCE - Clayton Christensen, Intel

To achieve insight, you need to collaborate with people from outside of your department.

Challenge

• Headquartered in California, through the 1990s, Intel was the largest microprocessor chip manufacturer in the world, with revenue of $25 billion in 1997.
• All was not perfect, however. Intel faced a challenge from Cyrix, a manufacturer of low-end chips. In 18 months, Cyrix’s share of the low-margin entry-level chip manufacturing business mushroomed from 10% to 70%.

Solution

• Troubled by the potential for significant disruption of the microprocessor market, Intel brought in external consultants to hold workshops to educate managers about disruptive innovation.
• Managers would break into groups and discuss ways Intel could facilitate the disruption of its competitors. In one year, Intel hosted 18 workshops, and 2,000 managers went through the process.

Results

• Intel launched the Celeron chip to serve the lower end of the PC market and win market share back from Cyrix (which no longer exists as an independent company) and other competitors like AMD.
• Within one year, Intel had captured 35% of the market.

“[The models presented in the workshops] gave us a common language and a common way to frame the problem so that we could reach a consensus around a counterintuitive course of action.” – Andy Grove, then-CEO, Intel Corporation

Phase 1: Identify

Create your working group.

Activities:

Step 1.1: Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
Step 1.2: Train the group to think like futurists
Step 1.3: Hold the initial meeting

This step involves the following participants:

• IT Infrastructure Manager
• CIO or CTO
• Potential members and visionaries of the working group

Outcomes of this phase:

• Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
• Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group who will provide insight and direction.
• Introduce the core working group members.
• Gain a better understanding of how technology advances.
• Brainstorm a list of organizational processes.
• Brainstorm an initial longlist.

Step 1.2

Train the group to think like futurists

Activities:

1. Look to the past to predict the future:
   • Step 1: Review the technology opportunities you missed
   • Step 2: Review and record what you liked about the tech
   • Step 3: Review and record your dislikes
   • Step 4: Record and test the reasonability
2. Crash course on futurology principles
3. Peek into the future

This step involves the following participants:

• IT Infrastructure Manager
• CIO or CTO
• Core working group members
• Visionaries

Outcomes of this step

• Team members thinking like futurists
• Better understanding of how technology advances
• List of past examples and characteristics

Info-Tech Insight

Business buy-in is essential. Manage your business partners by providing a summary of the EDIT methodology and process. Validate the process value, which will allow you create a team of IT and business representatives.

1.2 Train the group to think like futurists

1 hour

Ensure the team understands how technology advances and how they can identify patterns in upcoming technologies.

1. Lead the group through a brainstorming session.
2. Follow the next phases and steps.
3. This session should be led by someone who can facilitate a thought-provoking discussion.
4. This training deck finishes with a video.

Input

• Facilitated creativity
• Training deck [following slides]

Output

• Inspiration
• Anonymous ideas

Materials

• Futurist training “steps”
• Pen and paper

Participants

• Core working group
• Visionaries
• Facilitator

1.2.A Look to the past to predict the future

30 minutes

Use the Disruptive Technology Research Look to the Past Tool to record your output.

Input

• Facilitated creativity
• Speaker’s notes

Output

• Inspiration
• Anonymous ideas
• Recorded missed opportunities
• Recorded positive points
• Recorded dislikes
• Reasonability test list

Materials

• Futurist training “steps”
• Pen and paper
• “Look to the Past” tool

Participants

• Core working group
• Visionaries
• Facilitator

Understand how the difference between linear and exponential growth will completely transform many organizations in the next decade

“The last ten years have seen exponential growth in research on disruptive technologies and their impact on industries, supply chains, resources, training, education and employment markets … The debate is still open on who will be the winners and losers of future industries, but what is certain is that change has picked up pace and we are now in a new technology revolution whose impact is potentially greater than the industrial revolution.”
– Gary L. Evans

Exponential advancement will ensure that life in the next decade will be very different from life today.

• Linear growth happens one step at a time.
• The difference between linear and exponential is hard to notice, at first.
• We are now at the knee of the curve.

What about email?

• Consider the amount of email you get daily
• Double it
• Triple it

Exponential growth happens much faster than linear growth, especially when it hits the knee of the curve. Technology grows exponentially, and we are approaching the knee of the curve.

This graph is adapted from research by Ray Kurzweil.

Growth: Linear vs. Exponential

1.2.B Crash course on futurology principles

1 hour

“An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense ‘intuitive linear’ view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate).”
- Ray Kurzweil

Review the differences between exponential and linear growth

The pace of technological advances makes progress difficult to predict.

Technology advances exponentially. Rather than improving by the same amount of capability each year, it multiplies in capability each year.

Think like a futurist to anticipate technology before it goes mainstream.

Exponential growth happens much faster than linear growth, especially when it hits the knee of the curve. Even those who acknowledge exponential growth underestimate how capabilities can improve.

The following case study illustrates the rise of social media providers

“There are 7.7 billion people in the world, with at least 3.5 billion of us online. This means social media platforms are used by one in three people in the world and more than two-thirds of all internet users.”
– Esteban Ortiz-Ospina

The following case study illustrates the rapid growth of Machine to Machine (M2M) connections

Ray Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns

“Ray Kurzweil has been described as ‘the restless genius’ by The Wall Street Journal, and ‘the ultimate thinking machine’ by Forbes. He was ranked #8 among entrepreneurs in the United States by Inc Magazine, calling him the ‘rightful heir to Thomas Edison,’ and PBS included Ray as one of 16 ‘revolutionaries who made America,’ along with other inventors of the past two centuries.”
Source: KurzweilAI.net

Growth is linear?

“Information technology is growing exponentially. That’s really my main thesis, and our intuition about the future is not exponential, it’s really linear. People think things will go at the current pace …1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 30 steps later, you’re at 30.”

Better IT strategy enables future business innovation

“The reality of information technology like computers, like biological technologies now, is it goes exponentially … 2, 4, 8, 16. At step 30, you’re at a billion, and this is not an idle speculation about the future.” [emphasis added]

“When I was a student at MIT, we all shared a computer that cost tens of millions of dollars. This computer [pulling his smartphone out of his pocket] is a million times cheaper, a thousand times more powerful — that’s a billion-fold increase in MIPS per dollar, bits per dollar… and we’ll do it again in 25 years.”
Source: “IT growth and global change: A conversation with Ray Kurzweil,” McKinsey & Company

1.2.C Peak into the future

1 hour

Leverage industry roundtables and trend reports to understand the art of the possible

• Uncover important business and industry trends that can inform possibilities for technology disruption.
• Market research is critical in identifying factors external to your organization and identifying technology innovation that will provide a competitive edge. It’s important to evaluate the impact each trend or opportunity will have in your organization and market.

Visit Info-Tech’s Trends & Priorities Research Center

Visit Info-Tech’s Industry Coverage Research to get started.

Phase 1: Identify

Create your working group

Activities:

Step 1.1: Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
Step 1.2: Train the group to think like futurists
Step 1.3: Hold the initial meeting

This step involves the following participants:

• IT Infrastructure Manager
• CIO or CTO
• Potential members and visionaries of the working group

Outcomes of this phase:

• Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
• Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group who will provide insight and direction.
• Introduce the core working group members.
• Gain a better understanding of how technology advances.
• Brainstorm a list of organizational processes.
• Brainstorm an initial longlist.

Info-Tech Insight

Establish the longlist. The longlist help create a holistic view of most technologies that could impact the business. Assigning values and quadrant scoring will shortlist the options and focus your PoC option.

Step 1.3

Hold the initial meeting

Activities:

1. Create an agenda for the meeting
2. Start the kick-off meeting with introductions and a recap
3. Brainstorm about creating a better future
4. Begin brainstorming an initial longlist
5. Have team members develop separate longlists for their next meeting

This step involves the following participants:

• IT Infrastructure Manager
• CIO or CTO
• Core working group members
• Visionaries

Outcomes of this step

• Introduce the core working group members
• Gain a better understanding of how technology advances
• Brainstorm a list of organizational processes
• Brainstorm an initial longlist

1.3.A Create an agenda for the meeting

1 hour

Kick-off this cycle of the disruptive technology process by welcoming your visionaries and introducing your core working group.

The purpose of the initial meeting is to brainstorm where new technology will be the most disruptive within the organization. You’ll develop two longlists: one of business processes and one of disruptive technology. These longlists are in addition to the independent research your core working group will perform before Phase 2.

• Find an outgoing facilitator. Sitting back will let you focus more on ideating, and an engaging presenter will help bring out ideas from your visionaries.
• The training deck (see step 1.2c) includes presenting a video. We’ve included some of our top choices for you to choose from.
  • Feel free to find your own video or bring in a keynote speaker.
  • The object of the video is to get the group thinking about the future.
  • Customize the training deck as needed.
• If a cycle has been completed, present your findings and all of the group’s completed deliverables in the first section.
• This session is the only time you have with your visionaries. Get their ideas on what technologies will be disruptive to start forming a longlist.

Info-Tech Insight

The disruptive tech team is prestigious. If your organization is large enough or has the resources, consider having this meeting in an offsite location. This will drive excitement to join the working group if the opportunity arises and incentivize good work.

Info-Tech Insight

The disruptive tech team is prestigious. If your organization is large enough or has the resources, consider having this meeting in an offsite location. This will drive excitement to join the working group if the opportunity arises and incentivize good work.

1.3.B Start the kick-off meeting with introductions and a summary of what work has been done so far

30 minutes

1. Start the meeting off with an icebreaker activity. This isn’t an ordinary business meeting – or even group – so we recommend starting off with an activity that will emphasize this unique nature. To get the group in the right mindset, try this activity:
   1. Go around the group and have people present:
   2. Their names and roles
   3. Pose some or all of the following questions/prompts to the group:
      • “Tell me about something you have created.”
      • “Tell me about a time you created a process or program considered risky.”
      • “Tell me about a situation in which you had to come up with several new ideas in a hurry. Were they accepted? Were they successful?”
      • “Tell me about a time you took a risk.”
      • “Tell me about one of your greatest failures and what you learned from it.”
2. Once everyone has been introduced, present any work that has already been completed.
   1. If you have already completed a cycle, give a summary of each technology that you investigated and the results from any piloting.
   2. If this is the first cycle for the working group, present the information decided in Step 1.1.

Input

• Disruptive technology exploitation plan

Output

• Networking
• Brainstorming

Materials

• Meeting agenda

Participants

• Core working group
• Visionaries
• Facilitator

1.3.C Brainstorm about creating a better future for the company, the stakeholders, and the employees

30 minutes

1. Have everyone put up at least two ideas for each chart paper.
2. Go around the room and discuss their ideas. You may generate some new ideas here.

These generated ideas are organizational processes that can be improved or disrupted with emerging technologies. This list will be referenced throughout Phases 2 and 3.

Input

• Inspiration
• Anonymous ideas

Output

• List of processes

Materials

• Chart paper and markers
• Pen and paper

Participants

• Core working group
• Visionaries

1.3.D Begin brainstorming a longlist of future technology, and discuss how these technologies will impact the business

30 minutes

• Use the Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool to organize technologies and ideas. Longstanding working groups can track technologies here over the course of several years, updating the tool between meetings.
• Guide the discussion with the following questions, and make sure to focus on the processes generated from Step 1.2.d.

Focus on

The Technology

• What is the technology and what does it do?
• What processes can it support?

Experts and Other Organizations

• What are the vendors saying about the technology?
• Are similar organizations implementing the technology?

Your Organization

• Is the technology ready for wide-scale distribution?
• Can the technology be tested and implemented now?

The Technology’s Value

• Is there any indication of the cost of the technology?
• How much value will the technology bring?

Download the Disruptive Technology Database Tool

Input

• Inspiration
• List of processes

Output

• Initial longlist

Materials

• Chart paper and markers
• Pen and paper
• Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool

Participants

• Core working group
• Visionaries

1.3.E Explore these sources to generate your disruptive technology longlist for the next meeting

30 Minutes

There are many sources of information on new and emerging technology. Explore as many sources as you can.

Science fiction is a valid source of learning. It drives and is influenced by disruptive technology.

“…the inventor of the first liquid-fuelled rocket … was inspired by H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel War of the Worlds (1898). More recent examples include the 3D gesture-based user interface used by Tom Cruise’s character in Minority Report (2002), which is found today in most touch screens and the motion sensing capability of Microsoft’s Kinect. Similarly, the tablet computer actually first appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and the communicator – which we’ve come to refer today as the mobile phone – was first used by Captain Kirk in Star Trek (1966).”
– Emmanuel Tsekleves, senior lecturer, University of Lancaster

Right sources: blogs, tech news sites, tech magazines, the tech section of business sites, popular science books about technology, conferences, trade publications, and vendor announcements

Quantity over quality: early research is not the time to dismiss ideas.

Discuss with your peers: spark new and innovative ideas

Insert a brief summary of how independent research is conducted in Section 2.1 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template.

1.3.E (Cont.) Explore these sources to generate your disruptive technology longlist for the next meeting

30 Minutes

There are many sources of information on new and emerging technology. Use this list to kick-start your search.

• Technology journalists and bloggers are often on top of disruptive technologies and trends. Some sources we used for compiling our longlist include:
  • Ars Technica
  • Singularity Hub
  • Singularity Weblog
  • KurzweilAI
  • TechRepublic / Innovation
  • Transforming Network Infrastructure
  • r/Futurology
  • WIRED
• Vendors are also a valuable source of information, especially if they host webinars or publish whitepapers.
• Explore different academic organizations such as the IEEE and the Association of Computing Machinery.

Connect with practitioners that are worth their weight in Reddit gold. Check out topic-based LinkedIn groups and subreddits such as r/sysadmin and r/tech. People experienced with technology frequent these groups.

YouTube is for more than cat videos. Many vendors use YouTube for distributing their previous webinars. There are also videos showcasing various technologies that are uploaded by lecturers, geeks, researchers, and other technology enthusiasts.

Test your reasonability. Check your “Think Like a Futurist” Tool

Resolve

Evaluate Disruptive Technologies

PHASE 2

Phase 2: Resolve

Evaluate disrupted technologies

Activities:

Step 2.1: Create and Winnow a Longlist
Step 2.2: Assess Shortlist

Info-Tech Insight

Long to short … that’s the short of it. Using SWOT, value readiness, and quadrant mapping review sessions will focus the longlist, creating a shortlist of potential PoC candidates to review and consider.

This step involves the following participants:

• Core working group
• Infrastructure Management

Outcomes of this step:

• Finalized longlist
• Finalized shortlist
• Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist

Step 2.1

Create and winnow a longlist

Activities:

1. Converge everyone’s longlists
2. Narrow technologies from the longlist down to a shortlist using Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool
3. Use the shortlisting tool to help participants visualize the potential
4. Input the technologies on your longlist into the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool to produce a shortlist

This step involves the following participants:

• Core working group members

Outcomes of this step:

• Finalized longlist
• Finalized shortlist
• Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist

2.1 Organize a meeting with the core working group to combine your longlists and create a shortlist

1 hour

Plan enough time to talk about each technology on the list. Each technology was included for a reason.

• Start with the longlist. Review the longlist compiled at the initial meeting, and then have everyone present the lists that they independently researched.
• Focus on the company’s context. Make sure that the working group analyzes these disruptive technologies in the context of the organization.
• Start to compile the shortlist. Begin narrowing down the longlist by excluding technologies that are not relevant.

Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

2.1.A Converge the longlists developed by your team

90 minutes

• Start with the longlist developed at the initial meeting. Write this list on the whiteboard.
• If applicable, have a member present the longlist that was created in the last cycle. Remove technologies that:
  • Are no longer disruptive (e.g. have been implemented or rejected).
  • Have become foundational.
• Eliminate redundancy: remove items that are very similar.
• Have members “pitch” items on their lists:
  • Explain why their technologies will be disruptive (2-5 minutes maximum)
  • Add new technologies to the whiteboard
• Record the following for metrics:
  • Each presented technology
  • Reasons the technology could be disruptive
  • Source of the information
• Use Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool as a starting point.

Insert the final longlist into Section 2.2 of your Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template.

Input

• Longlist developed at first meeting
• Independent research
• Previous longlist

Output

• Finalized longlist

Materials

• Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool
• Whiteboard and markers
• Virtual whiteboard

Participants

• Core working group

Review the list of processes that were brainstormed by the visionary group, and ask for input from others

• IT innovation is most highly valued by the C-suite when it improves business processes, reduces costs, and improves core products and services.
• By incorporating this insight into your working group’s analysis, you help to attract the attention of senior management and reinforce the group’s necessity.
• Any input you can get from outside of IT will help your group understand how technology can be disruptive.
  • Visionaries consulted in Phase 1 are a great source for this insight.
• The list of processes that they helped to brainstorm in Step 1.2 reflects processes that can be impacted by technology.
• Info-Tech’s research has shown time and again that both CEOs and CIOs want IT to innovate around:
  • Improving business processes
  • Improving core products and services
  • Reducing costs

N=364 CXOs & CIOs from the CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostic Questions were asked on a 7-point scale of 1 = Not at all to 7 = Very strongly. Results are displayed as percentage of respondents selecting 6 or 7.

Info-Tech Insight

The disruptive tech team is prestigious. If your organization is large enough or has the resources, consider having this meeting in an offsite location. This will drive excitement to join the working group if the opportunity arises and incentivize good work.

2.1.B Narrow technologies from the longlist down to a shortlist using Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool

90 minutes

To decide which technology has potential for your organization, have the working group or workshop participants evaluate each technology:

1. Record each potentially disruptive technology in the longlist on a whiteboard.
2. Making sure to carefully consider the meaning of the terms, have each member of the group evaluate each technology as “high” or “low” along each of the axes, innovation and transformation, on a piece of paper.
3. The facilitator collects each piece of paper and inputs the results by technology into the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.

Insert the final shortlist into Section 2.2 of your Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template.

Input

• Longlist
• Futurist brainstorming

Output

• Shortlist

Materials

• Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool
• Whiteboard and markers
• Virtual whiteboard

Participants

• Core working group

Disruptive technologies are innovative and transformational

Info-Tech Insight

Technology can be transformational but not innovative. Not every new technology is disruptive. Even where technology has improved the efficiency of the business, if it does this in an incremental way, it might not be worth exploring using this storyboard.

2.1.C Use the shortlisting tool to help participants visualize the potential

1 hour

Use the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool, tabs 2 and 3.

Assign quadrants

• Input group members’ names and the entire longlist (up to 30 technologies) into tab 2 of the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.
• On tab 3 of the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool, input the quadrant number that corresponds to the innovation and transformation scores each participant has assigned to each technology.

Note

This is an assessment meant to serve as a guide. Use discretion when moving forward with a proof-of-concept project for any potentially disruptive technology.

2.1.D Use the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool to produce a shortlist

1 hour

Use the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool, tabs 3 and 4.

Use the populated matrix and the discussion list to arrive at a shortlist of four to six potentially disruptive technologies.

• The tool populates each quadrant based on how many votes it received in the voting exercise.
• Technologies selected for a particular quadrant by a majority of participants are placed in the quadrant on the graph. Where there was no consensus, the technology is placed in the discussion list.
• Technologies in the upper right quadrant – high transformation and high innovation – are more likely to be good candidates for a proof-of-concept project. Those in the bottom left are likely to be poor candidates, while those in the remaining quadrants are strong on one of the axes and are unlikely candidates for further systematic evaluation.

Input the results of the vote into tab 3 of the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.

View the results on tab 4.

Phase 2: Resolve

Evaluate disrupted technologies

Activities:

Step 2.1: Create and Winnow a Longlist
Step 2.2:- Assess Shortlist

This step involves the following participants:

• Core working group
• Infrastructure Management

Outcomes of this step:

• Finalized longlist
• Finalized shortlist
• Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist

Assess Shortlist

Activities:

1. Assess the value of each technology to your organization by breaking it down into quality and cost
2. Investigate the overall readiness of the technologies on the shortlist
3. Interpret each technology’s value score
4. Conduct a SWOT analysis for each technology on the shortlist
5. Use Info-Tech’s disruptive technology shortlist analysis to visualize the tool’s outputs
6. Select the shortlisted technologies you would like to move forward with

This step involves the following participants:

• Core working group members
• IT Management

Outcomes of this step:

• Finalized shortlist
• Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist

2.2 Evaluate technologies based on their value and readiness, and conduct a SWOT analysis for each one

Use the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

• A technology monitor diagram prioritizes investment in technology by analyzing its readiness and value.
  • Readiness: how close the technology is to being practical and implementable in your industry and organization.
  • Value: how worthwhile the technology is, in terms of its quality and its cost.
• Value and readiness questionnaires are included in the tool to help determine current and future values for each, and the next four slides explain the ratings further.
• Categorize technology by its value-readiness score, and evaluate how much potential value each technology has and how soon your company can realize that value.
• Use a SWOT analysis to qualitatively evaluate the potential that each technology has for your organization in each of the four categories (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats).

The technology monitor diagram appears in tab 9 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

2.2.A Assess the value of each technology to your organization by breaking it down into quality and cost

1 hour

Update the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool, tab 4.

Populate the chart to produce a score for each technology’s overall value to the company conceptualized as the interaction of quality and cost.

The value assessment is part of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

Info-Tech Insight

Watch your costs: Technology that seems cheap at first can actually be expensive over time. Be sure to account for operational and opportunity costs as well.

2.2.B Investigate the overall readiness of the technologies on the shortlist

1 hour

Update the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool, tab 4.

Overall Readiness

Age

How much time has the technology had to mature? Older technology is more likely to be ready for adoption.

Venture Capital

The amount of venture capital gathered by important firms in the space is an indicator of market faith.

Market Size

How big is the market for the technology? It is more difficult to break into a giant market than a niche market.

Market Players

Have any established vendors (Microsoft, Facebook, Google, etc.) thrown their weight behind the technology?

Fragmentation

A large number of small companies in the space indicates that the market has yet to reach equilibrium.

The readiness assessment is part of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

Use a variety of sources to populate the chart

Google is your friend: search each shortlisted technology to find details about its development and important vendors.

Websites like Crunchbase, VentureBeat, and Mashable are useful sources for information on the companies involved in a space and the amount of money they have each raised.

2.2.C Interpret each technology’s value score

1 hour

Insert the result of the SWOT analysis into tab 7 of Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.

Visualize the results of the quality-cost analysis

• Quality and cost are independently significant; it is essential to understand how each technology stacks up on the axes.
• Use tab 6 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool for an illustration of how quality and cost interact to produce each technology’s final position on the tech monitor graph.
• Remember: the score is notional and reflects the values that you have assigned. Be sure to treat it accordingly.

Green represents a technology that scores extremely high on one axis or the other, or quite high on both. These technologies are the best candidates for proof-of-concept projects from a value perspective.

Red represents a technology that has scored very low on both axes. These technologies will be expensive, time consuming, and of poor quality.

Yellow represents the fuzzy middle ground. These technologies score moderately on both axes. Be especially careful when considering the SWOT analysis of these technologies.

2.2.D Conduct a SWOT analysis for each technology on the shortlist

1 hour

Use tab 6 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.

A formal process for analyzing disruptive technology is the only way to ensure that it is taken seriously.

Write each technology as a heading on a whiteboard. Spend 10-15 minutes on each technology conducting a SWOT analysis together.

Consider four categories for each technology:

• Strengths: Current uses of the technology or supporting technology and ways in which it helps your organization.
• Weaknesses: Current limitations of the technology and challenges or barriers to adopting it in your organization.
• Opportunities: Potential uses of the technology, especially as it advances or improves.
• Threats: Potential negative disruptions resulting from the technology, especially as it advances or improves.

The list of processes generated at the cycle’s initial meeting is a great source for opportunities and threats.

Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

2.2.E Use Info-Tech’s disruptive technology shortlist analysis to visualize the tool’s outputs

1 hour

Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool, tab 9

The tool’s final tab displays the results of the value-readiness analysis and the SWOT analysis in a single location.

Insert the shortlist analysis report into Section 3 of your Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template.

2.2.F Select the shortlisted technologies you would like to move forward with

1 hour

Present your findings to the working group.

• The Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool aggregates your inputs in an easy-to-read, consistent way.
• Present the tool’s outputs to members of the core working group.
• Explain the scoring and present the graphic to the group. Go over each technology’s strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats it presents/poses to the organization.
• Go through the proof-of-concept planning phase before striking any technologies from the list.

Info-Tech Insight

A technology’s exceptional value and immediate usability make it the best. A technology can be promising and compelling, but it is unsuitable unless it can bring immediate and exceptional value to your organization. Don’t get caught up in the hype.

Evaluate

Create an Action Plan to Exploit Disruptive Technologies

PHASE 3

Phase 3: Evaluate

Create an Action Plan to Exploit Disruptive Technologies

Activities:

Step 3.1: Create Process Maps
Step 3.2: Develop Proof of Concept Charter

This step involves the following participants:

• Core working group
• Infrastructure Management
• Working group leader
• CIO

Outcomes of this step:

• Business process maps before and after disruption
• Proof of concept charter
• Key performance indicators
• Estimation of required resources

Step 3.1

Create Process Maps

Activities:

1. Creating a problem canvas by identifying stakeholders, jobs, pains, and gains
2. Clarify the problem the proof-of-concept project will solve
3. Identify jobs and stakeholders
4. Outline how disruptive technology will solve the problem
5. Map business processes
6. Identify affected business units
7. Outline and map the business processes likely to be disrupted
8. Recognize how the new technology will impact business processes
9. Make the case: Outline why the new business process is superior to the old

This step involves the following participants:

• Working group leader
• CIO

Outcomes of this step:

• Business process maps before and after disruption

3.1 Create an action plan to exploit disruptive technologies

Clarify the problem in order to make the case. Fill in section 1.1 of Info-Tech’s Proof of Concept Template to clearly outline the problem each proof of concept is designed to solve.

Establish roles and responsibilities. Use section 1.2 of the template to outline the roles and responsibilities that fall to each member of the team. Ensure that clear lines of authority are delineated and that the list of stakeholders is exhaustive: include the executives whose input will be required for project approval, all the way to the technicians on the frontline responsible for implementing it.

Outline the solution to the problem. Demonstrate how each proof-of-concept project provides a solution to the problem outlined in section 1.1. Be sure to clarify what makes the particular technology under investigation a potential solution and record the results in section 1.3.

Use the Proof of Concept Project Template to track the information you gather throughout Phase 3.

3.1.A Creating a problem canvas by identifying stakeholders, jobs, pains, and gains

2 hours

Instructions:

1. On a whiteboard, draw the visual canvas supplied below.
2. Select your issue area, and list jobs, pains, and gains in the associated sections.
3. Record the pains, jobs, and gains in sections 1.1-1.3 of the Proof of Concept Template.

Gains

1. More revenue

2. Job security

3. ……

Jobs

1. Moving product

2. Per sale value

3. ……

Pains

1. Clunky website

2. Bad site navigation

3. ……

Input

• Inspiration
• Anonymous ideas

Output

• List of processes

Materials

• Chart paper and markers
• Pen and paper

Participants

• Core working group
• Visionaries

3.1.B Clarify the problem the proof-of-concept project will solve

2 hours

What is the problem?

• Every technology is designed to solve a problem faced by somebody somewhere. For each technology that your team has decided to move forward with, identify and clearly state the problem it would solve.
• A clear problem statement is a crucial part of a new technology’s business case. It is impossible to earn buy-in from the rest of the organization without demonstrating the necessity of a solution.
• Perfection is impossible to achieve: during the course of their work, everyone encounters pain points. Identify those pain points to arrive at the problem that needs to be solved.

Example:

List of pains addressed by conversational commerce:

• Search functions can be clunky and unresponsive.
• Corporate websites can be difficult to navigate.
• Customers are uncomfortable in unfamiliar internet environments.
• Customers do not like waiting in a long queue to engage with customer service representatives when they have concerns.

“If I were given one hour to solve a problem, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.”
– Albert Einstein

Input the results of this exercise into Section 1.1 of the Proof of Concept Template.

3.1.C Identify jobs and stakeholders

1 hour

Jobs

Job: Anything that the “customer” (the target of the solution) needs to get done but that is complicated by a pain.

Examples:
The job of the conversational commerce interface is to make selling products easier for the company.
From the customer perspective, the job of the conversational interface is to make the act of purchasing a product simpler and easier.

Stakeholders

Stakeholder: Anyone who is impacted by the new technology and who will end up using, approving, or implementing it.

Examples:
The executive is responsible for changing the company’s direction and approving investment in a new sales platform.
The IT team is responsible for implementing the new technology.
Marketing will be responsible for selling the change to customers.
Customers, the end users, will be the ones using the conversational commerce user interface.

Input the results of this exercise into Section 1.2 of the Proof of Concept Template.

Info-Tech Insight

Process deconstruction reveals strengths and weaknesses. Promising technology should improve stakeholders’ abilities to do jobs.

3.1.D Outline how disruptive technology will solve the problem

1 hour

How will the technology in question make jobs easier?

• How will the disruptive technology you have elected to move forward with create gains for the organization?
• First, identify the gains that are supposed to come with the project. Consider the benefits that the various stakeholders expect to derive from the jobs identified.
• Second, make note of how the technology in question facilitates the gains you have noted. Be sure to articulate the exclusive features of the new technology that make it an improvement over the current state.

Note: The goal of this exercise is to make the case for a particular technology. Sell it!

Expected Gain: Increase in sales.

Conversational Commerce’s Contribution: Customers are more likely to purchase products using interfaces they are comfortable with.

Expected Gain: Decrease in costs.

Conversational Commerce’s Contribution: Customers who are satisfied with the conversational interface are less likely to interact with live agents, saving labor costs.

Input the results of this exercise into Section 1.3 of the Proof of Concept Template.

3.1.E Map business processes

1 hour

Map the specific business processes the new technology will impact.

• Disruptive technologies will impact a wide variety of business processes.
• Map business processes to visualize what parts of your organization (departments, silos, divisions) will be impacted by the new technology, should it be adopted after the proof of concept.
• Identify how the disruption will take place.
• Demonstrate the value of each technology by including the results of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool with your process map.

Use the Proof of Concept Project Template to track the information you gather throughout Phase 3.

3.1.F Identify affected business units

30 minutes per technology

Disruptive technology will impact business units.

• Using the stakeholders identified earlier in the project, map each technology to the business units that will be affected.
• Make your list exhaustive. While some technologies will have a limited impact on the business as a whole, others will have ripple effects throughout the organization.
• Examine affected units at all scales: How will the technology impact operations at the team level? The department level? The division level?

“The disruption is not just in the technology. Sometimes a good business model can be the disruptor.”
– Jason Hong, Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon

Example:

• Customer service teams: Conversational commerce will replace some of the duties of the customer service representative. They will have to reorganize to account for this development.
• IT department: The IT department will be responsible for building/maintaining the conversational interface (or, more likely, they will be responsible for managing the contract with the vendor).
• Sales analytics: New data from customers in natural language might provide a unique opportunity for the analytics team to develop new initiatives to drive sales growth.

Input the results of this exercise into Section 2.1 of the Proof of Concept Template.

3.1.G Outline and map the business processes likely to be disrupted

15 minutes per technology

Leverage the insights of the diverse working group.

• Processes are designed to transform inputs into outputs. All business activities can be mapped into processes.
• A process map illustrates the sequence of actions and decisions that transform an input into an output.
• Effective mapping gives managers an “aerial” view of the company’s processes, making it easier to identify inefficiencies, reduce waste, and ultimately, streamline operations.
• To identify business processes, have group members familiar with the affected business units identify how jobs are typically accomplished within those units.

“To truly understand a business process, we need information from both the top-down and bottom-up points of view. Informants higher in the organizational hierarchy with a strategic focus are less likely to know process details or problems. But they might advocate and clearly articulate an end-to-end, customer-oriented philosophy that describes the process in an idealized form. Conversely, the salespeople, customer service representatives, order processors, shipping clerks, and others who actually carry out the processes will be experts about the processes, their associated documents, and problems or exception cases they encounter.”
– Robert J. Glushko, Professor at UC Berkeley and Tim McGrath, Business Consultant

Info-Tech Insight

Opinions gathered from a group that reflect the process in question are far more likely to align with your organization’s reality. If you have any questions about a particular process, do not be afraid to go outside of the working group to ask someone who might know.

3.1.G Outline and map the business processes likely to be disrupted (continued)

15 minutes per technology

Create a simple diagram of identified processes.

• Use different shapes to identify different points in the process.
• Rectangles represent actions, diamonds represent decisions.
• On a whiteboard, map out the actions and decisions that take place to transform an input into an output.
• Input the result into section 2.2 of the Proof of Concept Template.

Source: Edraw Visualization Solutions

Example: simplified process map

1. User: visits company website
2. User: engages search function or browses links
3. User: selects and purchases product from a menu
4. Company: ships product to customer

3.1.H Recognize how the new technology will impact business processes

15 minutes per technology

Using the information gleaned from the previous activities, develop a new process map that takes the new technology into account.

Identify the new actions or decisions that the new technology will affect.

User: selects and purchases product from a menu; Company: ships product to customer; Company: ships product to customer">

Info-Tech Insight

It’s ok to fail! The only way to know you’re getting close to the “knee of curve" is from multiple failed PoC tests. The more PoC options you have, the more likely it will be that you will have two to three successful results.

3.1.I Make the case: Outline why the new business process is superior to the old

15 minutes per technology

Articulate the main benefits of the new process.

• Using the revised process map, make the case for each new action.
• Questions to consider: How does the new technology relieve end-user/customer pains? How does the new technology contribute to the streamlining of the business process? Who will benefit from the new action? What are the implications of those benefits?
• Record the results of this exercise in section 2.4 of the Proof of Concept Template.

Info-Tech Insight

If you cannot articulate how a new technology will benefit a business process, reconsider moving forward with the proof-of-concept project.

Phase 3: Evaluate

Create an Action Plan to Exploit Disruptive Technologies

Activities:

Step 3.1: Create Process Maps
Step 3.2: Develop Proof of Concept Charter

Develop Proof of Concept Charter

This step involves the following participants:

• Core working group
• Infrastructure Management
• Working group leader
• CIO

Outcomes of this step:

• Business process maps before and after disruption
• Proof of concept charter
• Key performance indicators
• Estimation of required resources

Step 3.2

Develop Proof of Concept Charter

Activities:

1. Use SMART success metrics to define your objectives
2. Develop key performance indicators (KPIs)
3. Identify key success factors for the project
4. Outline the project’s scope
5. Identify the structure of the team responsible for the proof-of-concept project
6. Estimate the resources required by the project
7. Be aware of common IT project concerns
8. Communicate your working group’s findings and successes to a wide audience
9. Hand off the completed proof-of-concept project plan
10. Disruption is constant: Repeat the evaluation process regularly to protect the business

This step involves the following participants:

• Working group leader
• CIO

Outcomes of this step:

• Proof of concept charter
• Key performance indicators
• Estimation of required resources

3.2 Develop a proof of concept charter

Keep your proof of concept on track by defining five key dimensions.

1. Objective: Giving an overview of the planned proof of concept will help to focus and clarify the rest of this section. What must the proof of concept achieve? Objectives should be: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. Outline and track key performance indicators.
2. Key Success Factors: These are conditions that will positively impact the proof of concept’s success.
3. Scope: High-level statement of scope. More specifically, state what is in scope and what is out of scope.
4. Project Team: Identify the team’s structure, e.g. sponsors, subject-matter experts.
5. Resource Estimation: Identify what resources (time, materials, space, tools, expertise, etc.) will be needed to build and socialize your prototype. How will they be secured?

Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

3.2.A Use SMART success metrics to define your objectives

Examples:

1. Increase in sales by $40,000 per month by the end of next quarter.
2. Immediate increase in web traffic by 600 unique page views per day.
3. Number of pilots approved per year.
4. Number of successfully deployed solutions per year.

Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

3.2.B Develop key performance indicators (KPIs)

30 minutes per technology

Key performance indicators allow for rigorous analysis, which generates insight into utilization by platform and consumption by business activity.

• Use the process improvements identified in step 3.1 to brainstorm metrics that indicate when process improvement is actually taking place.
• Have members of the group pitch KPIs; the facilitator should record each suggestion on a whiteboard.
• Make sure to have everyone justify the inclusion of each metric: How does it relate to the improvement that the proof of concept project is intended to drive? How does it relate to the overall goals of the business?
• Include a list of KPIs, along with a description and a target (ensuring that it aligns with SMART metrics) in section 3.1 of the Proof of Concept Template.

“An estimated 70% of performance measurement systems fail after implementation. Carefully select your KPIs and avoid this trap!”
Source: Collins et al. 2016

Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.1 of the Proof of Concept Template.

3.2.C Identify key success factors for the project

30 minutes per technology

Effective project management involves optimizing four key success factors (Clarke, 1999)

• Communication: Communicate the expected changes to stakeholders, making sure that everyone who needs to know does know. Example: Make sure customer service representatives know their duties will be impacted by the conversational UI well before the proof-of-concept project begins.
• Clarity: All involved in the project should be apprised of what the project is intended to accomplish and what the project is not intended to accomplish. Example: The conversational commerce project is not intended to be rolled out to the entire customer base all at once; it is not intended to disrupt normal online sales.
• Compartmentalization: The working group should suggest some ways that the project can be broken down to facilitate its effective implementation. Example: Sales provides details of customers who might be amenable to a trial, IT secures a vendor, customer service writes a script.
• Flexibility: The working group’s final output should not be treated as gospel. Ensure that the document can be altered to account for unexpected events. Example: The conversational commerce platform might drive sales of a particular product more than others, necessitating adjustments at the warehouse and shipping level.

Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

3.2.D Outline the project’s scope

10 minutes per technology

Create a high-level outline of the project’s scope.

• Questions to consider: Broadly speaking, what are the project’s goals? What is the desired future state? Where in the company will the project be rolled out? What are some of the company’s goals that the project is not designed to cover?
• Be sure to avoid scope creep! Remember: The goal of the proof-of-concept project is to produce a minimum case for viability in a carefully defined area. Reserve a detailed accounting of costs and benefits for the post-proof-of-concept stage.
• Example: The conversational user interface will only be rolled out in an e-commerce setting. Other business units (HR, for example) are beyond the scope of this particular project.

“Although scope creep is not the only nemesis a project can have, it does tend to have the farthest reach. Without a properly defined project and/or allowing numerous changes along the way, a project can easily go over budget, miss the deadline, and wreak havoc on project success.”
– University Alliance, Villanova University

Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

3.2.E Identify the structure of the team responsible for the proof-of-concept project

10 minutes per technology

Brainstorm who will be involved in project implementation.

• Refer back to the list of stakeholders identified in 3.1.a. Which stakeholders should be involved in implementing the proof-of-concept plan?
• What business units do they represent?
• Who should be accountable for the project? At a high level, sketch the roles of each of the participants. Who will be responsible for doing the work? Who will approve it? Who needs to be informed at every stage? Who are the company’s internal subject matter experts?

Example

Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

3.2.F Estimate the resources required by the project

10 minutes per technology

Time and Money

• Recall: Costs can be operational, capital, or opportunity.
• Revisit the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool. Record the capital and operational expenses expected to be associated with each technology, and add detail where possible (use exact figures from particular vendors instead of percentages).
• Write the names and titles of each expected participant in the project on a whiteboard. Next to each name, write the number of hours they are expected to devote to the project and include a rough estimate of the cost of their participation to the company. Use full-time employee equivalent (FTE measures) as a base.
• Outline how other necessary resources (space, tools, expertise, etc.) will be secured.

Example: Conversational Commerce

• OpEx: $149/month + 2.9¢/transaction* (2,000 estimated transactions)
• CapEx: $0!
• IT Manager: 5 hours at $100/hour
• IT Technician: 40 hours at $45/hour
• CMO: 1 hour at $300/hour
• Customer Service Representative: 10 hours at $35/hour
• *Estimated total cost for a one-month proof-of-concept project: $3,157

*This number is a sample taken from the vendor Rhombus

Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

3.2.G Be aware of common IT project concerns

Of projects that did not meet business expectations or were cancelled, how significant were the following issues?

This survey data did not specifically address innovation projects.

• Disruptive technology projects will be under increased scrutiny in comparison to other projects.
• Be sure to meet deadlines and stay within budget.
• Be cognizant that your projects can go out of scope, and there will be projects that may have to be cancelled due to low quality. Remember: Even a failed test is a learning opportunity!